FAMINE AND PERSECUTION. 127 with compassion for the misery she saw around her, she sent to purchase corn from Alexandria and figs from Cyprus, for distribution among the poor. Izates himself (who had also been converted by one who bore the same name1 with him who baptized St. Paul) shared the charitable feelings of his mother, and sent large sums of money to Jerusalem. While this relief came from Assyria, from Cyprus, and from Africa, to the Jewish sufferers in Judæa, God did not suffer His own Christian people, probably the poorest and certainly the most disregarded in that country, to perish in the general distress. And their relief also came from nearly the same quarters. While Barnabas and Saul were evangelizing the Syrian capital, and gathering in the harvest, the first seeds of which had been sown by "men of Cyprus and Cyrene," certain prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus announced that a time of famine was at hand. The Gentile disciples felt that they were bound by the closest link to those Jewish brethren whom though they had never seen they loved. For if the Gentiles had been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty was also to minister unto them in carnal things."3 No time was lost in preparing for the coming calamity. All the members of the Christian community, according to their means, "determined to send relief," Saul and Barnabas being chosen to take the contribution to the elders at Jerusalem.4 2 5 About the time when these messengers came to the Holy City on their errand of love, a worse calamity than that of famine had fallen upon the Church. One Apostle had been murdered, and another was in prison. There is something touching in the contrast between the two brothers, James and John. One died before the middle of the first Christian century; the other lived on to its close. One was removed just when his Master's kingdom, concerning which he had so eagerly enquired, was beginning to show its real character; he probably never heard the word “Christian” pronounced. Zebedee's other son remained till the antichristian enemies of the faith were "already come," and was labouring against them when his brother had been fifty years at rest in the Lord. He who had foretold the long service of St. John, revealed to St. Peter that he should die by a violent death. But the time was not yet come. Herod had bound him with two chains. Besides the soldiers who watched his sleep, guards were placed before the door of the prison. And "after the 6 7 1 This Ananias was a Jewish merchant, who made proselytes among the women about the court of Adiabene, and thus obtained influence with the king. (Jos. Ant. xx. 2, 3.) See what has been said above (pp. 19 and 100. n. 3) about the female proselytes at Damascus and Iconium. 5 2 6 On passover" the king intended to bring him out and gratify the people with his death. But Herod's death was nearer than St. Peter's. For a moment we see the Apostle in captivity and the king in the plenitude of his power. But before the autumn a dreadful change had taken place. the 1st of August (we follow a probable calculation,3 and borrow some circumstances from the Jewish historian 4) there was a great commemoration in Cæsarea. Some say it was in honour of the emperor's safe return from the island of Britain. However this might be, the city was crowded, and Herod was there. On the second day of the festival he came into the theatre. That theatre had been erected by his grandfather, who had murdered the Innocents; and now the grandson was there, who had murdered an Apostle. The stone seats, rising in a great semicircle, tier above tier, were covered with an excited multitude. The king came in, clothed in magnificent robes, of which silver was the costly and brilliant material. It was early in the day, and the sun's rays fell upon the king, so that the eyes of the beholders were dazzled with the brightness which surrounded him. Voices from the crowd, here and there, exclaimed that it was the apparition of something divine. And when he spoke and made an oration to the people, they gave a shout, saying, "It is the voice of a God and not of a man." But in the midst of this idolatrous ostentation the angel of God suddenly smote him. He was carried out of the theatre a dying man, and on the 6th of August he was dead. 1 μɛtù tò ñúoxα, Acts xii. 4. The traditional places of St. James' martyrdom and of the house of St. Mark (mentioned below) are both in the Armenian quarter. One is the Armenian, the other the Syrian, convent. See Mr. Williams' "Memoir of Jerusalem," printed as a Supplement to the "Holy City," the second edition of which (1849) had not appeared when our earlier chapters were written. 