fairs, they took leave of the brethren, commending them with prayer and fasting to the Lord in whom they now believed. Thus they returned to Perge, in Pamphylia, where they preached once more, and then took ship at Attalia for Antioch, whence they had originally been sent out on their missionary work. With thankful hearts they recounted to the assembled brethren all that God had done concerning them, and how he had permitted the heathen to embrace the faith. Then they settled for a time in Antioch again.

With two reservations we may accept this narrative as substantially true. The first reservation refers to the miracles; the second to Paul's method as a missionary. The miracles are not mere involuntary embellishments of the story; they are something else and something more. It is a part of the scheme of the book of Acts deliberately to ascribe to Paul, on these and subsequent occasions, the same or similar miracles to those which have already been ascribed to Peter. The judgment upon Elymas corresponds to that upon Ananias, the cure of the cripple at Lystra to that of the beggar at the gate Beautiful.' This remark will be found to throw light upon many details, alike in what we have already heard and in what is still to come. For instance, Peter, as we shall presently see,2 had to contend with a sorcerer and to reject divine honors, just as Paul does here. Again, Paul's method in preaching is misrepresented with equal deliberation. In the first place he is made the emissary of others, and at first subordinate to Barnabas, - he who took such pride in his in dependence of all human authority! But it is far more important yet to observe that the discourses put into his mouth are entirely without the strongly-marked peculiarities of his very characteristic style and spirit. There is nothing distinctively Pauline in them. Even upon the single occasion when he is made to speak of the truly Pauline doctrine of justification, a more or less marked Jewish-Christian coloring is given to his words. But the most important point of all is, that, throughout this narrative and the whole book of Acts, Paul is made to follow the fixed rule of addressing himself to the Jews first, and never feels at liberty to go to the heathen until the Jews have rejected him, he who, according to the genuine sources of information, was profoundly conscious of being called distinctly as the Apostle to the heathen, and would no

1 Compare p. 537 with p. 491, and p. 539 with p. 494.

2 Acts viii. 18 ff., x. 25, 26; see chapters x. p. 611, and vi. p. 544.
8 Compare p. 537 with p. 525.

1

longer hear of any distinction between Jew and Gentile, or any privilege of the former over the latter! These departures from the historical facts are eminently suited to reveal the character of the Acts, the true significance of this book, and the prevailing current of feeling in the postapostolic age.

In other respects there is no reason to doubt the fidelity of the account of this journey. A trustworthy tradition doubtless lies at its foundation, especially as regards the principal places which Paul and Barnabas visited. The time occupied by the expedition must have been many months, and may have been several years, but we have no longer the means of determining it. That the missionaries started from Antioch with a special view to the conversion of the heathen needs no further proof than is supplied by their names; for Barnabas, too, is expressly called an Apostle of the heathen by Paul himself. Of course they did not neglect the Jews, and the synagogue often furnished them with an advantageous point of departure; but the main purpose and the main result of the enterprise was the conversion of heathen upon a large scale.

Such then was the result of Paul's appearance as a preacher, the fruit of his many years of toil in the regions of Syria and Cilicia.3 The preaching of Christ to the heathen world was an accomplished fact; not simply a local phenomenon of an exceptional and accidental character, but the bold and widespread embodiment of a principle thoroughly worked out.

This is a fact of incalculable importance. Not only was the religious truth in the possession of which Israel rejoiced now preached to the heathen world and accepted by it, as the noblest prophets had foreseen; but that peculiar heritage of Israel, that exclusive national privilege, the right of citizenship in the community of the Golden Age, was thrown open to the heathen on a footing of full equality of rights and privileges with the seed of Abraham. Nay, ere long the stubbornness of the Jews was even destined to put them behind the heathen! The point upon which the special stress must be laid is the fact that these heathen were not required to embrace Judaism; for the gospel, though an Israelitish shoot, was grafted upon a foreign stem. The belief in God's unity,

1 Acts xvii. 2, xiii. 46 ff., xviii. 6, xxviii. 26 ff.; compare Galatians i. 16, ii. 2. 7, 8, iii. 28; Romans i. 14, iii. 21 ff., et seq.

2 Galatians ii. 9.

3 Compare Acts xv. 23, 41.

the ancient principle of His holiness, the new principle of His love, and the hope of His kingdom were shaken free from the religious formalities and the whole religious law of the Jews, and were preached to the heathen. This Israelitish shoot was of necessity modified by being grafted on another stem, and the Christ assumed a fresh character for the peoples who were strangers to the expectation of the Messiah, the Son of God. In a word, a new religion sprang into existence. The Græco-Roman world had conceived a fresh germ of life; the regeneration of mankind had begun; the new age had broken!

