We now enter upon a portion of our examination of the Acts which is
so full of interest in itself that peculiar care will be requisite to
restrain ourselves within necessary limits. Hitherto our attention has
been mainly confined to the internal phenomena presented by the document
before us, with comparatively little aid from external testimony,
and although the results of such criticism have been of no equivocal
character, the historical veracity of the Acts has not yet been tested
by direct comparison with other sources of information. We now propose
to examine, as briefly as may be, some of the historical statements in
themselves, and by the light of information derived from contemporary
witnesses of unimpeachable authority, and to confront them with
well-established facts in the annals of the first two centuries. This
leads us to the borders not only of one of the greatest controversies
which has for half a century occupied theological criticism, but also
of still more important questions regarding the original character and
systematic development of Christianity itself. The latter we must here
resolutely pass almost unnoticed, and into the former we shall only
enter so far as is absolutely necessary to the special object of our
inquiry. The document before us professes to give a narrative of the
progress of the
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primitive Church from its first formation in the midst of Mosaism, with
strong Judaistic rules and prejudices, up to that liberal universalism
which freely admitted the christian Gentile, upon equal terms, into
communion with the christian Jew. The question with which we are
concerned is strictly this: Is the account in the Acts of the Apostles
of the successive steps by which Christianity emerged from Judaism, and,
shaking off the restrictions and obligations of the Mosaic law, admitted
the Gentiles to a full participation of its privileges historically
true? Is the representation which is made of the conduct and teaching
of the older Apostles on the one hand, and of Paul on the other, and of
their mutual relations an accurate one? Can the Acts of the Apostles, in
short, be considered a sober and veracious history of so important and
interesting an epoch of the christian Church? This has been vehemently
disputed or denied, and the discussion, extending on every side into
important collateral issues, forms in itself a literature of voluminous
extent and profound interest. Our path now lies through this debatable
land; but although the controversy as to the connection of Paul with
the development of Christianity and his relation to the Apostles of the
Circumcision cannot be altogether avoided, it only partially concerns
us. We are freed from the necessity of advancing any particular theory,
and have here no further interest in it than to inquire whether the
narrative of the Acts is historical or not. If, therefore, avoiding
many important but unnecessary questions, and restricting ourselves to
a straight course across the great controversy, we seem to deal
insufficiently with the general subject, it must be remembered that the
argument is merely incidental to our inquiry, and that we not only do
not
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pretend to exhaust it, but distinctly endeavour to reduce our share in
it to the smallest limits compatible with our immediate object.
According to the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, the apostolic
age presents a most edifying example of concord and moderation. The
emancipation of the Church from Mosaic restrictions was effected without
strife or heart-burning, and the freedom of the Gospel, if not attained
without hesitation, was finally proclaimed with singular largeness
of mind and philosophic liberality. The teaching of Paul differed in
nothing from that of the elder apostles. The christian universalism,
which so many suppose to have specially characterized the great Apostle
of the Gentiles, was not only shared, but even anticipated, by the elder
Apostles. So far from opposing the free admission of the Gentiles to the
christian community, Peter declares himself to have been chosen of God
that by his voice they should hear the gospel,(1) proclaims that
there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile,(2) and advocates
the abrogation, in their case at least, of the Mosaic law.(3) James,
whatever his private predilections may be, exhibits almost equal
forbearance and desire of conciliation. In fact, whatever anomalies and
contradictions may be discoverable, upon close examination, beneath this
smooth and brilliant surface, the picture superficially presented is
one of singular harmony and peace. On the other hand, instead of that
sensitive independence and self-reliance of character which has been
ascribed to the Apostle Paul, we find him represented in the Acts as
submissive to the authority of the "Pillars" of the church, ready to
conform to their
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counsels and bow to their decrees, and as seizing every opportunity
of visiting Jerusalem, and coming in contact with that stronghold
of Judaism. Instead of the Apostle of the Gentiles, preaching the
abrogation of the law, and more than suspected of leading the Jews
to apostatize from Moses,(1) we find a man even scrupulous in his
observance of Mosaic customs, taking vows upon him, circumcising Timothy
with his own hand, and declaring at the close of his career, when a
prisoner at Rome, that he "did nothing against the people or the customs
of the fathers."(2) There is no trace of angry controversy, of jealous
susceptibility, of dogmatic difference in the circle of the apostles.
The intercourse of Paul with the leaders of the Judaistic party is of
the most unbroken pleasantness and amity. Of opposition to his ministry,
or doubt of his apostleship, whether on the part of the Three, or of
those who identified themselves with their teaching, we have no hint. We
must endeavour to ascertain whether this is a true representation of
the early development of the Church, and of the momentous history of the
apostolic age.
In the epistles of Paul we have, at least to some extent, the means of
testing the accuracy of the statements of the Acts with regard to him
and the early history of the Church. The Epistles to the Galatians,
to the Corinthians (2), and to the Romans are generally admitted to be
genuine,(3) and can be freely used for this purpose. To these we shall
limit our attention, excluding other epistles, whose authenticity is
either questioned or denied, but in doing so no material capable of
really affecting the result is set aside. For the same reason, we
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must reject any evidence to be derived from the so-called Epistles of
Peter and James, at least so far as they are supposed to represent the
opinions of Peter and James, but here again it will be found that they
do not materially affect the points immediately before us. The veracity
of the Acts of the Apostles being the very point which is in question,
it is unnecessary to say that we have to subject the narrative to
examination, and by no means to assume the correctness of any statements
we find in it. At the same time it must be our endeavour to collect from
this document such indications--and they will frequently be valuable--of
the true history of the occurrences related, as may be presented between
the lines of the text.
