CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.
But the year 38 is marked in the history of the nascent Church by a
new and important conquest. It was during that year[10.1] that we may
safely place the conversion of that saint whom we saw a participant in
the stoning of Stephen, and a principal agent in the persecution of 37,
and who now, by a mysterious act of grace, becomes the most ardent of
the disciples of Jesus.
Saul was born at Tarsus, in Cilicia,[10.2] in the year 10 or 12 of our
era.[10.3] According to the manner of that day, his name was Latinized
into that of Paul;[10.4] yet he did not regularly adopt this last
name until he became the apostle of the Gentiles.[10.5] Paul was of
the purest Jewish blood.[10.6] His family, probably originally from
the town of Gischala, in Galilee,[10.7] professed to belong to the
tribe of Benjamin;[10.8] and his father enjoyed the title of Roman
citizen,[10.9] no doubt inherited from ancestors who had obtained
that honor either through purchase or through services rendered to
the state. Perhaps his grandfather had obtained it for aid given to
Pompey during the Roman conquest (63 B.C.). His family, like
most of the old and solid Jewish houses, belonged to the sect of
Pharisees.[10.10] Paul was reared according to the strictest principles
of this sect,[10.11] and though he subsequently repudiated its narrow
dogmas, he always retained its asperity, its exaltation, and its ardent
faith.
During the epoch of Augustus, Tarsus was a very flourishing city. The
population, though chiefly of the Greek and Aramaic races, included, as
was common in all the commercial towns,[10.12] a large number of Jews.
The taste for letters and the sciences was a marked characteristic of
the place; and no city in the world, not even excepting Athens and
Alexandria, was so rich in scientific institutions and schools.[10.13]
The number of learned men which Tarsus produced, or who pursued their
studies there, was truly extraordinary;[10.14] but it should not
therefore be imagined that Paul received a careful Greek education. The
Jews rarely frequented the institutions of secular instruction.[10.15]
The most celebrated schools of Tarsus were those of rhetoric,[10.16]
where the Greek classics received the first attention. It is hardly
probable that a man who had taken even elementary lessons in grammar
and rhetoric would have written in the incorrect non-Hellenistic style
of the Epistles of St. Paul. He talked habitually and fluently in
Greek,[10.17] and he wrote or rather dictated[10.18] in that language;
but his Greek was that of the Hellenistic Jews, a Greek replete with
Hebraisms and Syriacisms, scarcely intelligible to a lettered man of
that period, and which can only be accounted for by his Syriac turn
of mind. He himself recognised the common and defective character of
his style.[10.19] Whenever it was possible he spoke Hebrew--that is to
say, the Syro-Chaldaic of his time.[10.20] It was in this language that
he thought, and it was in this language that he was addressed by the
mysterious voice on the road to Damascus.[10.21]
Nor did his doctrine show any direct adaptation made from Greek
philosophy. The verse quoted from the Thais of Menander, that occurs
in his writings,[10.22] is one of those versified proverbs which were
familiar to the public, and could easily have been quoted by one who
had not read the original. Two other quotations--one from Epimenides,
the other from Aratus--which appear under his name,[10.23] although
it is not certain that he used them, may also be explained as having
been borrowed at second-hand.[10.24] The literary training of Paul was
almost exclusively Jewish,[10.25] and it is in the Talmud rather than
in the Greek classics that the analogies of his ideas must be sought.
A few general ideas of wide-spread philosophy, which one could learn
without opening a single book of the philosophers,[10.26] alone reached
him. His manner of reasoning was very curious. He certainly knew
nothing of the peripatetic logic. His syllogism was not at all that of
Aristotle; but on the contrary his dialectics greatly resembled those
of the Talmud. Paul, as a general thing, was influenced by words rather
than by ideas. When a word took possession of his mind it suggested a
train of thought singularly irrelevant to the subject in question. His
transitions were sudden, his developments interrupted, his conclusions
frequently suspended. Never was a writer more unequal. One may seek in
vain throughout the realm of literature for a phenomenon as _bizarre_
as that of a sublime passage like the thirteenth chapter of the First
Epistle to the Corinthians by the side of feeble arguments, laborious
repetitions, and fastidious subtleties.