2 For the tradition concerning these chains, see Platner's Account of the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli in the Beschreibung Roms. By a curious coincidence, the festival is on August 1st; the first day of that festival of Cæsarea, at which Agrippa died. The Chapel of the Tower of London is dedicated to St. Peter ad Vincula. See Cunningham's Handbook for London, and Macaulay's History, i. 628. 3 That of Wieseler, pp. 132-136. 4 Compare Acts xii. 20-24, with Josephus, Ant. xix. 8, 2. 5 This is Anger's view. Others think it was in honour of the birthday of Claudius (Aug. 1). Wieseler has shown that it was more probably the festival of the Quinquennalia, observed on the same day of the same month in honour of Augustus. The observance dated from the taking of Alexandria, when the month Sextilis received the emperor's name. See Joseph. Ant. xv. 9, 6. It is from his narrative (xix. 8, 2) that we know the theatre to have been the scene of Agrippa's death-stroke. The "throne" (Acts xii. 21) is the tribunal (ẞñμa) prætoris or sedes prætorum (Suet. Aug. 44. Ner. 12. See Dio Cass. lix. 14). Josephus says nothing of the quarrel with the Tyrians and Sidonians. Probably it arose simply from mercantile relations (see 1 Kings v. 11. Ezek. xxvii. 17), and their desire for reconciliation (Acts xii. 20) would naturally be increased by the existing famine. Baronius strangely traces the misunderstanding to St. Peter's having formed Christian churches in Phoenicia. See the next note. HIS RETURN TO ANTIOCH. 129 The This was that year, 44,1 on which we have already said so much. country was placed again under Roman governors, and hard times were at hand for the Jews. Herod Agrippa had courted their favour. He had done much for them, and was preparing to do more. Josephus tells us, that "he had begun to encompass Jerusalem with a wall, which, had it been brought to perfection, would have made it impracticable for the Romans to take it by siege but his death, which happened at Cæsarea, before he had raised the walls to their due height, prevented him." That part of the city, which this boundary was intended to inclose, was a suburb when St. Paul was converted. The work was not completed till the Jews were preparing for their final struggle with the Romans: 3 and the Apostle, when he came from Antioch to Jerusalem, must have noticed the unfinished wall to the north and west of the old Damascus gate. We cannot determine the season of the year when he passed this way. sure whether the year itself was 44 or 45. It is not probable that he was in Jerusalem at the passover, when St. Peter was in prison, or that he was praying with those anxious disciples at the "house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark.” 4 But there is this link of interesting connection between that house and St. Paul, that it was the familiar home of one who was afterwards (not always without cause for anxiety or reproof) a companion of his journeys. When Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch, they were attended by "John, whose surname was Mark." With the affection of Abraham towards Lot, his uncle Barnabas withdrew from the scene of persecution. We need not doubt that higher motives were added,-that at the first, as at the last," St. Paul regarded him as "profitable to him for the ministry." We are not Thus attended, he willingly retraced his steps towards Antioch. A field of noble enterprise was before him. He could not doubt that God, who had so prepared him, would work by his means great conversions among the Heathen. At this point of his life, we cannot avoid noticing 1 See Baronius, under this year, for various passages of the traditionary life of St. Peter; his journey from Antioch through Asia Minor to Rome; his meeting with Simon Magus, &c.; and the other Apostles; their general separation to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles in all parts of the world: the formation of the Apostles' Creed, &c. St.. Peter alleged to have held the See of Antioch for seven years before that of Rome. (See under year 39.) The meeting ("in qua neuter errasse monstratur") of St. Paul and St. Peter at Antioch (Gal. ii. 11) is connected with Acts xv. 35 (year 51). The same want of criticism is apparent in modern Roman Catholic historians, e. g. Röhrbacher, Histoire Universelle de l'Eglise Catholique, liv. xxiv. vol. 4. 2 B. J. ii. 11, 6. 3 See Robinson, vol. i. pp. 411 and 465; Williams' Memoir, p. 84; and Schulz's Jerusalem. 4 Acts xii. 12. 