In the absence of fuller information, it must not be forgotten that
human nature in the first century of our era was very much what it is in
the nineteenth, and certain facts being clearly established, it will
not be difficult to infer many details which cannot now be positively
demonstrated. The Epistle to the Galatians, however, will be our most
invaluable guide. Dealing, as it does, with some of the principal
episodes of the Acts, we are enabled by the words of the apostle Paul
himself, which have all the accent of truth and vehement earnestness, to
control the narrative of the unknown writer of that work. And where this
source fails, we have the unsuspected testimony of his other epistles,
and of later ecclesiastical history to assist our inquiry.
The problem then which we have to consider is the manner in which the
primitive Church emerged from its earliest form, as a Jewish institution
with Mosaic restrictions and Israelitish exclusiveness, and finally
opened wide its doors to the uncircumcised Gentile, and assumed
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the character of a universal religion. In order to understand the
nature of the case, and be able to estimate aright the solution which is
presented by the narrative in the Acts of the Apostles, it is necessary
that we should obtain a clear view of the actual characteristics of
Christianity at the period when that history begins. We must endeavour
to understand precisely what view the Apostles had formed of their
position in regard to Judaism, and of the duty which devolved upon
them of propagating the Gospel. It is obvious that we cannot rightly
appreciate the amount of persuasion requisite to transform the primitive
Church from Jewish exclusive-ness to Christian universality, without
ascertaining the probable amount of long rooted conviction and religious
prejudice or principle which had to be overcome before that great change
could be effected.
We shall not here enter upon any argument as to the precise views which
the Founder of Christianity may have held as to his own person and work,
nor shall we attempt to sift the traditions of his life and teaching
which have been handed down to us, and to separate the genuine spiritual
nucleus from the grosser matter by which it has been enveloped and
obscured. We have much more to do with the view which others took of the
matter, and, looking at the Gospels as representations of that which was
accepted as the orthodox view regarding the teaching of Jesus, they
are almost as useful for our present purpose as if they had been more
spiritual and less popular expositions of his views. What the Master
was understood to teach is more important for the history of the first
century than what he actually taught without being understood. Nothing
is more certain than the fact that Christianity, originally, was
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developed out of Judaism, and that its advent was historically
prepared by the course of the Mosaic system, to which it was so closely
related.(1) In its first stages during the apostolic age, it had no
higher ambition than to be, and to be considered, the continuation
and the fulfilment of Judaism, its final and triumphant phase. The
substantial identity of primitive Christianity with true Judaism was
at first never called in question; it was considered a mere internal
movement of Judaism, its development and completion, but by no means its
mutilation. The idea of Christianity as a new religion never entered
the minds of the Twelve or of the first believers, nor, as we shall
presently see, was it so regarded by the Jews themselves. It was
in fact, originally, nothing more than a sect of Judaism, holding a
particular view of one point in the creed and, for a very long period,
it was considered so by others, and was in no way distinguished from
the rest of Mosaism.(2) Even in the Acts there are traces of this, Paul
being called "a ringleader of the sect [------] of the Nazarenes,"(3)
and the Jews of Rome being represented as referring to Christianity by
this term.(4) Paul before the Council not
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only does not scruple to call himself "a Pharisee, the son of a
Pharisee," but the Pharisees take part with him against the more
unorthodox and hated sect of the Sadducees.(1) For eighteen centuries
disputes have fiercely raged over the creed of Christendom, and the
ingenuity of countless divines has been exhausted in deducing mystic
dogmas from the primitive teaching, but if there be one thing more
remarkable than another in that teaching, according to the Synoptics,
it is its perfect simplicity. Jesus did not appear with a ready-made
theology, and imposed no elaborate system of doctrine upon his
disciples. Throughout the prophetic period of Mosaism, one hope had
sustained the people of Israel in all their sufferings and reverses:
that the fortunes of the nation should finally be retrieved by a scion
of the race of David, under whose rule it should be restored to a future
of unexampled splendour and prosperity. The expectation of the Messiah,
under frequently modified aspects, had formed a living part in the
national faith of Israel. Primitive Christianity, sharing but recasting
this ancient hope, was only distinguished from Judaism, with whose
worship it continued in all points united, by a single doctrine, which
was in itself merely a modification of the national idea: the belief
that Jesus of Nazareth was actually the Christ, the promised Messiah.