His father early intended that he should be a Rabbi; but, according
to the general custom,[10.27] gave him a trade. Paul was an
upholsterer,[10.28] or rather a manufacturer of the heavy cloths of
Cilicia, which were called _Cilicium_. At various times he worked at
this trade,[10.29] for he had no patrimonial fortune. It seems quite
certain that he had a sister whose son lived at Jerusalem.[10.30]
In regard to a brother[10.31] and other relatives,[10.32] who it is
said had embraced Christianity, the indications are very vague and
uncertain. Refinement of manners being, according to some modern
ideas, in direct relation to personal wealth, it might be imagined
from what has just been said, that Paul was a man of the people,
badly educated and without dignity. This opinion would, however, be
thoroughly erroneous. His politeness was often extreme, and his manners
were exquisite. Notwithstanding the defects in his style, his letters
show that he was a man of rare intelligence,[10.33] who formed for his
lofty sentiments expressions of rare felicity; and no correspondence
exhibits more careful attentions, finer shades of meaning, and more
amiable hesitancies and timidity. One or two of his pleasantries shock
us.[10.34] But what animation! What a wealth of charming sayings! What
simplicity! It is easy to see that his character, at the times when his
passions do not make him irascible and fierce, is that of a polite,
earnest, and affectionate man, sometimes susceptible, and a little
jealous. Inferior as such men are before the general public,[10.35]
they possess within small sects immense advantages, through the
attachments they inspire, through their practical aptitude, and through
their skill in arranging difficult matters.
Paul was small in size, and his personal appearance did not correspond
with the greatness of his soul. He was ugly, stout, short, and
stooping, and his broad shoulders awkwardly sustained a little bald
head. His sallow countenance was half hidden in a thick beard; his
nose was aquiline, his eyes piercing, and his eyebrows heavy[10.36]
and joined across his forehead. Nor was there anything imposing in his
speech,[10.37] for his timid and embarrassed air gave but a poor idea
of his eloquence.[10.38] He shrewdly, however, admitted his exterior
defects, and even drew advantage therefrom.[10.39] The Jewish race
possesses the peculiarity of at the same time presenting types of
the greatest beauty, and the most thorough ugliness; but this Jewish
ugliness is something quite apart by itself. Some of the strange
visages which at first excite a smile, assume, when lighted up by
emotion, a sort of deep brilliancy and grandeur.
The temperament of Paul was not less singular than his exterior. His
constitution was not healthy, though at the same time its endurance
was proved by the way in which he supported an existence full of
fatigues and sufferings. He makes incessant allusions to his bodily
weakness. He speaks of himself as a man sick and bruised, timid,
without prestige, without any of those personal advantages calculated
to make an effect, and altogether so uninviting that it was surprising
that he did not repel people.[10.40] Besides this, he hints with
mystery at a secret trial, "a thorn in the flesh," which he compares
to a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him, "lest he should be exalted
above measure."[10.41] Thrice he besought the Lord to deliver him,
and thrice the Lord replied, "My grace is sufficient for thee." This
was apparently some bodily infirmity; for it is not possible to
suppose that he refers to the attractions of carnal delights, since he
himself informs us elsewhere that he was insensible to them.[10.42]
It appears that he was never married;[10.43] the entire coldness
of his temperament, the consequence of the unequalled ardor of his
brain, showed itself throughout his life, and he boasts of it with an
assurance savoring, perhaps, of affectation, and which, certainly,
seems to us rather unpleasant.[10.44]
He came to Jerusalem,[10.45] it is said, at an early age, and entered
the school of Gamaliel the Elder.[10.46] This Gamaliel was the most
enlightened man in Jerusalem. As the name of Pharisee was applied
to every prominent Jew who was not of a priestly family, Gamaliel