5 See Acts xiii. 13. xv. 37-39. € It should be observed that ¿veyiòç (Col. iv. 10) does not necessarily mean "nephew." 7 See 2 Tim. iv. 11. VOL. I.—9 & those circumstances of inward and outward preparation, which fitted him for his peculiar position of standing between the Jews and Gentiles. He was not a Sadducee, he had never Hellenised,--he had been educated at Jerusalem,-everything conspired to give him authority, when he addressed his countrymen as a "Hebrew of the Hebrews." At the same time, in his apostolical relation to Christ, he was quite disconnected with the other Apostles; he had come in silence to a conviction of the truth at a distance from the Judaising Christians, and had early overcome those prejudices which impeded so many in their approaches to the Heathen. He had just been long enough at Jerusalem to be recognised and welcomed by the apostolic college,1 but not long enough even to be known by face "unto the churches in Judæa." 2 He had been withdrawn into Cilicia till the baptism of the Gentiles was a notorious and familiar fact to those very churches. He could hardly be blamed for continuing what St. Peter had already begun. And if the Spirit of God had prepared him for building up the United Church of Jews and Gentiles, and the Providence of God had directed all the steps of his life to this one result, we are called on to notice the singular fitness of this last employment, on which we have seen him engaged, for assuaging the suspicious feeling which separated the two great branches of the Church. In quitting for a time his Gentile converts at Antioch, and carrying a contribution of money to the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem, he was by no means leaving the higher work for the lower. He was building for after-times. The interchange of mutual benevolence was a safe foundation for future confidence. Temporal comfort was given in gratitude for spiritual good received. The Church's first days were christened with charity. No sooner was its new name received, in token of the union of Jews and Gentiles, than the sympathy of its members was asserted by the work of practical benevolence. We need not hesitate to apply to that work the words which St. Paul used, after many years, of another collection for the poor Christians in Judæa :-"The administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the Saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God; whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them.”4 3 These were the churches of Lydda, Saron, Joppa, &c., which Peter had been visiting when he was summoned to Cæsarea. Acts ix. 32-43. 4 2 Cor. ix. 12-14. SECOND PART OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 131 CHAPTER V. "Saulus qui fuerat fit adempto lumine Paulus : SECOND PART OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.-REVELATION AT ANTIOCH.- SYSTEM.-PROCONSULS THE second part of the Acts of the Apostles is generally reckoned to begin with the thirteenth chapter. At this point St. Paul begins to appear as the principal character; and the narrative, gradually widening and expanding with his travels, seems intended to describe to us, in minute detail, the communication of the Gospel to the Gentiles. The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters embrace a definite and separate subject; and this subject is the first journey of the first Christian missionaries to the Heathen. These two chapters of the inspired record are the authorities for the present and the succeeding chapters of this work, in which we intend to follow the steps of Paul and Barnabas, in their circuit through Cyprus and the southern part of Lesser Asia. The history begins suddenly and abruptly. We are told that there were in the Church at Antioch," prophets and teachers," and among the rest "Barnabas," with whom we are already familiar. The others were Simeon, who was surnamed Niger," and "Lucius of Cyrene," and "Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch,”—and "Saul," who still appears under his Hebrew name. We observe, moreover, not only that he is mentioned after Barnabas, but that he occupies the lowest place in this enumeration of "prophets and teachers." The distinction between these two offices in the Apostolic Church will be discussed hereafter. At present it is sufficient to remark that the "prophecy" of the New Testament does not necessarily imply a knowledge of things to come, but rather a gift of exhorting with a peculiar force of inspiration. In the Church's early miraculous days the "prophet" appears to have been ranked higher 1 Ἐν Αντιοχείᾳ κατὰ τὴν οὖσαν ἐκκλησίαν. Acts xiii. 1. |