This was substantially the whole of its creed.(2)
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The synoptic Gospels, and more especially the first,(1) are clearly a
history of Jesus as the Messiah of the house of David, so long announced
and expected, and whose life and even his death and resurrection are
shown to be the fulfilment of a series of Old Testament prophecies.(2)
When his birth is announced to Mary, he is described as the great one,
who is to sit on the throne of David his father, and reign over the
house of Jacob for ever,(3) and the good tidings of great joy to all the
people [------], that the Messiah is born that day in the city of David,
are proclaimed by the angel to the shepherds of the plain.(4) Synieon
takes the child in his arms and blesses God that the words of the Holy
Spirit are accomplished, that he should not die before he had seen the
Lord's anointed, the Messiah, the consolation of Israel.(5) The Magi
come to his cradle in Bethlehem, the birthplace of the Messiah indicated
by the prophet,(6) to do homage to him who is born King of the Jews,(7)
and there Herod seeks to destroy him,(8) fulfilling another
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prophecy.(1) His flight into Egypt and return to Nazareth are equally
in fulfilment of prophecies.(2) John the Baptist, whose own birth as
the forerunner of the Messiah had been foretold,(3) goes before him
preparing the way of the Lord, and announcing that the Messianic kingdom
is at hand. According to the fourth Gospel, some of the twelve had been
disciples of the Baptist, and follow Jesus on their master's assurance
that he is the Messiah. One of these, Andrew, induces his brother Simon
Peter also to go after him by the announcement:--"We have found the
Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ" (i. 35ff. 41). And
Philip tells Nathaniel:--"We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and
the Prophets did write: Jesus, the son of Joseph, who is from Nazareth"
(i. 45). When he has commenced his own public ministry, Jesus is
represented as asking his disciples:--"Who do men say that I am?" and
setting aside the popular conjectures that he is John the Baptist,
Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets, by the still more direct
question:--"And whom do ye say that I am? Simon Peter answered
and said:--Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And in
consequence of this recognition of his Messiahship, Jesus rejoins:--"And
I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
Church."(4)
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It is quite apart from our present object to point out the singular
feats of exegesis and perversions of historical S3nse by which passages
of the Old Testament are forced to show that every event in the history,
and even the startling novelty of a suffering and crucified Messiah,
which to Jews was a stumbling-block and to Gentiles folly,(1) had been
foretold by the prophets. From first to last the Gospels strive to prove
that Jesus was the Messiah, and connect him indissolubly with the
Old Testament. The Messianic key-note, which is struck at the outset,
regulates the strain to the close. The disciples on the way to Emmaus,
appalled by the ignominious death of their Master, sadly confide to
the stranger their vanished hope that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they now
merely call "a prophet mighty in word and deed before God and all the
people," was the Christ "who was about to redeem Israel," and Jesus
himself replies:--"O foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets spake! Was it not needful that the Christ (Messiah) should
suffer these things and enter into his glory? And, beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself."(2) Then, again, when he appears to the
eleven, immediately after, at Jerusalem, he says:--"'These are the words
that I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and
the Psalms concerning me.' Then opened he their understanding that
they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them:--'Thus it is
written, that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead the third
day.'"(3)
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The crucifixion and death of Jesus introduced the first elements of
rupture with Judaism, to which they formed the great stumbling-block.(1)
The conception of a suffering and despised Messiah could naturally never
have occurred to a Jewish mind.(2) The first effort of Christianity,
therefore, was to repair the apparent breach by proving that the
suffering Messiah had actually been foretold by the prophets; and to
re-establish the Messianic character of Jesus, by the evidence of his
resurrection.(3) But, above all, the momentary deviation from orthodox
Jewish ideas regarding the Messiah was retraced by the representation
of a speedy second advent, in glory, of the once rejected Messiah to
restore the kingdom of Israel, by which the ancient hopes of the people
became reconciled with the new expectation of Christians. Even before
the Ascension, the disciples are represented in the Acts as asking
the risen Jesus:--"Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to
Israel?"(4) There can be no doubt of the reality and
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universality of the belief, in the Apostolic Church, in the immediate
return of the glorified Messiah and speedy "end of all things."(1)
The substance of the preaching of the Apostles in Acts, simply is that
Jesus is the Christ,(2) the expected Messiah.(3) Their chief aim is
to prove that his sufferings and death had been foretold by the
prophets,(4) and that his resurrection establishes his claim to the
title.(5) The simplicity of the creed is illustrated by the rapidity
with which converts are made. After a few words, on one occasion, three
thousand(6) and, on another, five thousand(7) are at once converted. No
lengthened instruction or preparation was requisite for admission into
the Church.(8) As soon as a Jew acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah he
thereby became a Christian.(9) As soon as the
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three thousand converts at Pentecost made this confession of faith
they were baptized.(1) The Ethiopian is converted whilst passing in his
chariot, and is immediately baptized,(2) as are likewise Cornelius
and his household after a short address from Peter.(3) The new faith
involved no abandonment of the old. On the contrary, the advent of the
Messiah was so essential a part of Judaic belief, and the Messianic
claim of Jesus was so completely based by the Apostles on the fulfilment
of prophecy--"showing by the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ,"--that
recognition of the fact rather constituted firmer adhesion to Mosaism,
and deeper faith in the inviolable truth of the Covenant with Israel. If
there had been no Mosaism, so to say, there could have been no Messiah.
So far from being opposed either to the form or spirit of the religion
of Israel, the proclamation of the Messiah was its necessary complement,
and could only be intelligible by confirmation of its truth and
maintenance of its validity. Christianity--belief in the Messiah--in its
earlier phases, drew its whole nourishment from roots that sank deeply
into Mosaism. It was indeed nothing more than Mosaism in a developed
form. The only difference between the Jew and the Christian was that the
latter believed the Messiah to have already appeared in Jesus, whilst
the former still expected him in the future;(4) though even this
difference
{123}
was singularly diminished, in appearance at least, by the Christian
expectation of the second advent.