passed for a member of that sect. Yet he had none of its narrow and
exclusive spirit, and was a liberal, intelligent man, tolerant of the
heathen, and acquainted with Greek. Perhaps, indeed, the large ideas
professed by Paul after he received Christianity, were a reminiscence
of the teachings of his first master; it must, however, be admitted
that at first he did not learn much moderation from him. An extreme
fanaticism was then prevalent in Jerusalem. Paul was the leader of a
young and rigorous Pharisee party, most warmly attached to the national
traditions of the past.[10.47] He did not know Jesus,[10.48] nor was
he present at the bloody scene of Golgotha; but we have seen him
take an active part in the murder of Stephen, and among the foremost
of the persecutors of the Church. He breathed only threatenings and
slaughter, and furiously passed through Jerusalem bearing a mandate
which authorized and legalized all his brutalities. He went from
synagogue to synagogue, forcing the more timid to deny the name of
Jesus, and subjecting others to scourging or imprisonment.[10.49] When
the Church of Jerusalem was dispersed, his persecutions extended to
the neighboring cities;[10.50] and exasperated by the progress of the
new faith, and having learned that there was a group of the faithful
at Damascus, he obtained from the high-priest Theophilus, son of
Hanan,[10.51] letters to the synagogue of that city, which conferred on
him the power of arresting all evil-thinking persons, and of bringing
them bound in cords to Jerusalem.[10.52]
The disarrangement of Roman authority in Judea explains these arbitrary
vexations. The half mad Caligula was in power, and the administrative
service was everywhere disturbed. Fanaticism had gained all that
the civil power had lost. After the dismissal of Pilate, and the
concessions made to the natives by Lucius Vitellius, the country was
allowed to govern itself according to its own laws. A thousand local
tyrannies profited by the weakness of the decaying power. Damascus
had just passed into the hands of Hartat, or Hâreth, whose capital
was at Petra.[10.53] This bold and powerful prince, after having
beaten Herod Antipas, and withstood the Roman forces commanded by
the imperial legate Lucius Vitellius, had been marvellously aided by
fortune. The news of the death of Tiberius had suddenly arrested the
march of Vitellius.[10.54] Hâreth seized Damascus, and established
there an ethnarch or governor.[10.55] The Jews at that time were a
numerous party at Damascus, where they carried on an extensive system
of proselytizing, especially among the females.[10.56] It was deemed
advisable to make them contented; the best method of doing so was to
allow concessions to their autonomy, and every concession was simply
a permission to commit further religious violences.[10.57] To punish
and even kill those who did not think as they did, was their idea
of independence and liberty. Paul, in leaving Jerusalem, followed
without doubt the usual road, and crossed the Jordan at the "Bridge
of the Daughters of Jacob." His mental excitement was at its greatest
height, and he was alternately troubled and depressed. Passion is not
a rule of faith. The passionate man flies from one extreme creed to
another, but always retains the same impetuosity. Now, like all strong
minds, Paul quickly learned to love that which he had hated. Was he
sure, after all, that he was not thwarting the design of God? Perhaps
he remembered the calm, just views of his master Gamaliel.[10.58]
Often these ardent souls experience terrible revulsions. He felt
the charms of those whom he had tortured,[10.59] and the better he
knew these excellent sectarians the better he liked them; and than
their persecutor none had greater opportunities of knowing them well.
At times he saw the sweet face of the Master who had inspired His
disciples with so much patience, regarding him with an air of pity and
tender reproach. He was also much impressed by the accounts of the
apparitions of Jesus, describing him as an aerial being; for at the
epochs and in the countries when and where there is a tendency to the
marvellous, miraculous recitals influence equally each opposing party.
The Mahommedans, for instance, were afraid of the miracles of Elias;
and like the Christians, invoked supernatural cures in the names of St.
