In order to defend themselves against the attacks of Jesus, and retain their own influence, the Pharisees not only availed themselves of excommunication and persecution of those who would not implicitly obey them, but sought even more eagerly to fill their partisans with inexpiable hate of Him. This was the easier, because to those who reckoned Pharisaism as a thing from God, Jesus could only appear as God's enemy. It required no perversion of truth to prove this. They need only say that He was the greatest foe of the patriarchal traditions, did not keep the sabbath, did not fast, nor pray as other men, neglected the necessary washings, held converse with Samaritans and Gentiles, placed them on a level with Jews, nay required and yielded obedience to the Gentile government, gave himself out for the Messiah, &c., and they were sure to render their fanatical scholars His irreconcilable enemies. But to Paul, all this was of the utmost value. He thus learnt to apprehend in many respects the plan and intentions of Jesus more correctly than even His own friends and disciples. To these last it appeared impossible, in their deep reverence for their Master, that He should in any way have impugned or rejected that which was to them above all things precious and sacred. And hence it was that they so seldom understood His sentiments, which deviated from the established maxims, and so often defended him against the charge of transgressing or rejecting the Mosaic law. The Pharisees, on the contrary, veiled nothing; to them it was a delight to lay hold of, and disseminate among their partisans, such acts and sayings of Jesus as contradicted that which had usually been esteemed true and divine. the foe of the ancient traditions and precepts, and of Pharisaism, as the abrogator of the law of Moses and of Judaism, as the friend and enfranchiser of Gentiles and sinners, - thus was the image of Jesus vividly present in the heart of the Pharisee Saul. And as it often happens to those among us who advance far before their age, that their views are rightly apprehended, and therefore decried by their opponents, but misunderstood by their friends, and by way of justification attempted to be reconciled with doctrines previously held, thus it was also in the case of our Lord; His friends and worshippers were blind, and His enemies only had eyes to see His intentions.' (Vol. ii. p. 82. ff.) As With such an impression of Jesus, and with his earnest character and fiery temper, Saul could not but be a persecutor. To extinguish the hated name,—to prevent the obnoxious sect from spreading in or out of Jerusalem,―would be an exertion worthy of all his energies. To this accordingly we find him devoting himself, when the sacred narrative first introduces him to our notice. The question, whether he had seen our Lord in the flesh, is wrapped in obscurity. The probable answer is in the negative. Had he taken any part in the acts of the Pharisees during the eventful period of the ministry of Jesus, he would hardly have passed it over in silence in those passages where he speaks so freely of his state and acts as a persecutor; and that he should have been present, and have taken no part, is inconceivable. Why he was absent from Jerusalem during those three years, it is impossible to say. It may have been just the interval between the completion of his Rabbinical training and his maturity as a member of the Sanhedrim, which we afterwards find him. He may have been at Tarsus, or on travel. That he should not yet have arrived as a youthful scholar, is chronologically improbable. However it was, such seems to have been the fact; and his first hostile efforts were brought to bear on the Church about eight years after the Ascension. We refer to Mr. Howson for the complete detail of the trial and execution of Stephen, and for some able remarks on the influence, in after times, which the apology of the martyr seems to have had on the mind of his chief persecutor. It has been assumed by recent writers (Schrader, Ölshausen, Neander,) that a deep immediate impression was made on Saul's mind by the circumstances of the death of Stephen, and that he was in a remorseful state of self-questioning when he undertook his errand to Damascus. But this idea, intimately bound up as it is with the rationalistic interpretation of the narrative of his conversion, is entirely opposed to the history (Acts ix. 1.), and to his own assertion: Being exceedingly mad against them, I 'persecuted them even unto strange cities.' We have no reason whatever to suppose that any change had taken place in his sentiments towards Christianity. Nay, we quite agree with Baumgarten in placing here the culminating point of his zeal, and seeing, in this sudden arrest and turning of his course by the working of Divine wisdom and power, a fitness for the occasion and for the character and temperament of the man. Bengel strikingly remarks, in summo fervore peccandi ereptus 'et conversus est.' As Of all that has been written on the mind and feelings of Saul consequent on his conversion, we have read with the greatest interest the remarks of Baumgarten, vol. i. pp. 198-223. On one point only we entirely differ from him. He spends some pages in tracing during this period the inner experience detailed by the Apostle, Rom. vii. 7-25. We believe the greater part of that weighty passage to belong to an earlier and totally different portion of his life; and it seems to us strange that a Such too was the view of Chrysostom: καθάπερ ἰατρὸς ἄριστος, ἀκμάζοντος ἔτι τοῦ πυρετοῦ, τὸ βοήθημα αὐτῷ ἐπήγαγεν ὁ Χριστός. C. & H. i. p. 108. writer who has taken so just a psychological view of his subject should have adopted a theory which tends completely to confuse it, and destroy its unity. This is not the place to discuss and appropriate that description; it may suffice to say that, while we distinctly recognise its autobiographical character, we see in it a reference to a process much more frequent in the human mind, and better calculated to be a general pattern for us all, than that by which the zeal of the persecutor became transformed into the zeal of the apostle. Some degree of mystery has always rested on the visit to Arabia*; but almost all writers are agreed in connecting it with an immediate reception of the Gospel from Christ himself. Mr. Howson indeed gives the alternative, that perhaps he went to preach in the synagogues of that singular capital which was built amidst the exiles of Edom, whence "Arabians" came to the festivals at Jerusalem (Acts, ii. 11.);' but we must own the other alternative seems to us more probable; and that, whether the rationalistic or the supernatural view be taken. The