It is exceedingly important to ascertain, under these circumstances,
what was the impression of the Apostles as to the relation of believers
to Judaism and to Mosaic observances, although it must be clear to any
one who impartially considers the origin and historical antecedents of
the Christian faith, that very little doubt can have existed in their
minds on the subject. The teaching of Jesus, as recorded in the synoptic
Gospels, is by no means of a doubtful character, more especially when
the sanctity of the Mosaic system in the eyes of a Jew is borne in mind.
It must be apparent that, in order to remove the obligation of a Law
and form of worship believed to have been, in the most direct sense,
instituted by God himself, the most clear, strong, and reiterated order
would have been requisite. No one can reasonably maintain that a few
spiritual expressions directed against the bare letter and abuse of
the law, which were scarcely understood by the hearers, could have been
intended to abolish a system so firmly planted, or to overthrow Jewish
institutions of such antiquity and national importance, much less that
they could be taken in this sense by the disciples. A few passages in
the Gospels, therefore, which may bear the interpretation of having
foreseen the eventual supersession of Mosaism by his own more spiritual
principles, must not be strained to support the idea that Jesus taught
disregard of the Law. His very distinct and positive lessons, conveyed
both by precept and practice, show, on the contrary, that not only he
did not intend to attack pure Mosaism, but that he was understood both
directly and by inference to recognise and confirm it. In the Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus
{124}
states to the disciples in the most positive manner:--"Think not that
I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I came not to destroy but to
fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall not pass from the law, till all be accomplished."(1)
Whether the last phrase be interpreted: till all the law be
accomplished, or till all things appointed to occur be accomplished, the
effect is the same. One clear explicit declaration like this, under the
circumstances, would outweigh a host of doubtful expressions. Not only
does Jesus in this passage directly repudiate any idea of attacking
the law and the prophets, but, in representing his mission as their
fulfilment, he affirms them, and associates his own work in the closest
way with theirs. If there were any uncertainty, however, as to
the meaning of his words it would be removed by the
continuation:--"Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these
commandments, even the least, and shall teach men so, he shall be called
least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them,
he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."(2) It would be
difficult for teaching to be more decisive in favour of the maintenance
of the law, and this instruction, according to the first Synoptic, was
specially directed to the disciples.(3) When Jesus goes on to show that
their righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, and
to add to the letter of the law, as interpreted by those of old, his own
profound interpretation of its
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spirit, he only intensifies, without limiting, the operation of the law;
he merely spiritualises it. He does no more than this in his lessons
regarding the observance of the Sabbath. He did not in point of fact
attack the genuine Mosaic institution of the day of rest at all, but
merely the intolerable literalism by which its observance had been made
a burden instead of "a delight." He justified his variation from the
traditional teaching and practice of his time, however, by appeals to
Scriptural precedent.(1)
As a recent writer has said: "....the observance of the Sabbath, which
had been intended to secure for weary men a rest full of love and peace
and mercy, had become a mere national Fetish--a barren custom fenced in
with the most frivolous and senseless restrictions."(2) Jesus restored
its original significance. In restricting some of the permissive clauses
of the Law, on the other hand, he acted precisely in the same spirit.
He dealt with the Law not with the temper of a revolutionist, but of a
reformer, and his reforms, so far from affecting its permanence, are a
virtual confirmation of the rest of the code.(3) Ritschl, whose views on
this point will have some weight with apologists, combats the idea
that Jesus merely confirmed the Mosaic moral law, and abolished the
ceremonial law. Referring to one particular point of importance, he
says:--"He certainly contests the duty of the Sabbath rest, the value of
purifications and sacrifices, and the validity of divorce; on the other
hand, he leaves unattacked the value of circumcision, whose regulation
is generally reckoned as part of the
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ceremonial law; and nothing justifies the conclusion that Jesus
estimated it in the same way as Justin Martyr, and the other Gentile
Christian Church teachers, who place it on the same line as the
ceremonies. The only passage in which Jesus touches upon circumcision
(John vii. 22) rather proves that, as an institution of the patriarchs,
he attributes to it peculiar sanctity. Moreover, when Jesus, with
unmistakable intention, confines his own personal ministry to the
Israelitish people (Mk. vii. 27, Mt. x. 5, 6), he thereby recognises
their prior right of participation in the Kingdom of God, and also,
indirectly, circumcision as the sign of the preference of this people.