George and St. Anthony. Having crossed Ithuria, and while in the great
plain of Damascus, Paul, with several companions, all journeying on
foot,[10.60] approached the city, and had probably already reached the
beautiful gardens which surround it. The time was mid-day.[10.61]
The road from Jerusalem to Damascus has in nowise changed. It is
that one which, leaving Damascus in a south-easterly direction,
crosses the beautiful plain watered by the streams flowing into the
Abana and Pharpar, and upon which are now marshalled the villages
of Dareya, Kankab, and Sasa. The exact locality of which we speak,
and which was the scene of one of the most important facts in the
history of humanity, could not have been beyond Kankab (four hours
from Damascus).[10.62] It is even probable that the point in question
was much nearer the city, at about Dareya (an hour and a half from
Damascus), or between Dareya and Meidan.[10.63] The great city lay
before Paul, and the outlines of several of its edifices could be
dimly traced beyond the thick foliage; behind him towered the majestic
dome of Hermon, with its furrows of snow, making it resemble the bald
head of an old man; upon his right were the Hauran, the two little
parallel chains which inclose the lower course of the Pharpar,[10.64]
and the tumuli of the region of the lakes; and upon his left were the
outer spurs of the Anti-Libanus stretching out to join Mt. Hermon.
The impression produced by these richly cultivated fields, by these
beautiful orchards, separated the one from the other by trenches and
laden with the most delicious fruits, is that of peace and happiness.
Let one imagine to himself a shady road passing through the rich soil
crossed at intervals by canals for irrigation, bordered by declivities
and winding through forests of olives, walnuts, apricots, and prunes,
these trees draped by graceful festoons of vines, and there will be
presented to the mind the image of the scene of that remarkable event
which has exerted so wide an influence upon the faith of the world.
In these environs of Damascus[10.65] you could scarcely believe
yourself in the East; and above all, after leaving the arid and burning
regions of the Gaulonitide and of Ithuria, it is joy indeed to meet
once more the works of man and the blessings of Heaven. From the most
remote antiquity until the present day there has been but one name for
this zone, which surrounds Damascus with freshness and health, and that
name is the "Paradise of God."
If Paul there met with terrible visions, it was because he carried them
in his heart. Every step in his journey towards Damascus awaked in him
afflicting perplexities. The odious part of executioner, which he was
about to perform, became insupportable. The houses which he just saw
through the trees, were perhaps those of his victims. This thought
beset him and delayed his steps; he did not wish to advance; he seemed
to be resisting a mysterious influence which pressed him back.[10.66]
The fatigue of the journey,[10.67] joined to this preoccupation of the
mind, overwhelmed him. He had, it would seem, inflamed eyes,[10.68]
probably the beginning of ophthalmia. In these prolonged journeys, the
last hours are the most dangerous. All the debilitating causes of the
days just past accumulate, the nerves relax their power, and reaction
sets in. Perhaps, also, the sudden passage from the sun-smitten
plain to the cool shades of the gardens heightened his suffering
condition[10.69] and seriously excited the fanatical traveller.
Dangerous fevers, accompanied by delirium, are always sudden in these
latitudes, and in a few minutes the victim is prostrated as by a
thunder-stroke. When the crisis is over, the sufferer retains only the
impression of a period of profound darkness, crossed at intervals by
dashes of light or of images outlined against a dark background.[10.70]
It is quite certain that a terrible stroke instantly deprived Paul of
his remaining consciousness, and threw him senseless on the ground.
It is impossible, with the accounts which we have had of this singular
event,[10.71] to say whether any exterior fact led to the crisis
to which Christianity owes its most ardent apostle. In such cases,
moreover, the exterior fact is of but little importance. It was the
state of St. Paul's mind, it was his remorse on his approach to the
city where he was to commit the most signal of his misdeeds, which
were the true causes of his conversion.[10.72] I much prefer, for my
part, the hypothesis of an affair personal to Paul, and experienced by
him alone.[10.73] The incident, nevertheless, was not wholly unlike a
sudden storm. The flanks of Mt. Hermon are the point of formation for
thunder-showers unequalled in violence.[10.74] The most unimpressible
people cannot observe without emotion these terrible showers of fire.