former is given by Schrader (ii. p. 147.): - 'He cared not, previously to the public opening of his ministry, to obtain information from other men in a matter which was accessible to him by his own reason (?), but preferred shortly after his baptism to retire apart from all human society to the solitude of the Arabian wilderness; with this view beyond doubt, undistractedly to prepare himself for the work of the promulgation of Christianity, to meditate on his present circumstances, to think of that which lay before him, to make powerful resolutions, or father to confirm himself in the resolution already made, and to take counsel of God and of himself, or of that which was become a divine or living principle within him. In this he acted as other men of great and independent character have done, and even as Jesus himself, who also immediately after His baptism withdrew Himself for a similar purpose into the same wilderness.' But sensible as this view is as far as it goes, none can fail to see how entirely inadequate it is to satisfy the requisitions of the historical facts resulting, or the assertions of the Apostle himself. In a passage (2 Cor. xii. 1. ff.) where he is undoubtedly describing his own experience, and referring to a period not far removed from this, he speaks of abundance of' visions and revelations' being granted to him, and recounts in mysterious words the nature of some of these. We should therefore be much more disposed to agree with Baumgarten, when he says (vol. i. p. 223.),— * Gal. i. 17. Those will take the right view of this sojourn of Saul in 'Arabia who regard it as a still retirement, in which he lived in 'communion in the spirit with the Lord in Heaven, as the original Apostles had conversed with the Lord on earth.' Another difficulty belongs to this period, which has been very variously dealt with. The facts are simply these. Some physical weakness, of a conspicuous and distressing kind, resulted from the exaltation of the spirit at the expense of the body. Perhaps his own words when I could not see for the glory of that light,'-may furnish some clue to its origin. Feebleness of sight, connected probably with some nervous infirmity, may have constituted the thorn in the flesh, concerning which he prayed thrice that it might depart from him: which made his bodily presence weak, and his speech contemptible;'* and of which he could say to the Galatians, My temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected. .. I bear you 'record, that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out 'your own eyes, and have given them to me.' But even this, whatever it was, served him as an argument for the divine character of his mission. It precluded any imputation that he had won his converts by the charms of graceful rhetoric; he was among them in weakness, and fear, and much trembling.' So does every circumstance in the life of this remarkable man fit into its place, and bear its part in the work prepared for him. Five years at least elapsed after his conversion, before we find him actively engaged in ministerial labour. He certainly was not idle, but his proper vocation had not begun. There had apparently been nothing more than fragmentary testimonies in the synagogues. At Damascus and at Jerusalem he had been exposed to the fury of those Jews, whom he had now through lite for his implacable enemies. At both places he was rescued by the brethren; who yet, not knowing in what department to employ the zeal of the new convert, sent him back to his native town, to wait a special call of Providence. A great question soon began to be agitated in the Church. Was Christianity to be preached to the Gentiles? That they were eventually to share in its blessings, no believing Jew doubted; but how this was to be brought about, was yet unknown. The first step towards a solution seems to have been taken at Antioch, by certain Cyprian and African Hellenists, who had fled on the persecution which arose about Stephen, having spoken to Gentiles in that city. This new step aroused 2 Cor. x. 10. the attention of the mother-church at Jerusalem. Barnabas, himself a Cyprian, was sent to report on the movement, or perhaps to restrain what was deemed an excess of zeal. By what he saw, he was convinced, and sympathised. But joy was not his only feeling at seeing the Gentile converts. The time for action was obviously come. There was one in retirement, to whom it had been said, 'I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.' He went to Tarsus to seek Saul. For a year they taught at Antioch, which became the second historical capital of Christendom, the great centre of activity during the transitionstate from Judaism, and most appropriately the birthplace of that name, by which those who were neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, were in future to be called. After a journey to Jerusalem for a special eleemosynary purpose, the two friends depart, by Divine command, on their first great missionary journey. The whole process of this, as of the other journeys, is admirably narrated, discussed, and illustrated by Conybeare and Howson. We have every accessory which could be desired. Recent surveys and soundings have furnished accurate maps of almost every country and coast; while Mr. Bartlett's beautiful drawings give reality to the scenery of the most remarkable spots. There can hardly be more pleasant reading for the lover of travel and adventure, than the pages of this work which trace the Apostle through Cyprus, or Asia Minor, or Greece, or afterwards on his perilous voyage by Malta to Rome. And it is no small merit of the work that, while it extracts information from every source, an admirable spirit of Christian faith, accompanied by a manly love of truth and soundness of judgment, characterise it throughout. While its hand is in every German treatise, its heart is thoroughly English; and its effect will everywhere be, to confirm those great central truths, round which it has grouped the accessory and subordinate matter. The first eminent fruit of this journey was the conversion of the proconsul of Cyprus, Sergius Paulus. From this time Saul becomes known by the Hellenistic name of Paul. The coin is now almost universally adopted. The received reading would stultify the whole narrative. There was and could be no difficulty about preaching to Hellenists. We do not in the text forget, nor depreciate the importance of the special mission of Peter to Cornelius; but regard this incident as necessarily prior in point of time, and that, as intended more to give solemn sanction in the sight of those who would be most difficult to persuade, than to precede all efforts of the kind. |