The distinction of circumcision from ceremonies, besides, is perfectly
intelligible from the Old Testament. Through circumcision, to wit, is
the Israelite, sprung from the people of the Covenant, indicated as
sanctified by God; through purification, sacrifice, Sabbath-rest must
he continually sanctify himself for God. So long, therefore, as the
conception of the people of the Covenant is maintained, circumcision
cannot be abandoned, whilst even the prophets have pointed to the merely
relative importance of the Mosaic worship."(1)
Jesus everywhere in the Gospels recognises the divine origin of the
law,(2) and he quotes the predictions of the prophets as absolute
evidence of his own pretensions. To those who ask him the way to
eternal life he indicates its commandments,(3) and he even enjoins the
observance of its ceremonial rites.(4) Jesus did not abrogate the
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Mosaic law; but, on the contrary, by his example as well as his
precepts, he practically confirmed it.(1)
According to the statements of the Gospels, Jesus himself observed the
prescriptions of the Mosaic law.(2) From his birth he had been brought
up in its worship.(3) He was circumcised on the eighth day.(4) "And when
the days of their purification were accomplished, according to the law
of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord,
even as it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male, &c, &c, and
to give a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the
Lord," &c, &c.(5) Every year his parents went to Jerusalem at the feast
of the Passover,(6) and this practice he continued till the close of his
life. "As his custom was, he went into the Synagogue (at Nazareth) and
stood up to read."(7) According to the fourth Gospel, Jesus goes up to
Jerusalem for the various festivals of the Jews,(8) and the feast of
the Passover, according to the Synoptics, was the last memorable supper
eaten
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with his disciples,(1) the third Synoptic representing him as saying:
"With desire I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
for I say unto you that I shall not any more eat it until it be
fulfilled hi the kingdom of God."(2) However exceptional the character
of Jesus, and however elevated his views, it is undeniable that he lived
and died a Jew, conforming to the ordinances of the Mosaic law in all
essential points, and not holding himself aloof from the worship of the
Temple which he purified. The influence which his adherence to the
forms of Judaism must have exerted over his followers(3) can scarcely
be exaggerated, and the fact must ever be carefully borne in mind in
estimating the conduct of the Apostles and of the primitive Christian
community after his death.
As befitted the character of the Jewish Messiah, the sphere of the
ministry of Jesus and the arrangements for the proclamation of the
Gospel were strictly and even intensely, Judaic. Jesus attached to his
person twelve disciples, a number clearly typical of the twelve tribes
of the people of Israel;(4) and this reference is distinctly adopted
when Jesus is represented, in the Synoptics, as promising that, in the
Messianic kingdom, "when the Son
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of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory," the Twelve also "shall sit
upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel;"(1) a promise
which, according to the third Synoptist, is actually made during the
last supper.(2) In the Apocalypse, which, "of all the writings of the
New Testament is most thoroughly Jewish in its language and imagery,"(3)
the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb are written upon the twelve
foundations of the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem, upon the twelve gates
of which, through which alone access to the city can be obtained, are
the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.(4) Jesus
himself limited his teaching to the Jews, and was strictly "a minister
of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made
unto the fathers."(5) To the prayer of the Canaanitish woman: "Have
mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David," unlike his gracious demeanour to her
of the bloody issue,(6) Jesus, at first, it is said, "answered her not
a word;" and even when besought by the disciples--not to heal her
daughter, but--to "send her away," he makes the emphatic declaration: "I
was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."(7) To her
continued appeals he lays
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down the principle: "It is not lawful to take the children's bread and
cast it to the dogs." If after these exclusive sentences the boon is
finally granted, it is as of the crumbs(1) which fall from the master's
table.(2) The modified expression(3) in the second Gospel: "Let the
children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's
bread and cast it to the dogs;" does not affect the case, for it equally
represents exclusion from the privileges of Israel, and the Messianic
idea fully contemplated a certain grace to the heathen when the children
were filled. The expression regarding casting, the children's bread "to
the dogs" is clearly in reference to the Gentiles, who were so called by
the Jews.(4) A similar, though still stronger use of such expressions,
might be pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount in the first
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Gospel (vii. 6): "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither
cast your pearls before swine." It is certain that the Jews were in
the habit of speaking of the heathen both as dogs and swine--unclean
animals,--and Hilgenfeld,(1) and some other critics, see in this verse
a reference to the Gentiles. We do not, however, press this application
which is, and may be, disputed, but merely mention it and pass on. There
can be no doubt, however, of the exclusive references to the Gentiles in
the same sermon, and other passages, where the disciples are enjoined
to practise a higher righteousness than the Gentiles. "Do not even the
publicans... do not even the Gentiles or sinners the same things."(2)
"Take no thought, &c, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek;
but seek ye, &c, &c."(3) The contrast is precisely that put with some
irony by Paul, making use of the common Jewish expression "sinner" as
almost equivalent for "Gentile;"(4) In another place the first Synoptic
represents Jesus as teaching his disciples how to deal with a brother
who sins against them, and as the final resource, when every effort at
reconciliation and justice has failed, he says: "Let him be unto thee
as the Gentile [------] and the publican." (Mt. xviii. 17.) He could
not express in a stronger way to a Jewish mind the idea of social and
religious excommunication.