It should be remembered that in ancient times accidents from lightning
strokes were considered divine relations; that with the ideas regarding
providential interference then prevalent, nothing was fortuitous; and
that every man was accustomed to view the natural phenomena around
him as bearing a direct relation to himself individually. The Jews
in particular always considered that thunder was the voice of God,
and that lightning was the fire of God. Paul at this moment was in
a state of lively excitement, and it was but natural that he should
interpret as the voice of the storm the thoughts really passing in his
mind. That a delirious fever, resulting from a sun-stroke or an attack
of ophthalmia, had suddenly seized him; that a flash of lightning
blinded him for a time; that a peal of thunder had produced a cerebral
commotion, temporarily depriving him of sight--nothing of this occurred
to his mind. The recollections of the apostle on this point appeared
to be considerably confused; he was persuaded that the incident was
supernatural, and this conviction would not permit him to entertain any
clear consciousness of material circumstances. Such cerebral commotions
produce sometimes a sort of retroactive effect, and greatly perturb the
recollections of the moments immediately preceding the crisis.[10.75]
Paul, moreover, elsewhere informs us himself that he was subject to
visions;[10.76] and this circumstance, insignificant as it may be to
others, is sufficient to show that for the time being he was demented.
And what did he see, what did he hear, while a prey to these
hallucinations? He saw the countenance which had haunted him for
several days; he saw the phantom of which so much had been said. He
saw Jesus Himself, who spoke to him in Hebrew, saying, "Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me?" Impetuous natures pass immediately from one
extreme to the other.[10.77] For them there exist solemn moments and
crucial instants which change the course of a lifetime, and which
colder natures never experience. Reflective men do not change, but are
transformed; while ardent men, on the contrary, change and are not
transformed. Dogmatism is a shirt of Nessus which they cannot tear
off. They must have a pretext for loving and hating. Only our western
races have been able to produce those minds--large yet delicate,
strong yet flexible--which no empty affirmation can mislead, and no
momentary illusion can carry away. The East has never had men of this
description. Instantly, the most thrilling thoughts rushed upon the
soul of Paul. Alive to the enormity of his conduct, he saw himself
stained with the blood of Stephen, and this martyr appeared to him as
his father, his initiator into the new faith. Touched to the quick,
his sentiments experienced a revulsion as thorough as it was sudden;
and yet all this was but a new order of fanaticism. His sincerity and
his need of an absolute faith prevented any middle course; and it was
already clear that he would one day exhibit in the cause of Jesus the
same fiery zeal he had shown in persecuting Him.
With the assistance of his companions, who led him by the hand,[10.78]
Paul entered Damascus. His friends took him to the house of a certain
Judas, who lived in the street called Straight, a grand colonnaded
avenue over a mile long and a hundred feet broad, which crossed the
city from east to west, and the line of which yet forms, with a few
deviations, the principal artery of Damascus.[10.79] The transport and
excitement of his brain[10.80] had not yet subsided. For three days
Paul, a prey to fever, neither ate nor drank. It is easy to imagine
what passed during this crisis in that brain maddened by violent
disease. Mention was made in his hearing of the Christians of Damascus,
but especially of a certain Ananias who appeared to be the chief of
the community.[10.81] Paul had often heard of the miraculous powers of
new believers over maladies, and he became seized by the idea that the
imposition of hands would cure him of his disease. His eyes all this
time were highly inflamed, and in his delirious imaginations[10.82]
he thought he saw Ananias enter the room and make a sign familiar
to Christians. From that moment he was convinced that he should owe
his recovery to Ananias. The latter, informed of this, visited the
sick man, spoke kindly, addressed him as his "brother," and laid his
hands upon his head; and from that hour peace returned to the soul of
Paul. He believed himself cured; and as his ailment had been purely
nervous, he was so. Little crusts or scales, it is said, fell from his
eyes;[10.83] he again partook of food and recovered his strength.