8

4

This fact was destined to assume ever greater proportions and bring powers ever new to the work. The agents themselves, meanwhile, were profoundly convinced that they were not advancing on their own impulse, in their own name, or on their own authority, but were commissioned by the Christ. This conviction, which was evidently well founded up to a certain point,1 translated itself after the manner of the times2 into a story about Jesus himself. When the Twelve had shown their incapacity, so we read in the third Gospel, Jesus appointed seventy others, after the number of the nations of the heathen world, and sent them out, two by two, as he had formerly sent out the Twelve, to every city and village, to prepare for his coming. The appointment and sending out of these disciples is recorded by the Evangelist at the beginning of the missionary journey of Jesus through Samaria ; that is to say, at the beginning of his labors among those who were not Jews. This combination is very characteristic and very happily conceived, though as a fact the mission of the Seventy and the journey through Samaria are both equally unhistorical. Luke further transfers to these Seventy the words which Jesus really uttered to the Twelve when he spoke of the great harvest, of the lack of laborers for which God must make provision, of his disciples being like lambs among wolves, and especially of the conduct they must observe upon their journeys." Moreover, Luke adds a few fresh precepts, - that they are not to waste their time upon the way in mere courtesies, for there is much to do; that wherever they go they are to eat what is set before them, the food and drink of the heathen, without troubling themselves about the Jewish laws concerning food and cleanness.

5

1 See pp. 292 ff.

8 See pp. 190 ff., and 351 f.

5 See pp. 309, 310.

Then,

2 Compare pp. 308, 309, 518 ff.
4 See p. 182.

6 See pp. 177, 182, 184, 397, 398.

7 See pp. 278-281, and Galatians ii. 12; 1 Corinthians x. 27.

gain, Luke makes Jesus declare in one breath with that cry of woe over Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum,1 that the rejection of the Seventy is equivalent to the rejection of the Christ himself; and when they return from their missionary efforts, he expressly points them out as the men to whom it is given to know the secrets of the gospel hidden to others, to whom the knowledge of the Father is vouchsafed, and who taste the blessings of salvation which prophets and kings had longed in vain to taste. Finally, we read the following account of their initial success, of the battle which they had to wage, and the divine power which supported them :

2

They returned to their Master in triumph, and told him how the demons had fled from those they possessed at the preaching of the Christ; upon which the Master prepared them for a terrible resistance, but at the same time reassured them. "I saw Satan," he cried, "dart like a flash of lightning from his realm of air down to the earth! But as for you, I have given you power to trample upon serpents and scorpions and the whole army of the Evil One, without suffering any hurt or injury. And yet rejoice, not because the demons are forced to yield to you, but because your names are written down by God!" When we remember that the heathen world was held to be the devil's territory, and the false gods were looked upon as demons who ruled over their worshippers, we can well understand that the work of the preachers among the heathen was described as a conflict with Satan, and that the conversion of the heathen, both here and elsewhere, is presented under the form of exorcism or the cure of demoniacs. But in all this toil the certainty of shar ing the blessings of the kingdom of God, which must be expected ere long, remained the richest source of strength, of comfort, and of joy.

Hitherto we have only mentioned or seen at work some few of these "Seventy," these messengers to the heathen : first, Philip and the preachers at Antioch; then Paul and Barnabas, Titus and Timothy. In addition to them we shall soon greet other laborers; but the first place can never be disputed with that great originator whose rich spirit and deep affections gave birth to the gospel for the heathen, and he must ever retain his indisputable claim to the title of honor, the Apostle of the Gentiles.

1 See p. 259.

3 Ephesians ii. 2.

2 See pp. 259, 190, 191, 162.

4 Psalm xci. 13.

See p. 518; Revelation ix. 20; 1 Corinthians x. 20; 2 Corinthians iv. 4: compare p. 134.

WE

CHAPTER VI.

THE COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES.

GALATIANS II.; Acтs XV.

E must now return to the community at Jerusalem For fifteen years or more it had held its own and had even increased, in spite of more than one fierce persecution. Meanwhile various other communities had been founded elsewhere on Jewish soil, chiefly by the zealous and successful labors of Peter, who travelled about preaching from place to place. Of these labors we have but a very imperfect and distorted account in the book of Acts,' but they are established by the unequivocal testimony of Paul, which is above all suspicion. The original community, however, which had once. been the solitary guardian of the saving truth, which had braved the first dire shocks of the hostility of unbelieving countrymen, and which probably contained the greater part of the personal disciples of Jesus that yet remained, was still greatly looked up to by the rest, and naturally exercised a kind of authority over them.

In the clearness of its views and the independence of its attitude toward Judaism the community had not advanced. Several causes combined towards this result. The mere course of time tended to obliterate the impression of the Master's freedom from the minds of the disciples. The atmosphere in which they lived was saturated with orthodoxy and the worship of forms. Rigid and scrupulous Jews had joined the community of the Messiah, and had made their influence felt. Moreover, there were two special circumstances which had exercised a decisive influence upon the brethren. With the first of these we are already familiar. It was the persecution and expulsion of the Greek-speaking believers, and the consequent banishment of the freer and more enlightened element from the community. The second circumstance was an orthodox movement in the bosom of Judaism itself, caused partly by the frantic demands of the emperor Caligula, - who claimed divine honors and attempted to set up his image in the temple (39, 40 A.D.), — and partly 2 Galatia is ii. 7, 8.

1 Acts ix. 32 ff.; see pp. 557, 558.