The instructions which Jesus gives in sending out the Twelve, however,
express the exclusiveness of the
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Messianic mission, in the first instance at least, to the Jews, in a
very marked manner. Jesus commands his disciples: "Go not into a way of
the Gentiles [------] and into a city of the Samaritans enter ye not;
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye
go, preach, saying: The kingdom of heaven is at hand."(1) As if more
emphatically to mark the limitation of the mission, the assurance is
seriously added: "For verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over
the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man come."(2) It will be observed
that Jesus here charges the Twelve to go rather "to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel" in the same words that he employs to the
Canaanitish woman to describe the exclusive destination of his own
ministry.(3) In coupling the Samaritans with the Gentiles there is
merely an expression of the intense antipathy of the Jews against them,
as a mixed and, we may say, renegade race, excluded from the Jewish
worship although circumcised, intercourse with whom is to this day
almost regarded as pollution.(4) The third Gospel, which omits the
restrictive instructions of Jesus to the Twelve given by the first
Synoptist, introduces another episode of the same description: the
appointment and mission of Seventy disciples,(6) to which we must very
briefly refer. No mention whatever is made of this incident in the other
Gospels, and these disciples are not referred to in any other part of
the New Testament.(6) Even Eusebius remarks that no
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catalogue of them is anywhere given,(1) and, after naming a few persons,
who were said by tradition to have been of their number, he points out
that more than seventy disciples appear, for instance, according to
the testimony of Paul.(2) It will be observed that the instructions, at
least in considerable part, supposed to be given to the Seventy in the
third. Synoptic are, in the first, the very instructions given to the
Twelve. There has been much discussion regarding the whole episode,
which need not here be minutely referred to. For various reasons the
majority of critics impugn its historical character.(3) A large number
of these, as well as other writers, consider that the narrative of this
appointment of seventy disciples, the number of the nations of the earth
according to Jewish ideas, was introduced in Pauline universalistic
interest,(4) or, at least, that the number is
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typical of Gentile conversion, in contrast with that of the Twelve who
represent the more strictly Judaic limitation of the Messianic mission;
and they seem to hold that the preaching of the seventy is represented
as not confined to Judaea, but as extending to Samaria, and that it thus
denoted the destination of the Gospel also to the Gentiles. On the
other hand, other critics, many, though by no means all, of whom do
not question the authenticity of the passage, are disposed to deny
the Pauline tendency, and any special connection with a mission to
the Gentiles, and rather to see in the number seventy a reference to
well-known Judaistic institutions.(1) It is true that the number of
the nations was set down at seventy by Jewish tradition,(2) but, on the
other hand, it was the number of the elders chosen by Moses from amongst
the children of Israel by God's command to help him, and to whom God
gave of his spirit(3)s and also of the national
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Sanhedrin, which, according to the Mischna,(1) still represented the
Mosaic council. This view receives confirmation from the Clementine
Recognitions in the following passage: "He therefore chose us twelve who
first believed in him, whom he named Apostles; afterwards seventy-two
other disciples of most approved goodness, that even in this way
recognising the similitude of Moses the multitude might believe that
this is the prophet to come whom Moses foretold."(2) The passage here
referred to is twice quoted in the Acts: "Moses indeed said: A prophet
will the Lord our God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like
unto me," &c.(3) On examination, we do not find that there is any ground
for the assertion that the seventy disciples were sent to the Samaritans
or Gentiles, or were in any way connected with universalistic ideas.
Jesus had "stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem," and sent
messengers before him who "went and entered into a village of the
Samaritans to make ready for him," but they repulsed him, "because his
face was as though he would go to Jerusalem."(4) There is a decided
break, however, before the appointment of the seventy. "After these
things [------] the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them
two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself
was about to come."(5) There is not a single word in the instructions
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given to them which justifies the conclusion that they were sent to
Samaria, and only the inference from the number seventy, taken as
typical of the nations, suggests it. That inference is not sufficiently
attested, and the slightness of the use made of the seventy disciples
in the third Gospel--this occasion being the only one on which they are
mentioned, and no specific intimation of any mission to all people being
here given--does not favour the theory of Pauline tendency. So far as we
are concerned, however, the point is unimportant. Those who assert the
universalistic character of the episode generally deny its authenticity;
most of those who accept it as historical deny its universalism.
The order to go and teach all nations, however, by no means carries us
beyond strictly Messianic limits. Whilst the Jews expected the Messiah
to restore the people of Israel to their own Holy Land and crown them
with unexampled prosperity and peace, revenging their past sorrows upon
their enemies, and granting them supremacy over all the earth, they
likewise held that one of the Messianic glories was to be the conversion
of the Gentiles to the worship of Jahveh. This is the burden of the
prophets, and it requires no proof. The Jews, as the people with whom
God had entered into Covenant, were first to be received into the
kingdom. "Let the children first be filled,"(1) and then the heathen
might partake of the bread. Regarding the ultimate conversion of the
Gentiles, therefore, there was no doubt; the only questions were as to
the time and the conditions of admission into the national fellowship.
As to the time, there never had been any expectation that the heathen
could be turned to Jahveh in numbers before the appearance of the
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Messiah, but converts to Judaism had been made in all ages, and
after the dispersion, especially, the influence of the Jews upon the
professors of the effete and expiring religions of Rome, of Greece, and
of Egypt was very great, and numerous proselytes adopted the faith of
Israel,(1) and were eagerly sought for(2) in spite of the abusive terms
in which the Talmudists spoke of them.(3) The conditions on the other
hand were perfectly definite. The case of converts had been early
foreseen and provided for in the Mosaic code. Without referring to
minor points, we may at once say that circumcision was indispensable to
admission into the number of the children of Israel.(4) Participation
in the privileges of the Covenant could only be secured by accepting
the mark of that Covenant. Very many, however, had adopted Judaism to a
great extent, who were not willing to undergo the rite requisite to full
admission into the nation, and a certain modification had gradually
been introduced by which, without it, strangers might be admitted into
partial communion with Israel. There were, therefore, two classes
of proselytes,(5) the first called Proselytes of the Covenant or of
Righteousness, who were circumcised, obeyed the whole Mosaic law, and
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were fully incorporated with Israel, and the other called Proselytes
of the Gate,(1) or worshippers of Jahveh, who in the New Testament are
commonly called [------].