Almost immediately after this he was baptized.[10.84] The doctrines
of the Church were so simple that he had nothing new to learn, but
was at once a Christian and a perfect one. And from whom else did he
need instruction? Jesus Himself had appeared to him. He too, like
James and Peter, had had his vision of the risen Jesus. He had learned
everything by direct revelation. Here the fierce and unconquerable
nature of Paul was made manifest. Smitten down on the public road, he
was willing to submit, but only to Jesus, to that Jesus who had left
the right hand of the Father to convert and instruct him. Such was
the foundation of his faith; and such will be the starting-point of
his claims. He will maintain that it was by design that he did not
go to Jerusalem immediately after his conversion, and place himself
in relations with those who had been apostles before him; he will
maintain that he has received a special revelation, for which he is
indebted to no human agency; that, like the twelve, he is an apostle
by divine institution and by direct commission from Jesus; that his
doctrine is the true one, although an angel from heaven should say to
the contrary.[10.85] An immense danger finds entrance through this
proud man into the little society of poor in spirit who until now had
constituted Christianity. It will be a real miracle if his violence
and his inflexible personality does not burst forth. But at the same
time his boldness, his initiative force, his prompt decision, will
be precious elements beside the narrow, timid, and indecisive spirit
of the saints of Jerusalem! Certainly, if Christianity had remained
confined to these good people, shut up in a conventicle of elect,
leading a communistic life, it would, like Essenism, have faded away,
leaving scarcely a trace. It is this ungovernable Paul who will secure
its success, and who at the risk of every peril will lift on high its
holy banner. By the side of the obedient faithful, accepting his creed
without questioning his superior, there will be a Christian disengaged
from all authority who will believe only from personal conviction.
Protestantism thus existed five years after the death of Jesus, and St.
Paul was its illustrious founder. Jesus had no doubt anticipated such
disciples; and it was such as these who would most largely contribute
to the vitality of His work and insure its eternity. Violent natures
inclined to proselytism, only change the object of their passion. As
ardent for the new faith as he had been for the old, St. Paul, like
Omar, in one day dropped his part of persecutor for that of apostle.
He did not return to Jerusalem,[10.86] where his position towards the
twelve would have been peculiar and delicate. He tarried at Damascus
and in the Hauran[10.87] for three years (38-41), preaching that Jesus
was the Son of God.[10.88] Herod Agrippa I. held the sovereignty of
the Hauran and the neighboring countries; but his power was at several
points superseded by that of a Nabatian king, Hârath. The decay of the
Roman power in Syria had delivered to the ambitious Arab the great and
rich city of Damascus, besides a part of the countries beyond Jordan
and Hermon, then just opening to civilization.[10.89] Another emir,
most probably Soheym,[10.90] a relative or lieutenant of Hârath, had
received from Caligula the command of Ithuria. It was in the midst
of this great awakening of the Arab nation,[10.91] upon a foreign
soil where an energetic race manifested its fiery activity, that Paul
first showed the brilliancy of his apostolic soul.[10.92] Perhaps the
material yet dazzling movement which revolutionized the country was
prejudicial to a theory and preaching wholly idealistic, and founded
on a belief of a speedy end of the world. Indeed, there exists no
trace of an Arabian church founded by St. Paul. If the region of the
Hauran became, towards the year 70, one of the most important centres
of Christianity, it was owing to the emigration of Christians from
Palestine; and it was really the Ebionites, the enemies of St. Paul,
who had in this region their principal establishment.
At Damascus, where there were many Jews,[10.93] the teachings of Paul
received more attention. In the synagogues of that city he entered into
vigorous arguments to prove that Jesus was the Christ. Great indeed was
the astonishment of the faithful on beholding him who had persecuted
their brethren at Jerusalem, and who had come to Damascus "to bring
themselves bound unto the chief-priests," now appearing as their
leading defender.[10.94] His audacity and personal characteristics
almost alarmed them. He was alone; he sought no counsel;[10.95] he
established no school; and the emotions he excited were those of
curiosity rather than of sympathy. The faithful felt that he was a
brother, but a brother marked by singular peculiarities. They believed
him incapable of treachery; but amiable and mediocre natures always
experience sentiments of mistrust and alarm when brought in contact
with powerful and original minds, whom they acknowledge as their
superiors, and who they know must surpass them.