These had not undergone the rite of circumcision, and therefore were
not participators in the Covenant, but merely worshipped the God
of Israel,(4) and were only compelled to observe the seven Noachian
prescriptions. These Proselytes of the Gate, however, were little more
than on sufferance. They were excluded from the Temple, and even the
Acts of the Apostles represent it to be pollution for a Jew to have
intercourse with them: it requires direct Divine intervention to induce
Peter to go to Cornelius, and to excuse his doing so in the eyes of the
primitive Church.(3) Nothing short of circumcision and full observance
of the Mosaic law could secure the privileges of the Covenant with
Israel to a stranger, and in illustration of this we may again point to
the Acts, where certain who came from Judaea, members of the primitive
church, teach the Christians of Antioch: "Except ye have been
circumcised after the custom of Moses ye cannot be saved."(4)
1 We need not discuss the chronology of this class.
2 It is scarcely necessary to speak of the well-known case
of Lzates, King of Adiabene, related by Josephus. The Jewish
merchant Ananias, who teaches him to worship God according
to the religion of the Jews, is willing, evidently from the
special emergency of the case and the danger of forcing
Izates fully to embrace Judaism in the face of his people,
to let him remain a mere Jahveh worshipper, only partially
conforming to the Law, and remaining uncircumcised'; but
another Jew from Galilee, Eleazer, versed in Jewish
learning, points out to him that, in neglecting
circumcision, he breaks the principal point of the Law.
Izates then has himself circumcised. Josephus, Antiq. xx.
2, Sec. 3 f.
3 Acts x. 2 ff, xi. 2 ft. Dr. Lightfoot says: "The Apostles
of the circumcision, even St. Peter himself, had failed
hitherto to comprehend the wide purpose of God. With their
fellow-countrymen they still held it unlawful for a Jew to
keep company with an alien' (Acts x. 28)." Galatians, p.
290.
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This will be more fully shown as we proceed. The conversion of the
Gentiles was not, therefore, in the least degree an idea foreign to
Judaism, but, on the contrary, formed an intimate part of the Messianic
expectation of the later prophets. The conditions of admission to the
privileges and promises of the Covenant, however, were full acceptance
of the Mosaic law, and submission to the initiatory rite.(1) That small
and comparatively insignificant people, with an arrogance that would
have been ridiculous if, in the influence which they have actually
exerted over the world, it had not been almost sublime, not only
supposed themselves the sole and privileged recipients of the oracles
of God, as his chosen and peculiar people, but they contemplated nothing
short of universal submission to the Mosaic code, and the supremacy of
Israel over all the earth.
We are now better able to estimate the position of the Twelve when the
death of their Master threw them on their own resources, and left them
to propagate his Gospel as they themselves understood it. Born a Jew
of the race of David, accepting during his life the character of the
promised Messiah, and dying with the mocking title "King of the Jews"
written upon his cross, Jesus had left his disciples in close communion
with the Mosaism which he had spiritualized and ennobled, but had not
abolished. He himself had taught them that "it becomes us to fulfill all
righteousness," and, from his youth upwards, had set them the example of
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enlightened observance of the Mosaic law. His precept had not belied
his example, and whilst in strong terms we find him inculcating the
permanence of the Law, it is certain that he left no order to disregard
it. He confined his own preaching to the Jews; the first ministers of
the Messiah represented the twelve tribes of the people of Israel;.and
the first Christians were of that nation, with no distinctive worship,
but practising as before the whole Mosaic ritual. What Neander savs
of "many," may, we think, be referred to all: "That Jesus faithfully
observed the form of the Jewish law served to them as evidence that this
form should ever preserve its value."(1) As a fact, the Apostles and
the early Christians continued as before assiduously to practise all the
observances of the Mosaic law, to frequent the Temple(2) and adhere to
the usual strict forms of Judaism.(3) In addition to the influence of
the example of Jesus and the powerful effect of national habit, there
were many strong reasons which obviously must to Jews have rendered
abandonment of the law as difficult as submission to its full
requirements must have been to Gentiles. Holding as they did the Divine
origin of the Old Testament, in which the observance of the Law was
inculcated on almost every page,
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it would have been impossible, without counter-teaching of the most
peremptory and convincing character, to have shaken its supremacy;
but beyond this, in that theocratic community Mosaism was not only the
condition of the Covenant, and the key of the Temple, but it was also
the diploma of citizenship, and the bond of social and political
life. To abandon the observance of the Law was not only to resign the
privilege and the distinctive characteristic of Israel, to relinquish
the faith of the Patriarchs who were the glory of the nation, and to
forsake a divinely appointed form of worship, without any recognized
or even indicated substitute, but it severed the only link between the
individual and the people of Israel, and left him in despised isolation,
an outcast from the community. They had no idea, however, that any such
sacrifice was required of them. They were simply Jews believing in the
Jewish Messiah, and they held that all things else were to proceed as
before, until the glorious second coining of the Christ.(1)
The Apostles and primitive Christians continued to hold the national
belief that the way to Christianity lay through Judaism, and that the
observance of the law was obligatory and circumcision necessary to
complete communion.(2) Paul describes with unappeased
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irritation the efforts made by the community of Jerusalem, whose
"pillars" were Peter, James, and John, to force Titus, a Gentile
Christian, to be circumcised,(1) and even the Acts represent James
and all the elders of the Church of Jerusalem as requesting Paul, long
after, to take part with four Jewish Christians, who had a vow and
were about to purify themselves and shave their heads and, after the
accomplishment of the days of purification, make the usual offering in
the Temple, in order to convince the "many thousands there of those who
have believed and are all zealous for the law," that it is untrue that
he teaches: "all the Jews who are among the Gentiles apostacy [------]
from Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children,
neither to walk after the customs," and to show, on the contrary, that
he himself walks orderly and keeps the Law.(2) As true Israelites, with
opinions fundamentally unchanged by belief that Jesus was the Messiah,
they held that the Gospel was specially intended for the people of the
Covenant, and they confined their teaching to the Jews.(3) A Gentile
whilst still uncircumcised, even although converted, could not, they
thought, be received on an
1 Gal ii. 3 ff. As we shall more fully discuss this episode
hereafter, it is not necessary to do so here.
2 Acts xxi. 18--26; cf. xv. i. Paul is also represented as
saying to the Jews of Rome that he has done nothing"
against the customs of their Fathers."
3 Dr. Lightfoot says: "Meanwhile at Jerusalem some years
past away before the barrier of Judaism was assailed. The
Apostles still observed the Mosaic ritual; they still
confined their preaching to Jews by birth, or Jews by
adoption, the proselytes of the Covenant," &c. Paul's Ep. to
Gal. p. 287. Paley says: "It was not yet known to the
Apostles, that they were at liberty to propose the religion
to mankind at large. That 'mystery,' as St. Paul calls it
(Eph. iii. 3-6), and as it then was, was revealed to Peter
by an especial miracle." A view of the Evidence, &c, ed.
Potts, 1850, p. 228.
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equality with the Jew, but defiled him by contact.(1) The attitude of
the Christian Jew to the merely Christian Gentile, who had not entered
the community by the portal of Judaism, was, as before, simply that of
the Jew to the proselyte of the Gate. The Apostles could not upon any
other terms have then even contemplated the conversion of the Gentiles.
Jesus had limited his own teaching to the Jews, and, according to the
first Gospel, had positively prohibited, at one time at least, their
going to the Gentiles, or even to the Samaritans, and if there had been
an order given to preach to all nations it certainly was not accompanied
by any removal of the conditions specified in the Law.(2) It has been
remarked that neither party, in the great discussion in the Church
regarding the terms upon which Gentiles might be admitted to the
privileges of Christianity, ever appealed in support of their views
to specific instructions of Jesus on the subject.(3) The reason is
intelligible enough. The Petrine party, supported as they were by the
whole weight of the Law and of Holy Scripture, as well as by the example
and tacit approval of the Master, could not have felt even that degree
of doubt which precedes an appeal to authority.
2 Dr. Lightfoot says: "The Master himself had left no
express instructions. He had charged them, it is true, to
preach the Gospel to all nations, but how this injunction
was to be carried out, by what changes a national Church
must expand into an universal Church, they had not been
told. He had indeed asserted the sovereignty of the spirit
over the letter; he had enunciated the great principle--as
wide in its application as the law itself--that' man was not
made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man.' He had
pointed to the fulfilment of the law in the Gospel. So fer
he had discredited the law, but he had not deposed it or
abolished it. It was left to the Apostles themselves under
the guidance of the Spirit, moulded by circumstances and
moulding them in turn, to work out the great change." St.
Paul's Ep. to Gal. 286.
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The party of Paul, on the other hand, had nothing in their favour
to which a specific appeal could have been made; but in his constant
protest that he had not received his doctrine from man, but had been
taught it by direct revelation, the Apostle of the Gentiles, who was
the first to proclaim a substantial difference between Christianity and
Judaism,(1) in reality endeavoured to set aside the authority of the
Judaistic party by an appeal from the earthly to the spiritualized
Messiah. Even after the visit of Paul to Jerusalem about the year 50,
the elder Apostles still retained the views which we have shown to have
been inevitable under the circumstances, and, as we learn from Paul
himself, they still continued mere "Apostles of the Circumcision,"
limiting their mission to the Jews.(2)
The Apostles and the primitive Christians, therefore, after the death of
their Master, whom they believed to be the Messiah of the Jews, having
received his last instructions, and formed their final impressions
of his views, remained Jews, believing in the continued obligation to
observe the Law and, consequently, holding the initiatory rite essential
to participation in the privileges of the Covenant. They held this not
only as Jews believing in the Divine origin of the Old Testament and of
the Law, but as Christians confirmed by the example and the teaching of
their Christ, whose very coming was a substantial ratification of the
ancient faith of Israel. In this position they stood when the
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Gospel, without their intervention, and mainly by the exertions of the
Apostle Paul, began to spread amongst the Gentiles, and the terms of
their admission came into question. It is impossible to deny that the
total removal of conditions, advocated by the Apostle Paul with all the
vehemence and warmth of his energetic character, and involving nothing
short of the abrogation of the Law and surrender of all the privileges
of Israel, must have been shocking not only to the prejudices but also
to the deepest religious convictions of men who, although Christians,
had not ceased to be Jews, and, unlike the Apostle of the Gentiles,
had been directly and daily in contact with Jesus, without having been
taught such revolutionary principles. From this point we have to proceed
with our examination of the account in the Acts of the relation of the
elder Apostles to Paul, and the solution of the difficult problem before
them.