The most proper person for this responsible charge, was the great
leader of the apostolic band; and Peter, therefore, taking the task
readily upon himself, went through all the churches, to give them
the advantages of the minute personal ministry of a chief apostle,
who might organize them, and instruct the disciples in their peculiar
duties as members of a new religious community. On this tour of duty,
passing down from the interior towards the sea-coast, he came to Lydda,
about forty or fifty miles from Jerusalem, and about twelve from the
sea. Here there was a company of the faithful, whom he visited, to
instruct them anew, and to enlarge their numbers, by his preaching and
miracles. A particular case is recorded as having occurred here, which
displayed both the compassion of Peter and his divine power to heal and
strengthen. Among the friends of Christ whom he visited here, was an
invalid, whose name, Aeneas, shows him to have been a Hellenist. This
man had for the long period of eight years been deprived of the use of
his limbs, by a palsy, which, during that tedious interval, confined
him to his bed. Peter, on seeing him, said, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals
thee. Arise, and make thy bed for thyself.” The command to spread and
smooth the couch, which he now quitted in health, was given, that he
might show and feel, at once, how fully strength was restored to his
hands as well as his feet. This miracle soon became known, not only to
the citizens of Lydda, but also to the people inhabiting the extensive
and fertile plain of Sharon, which stretched to the northward of
Lydda, along the coast, from Joppa to Caesarea, bounded on the west
by the highlands of Samaria. The effect of this display of power and
benevolence, was such, on their minds, that, without exception, they
professed their faith in Christ.
_Lydda._――This was a place of far more importance and fame,
than would be supposed from the brief mention of its name in the
apostolic narrative. It is often mentioned in the writings of
the Rabbins, under the name of לוד (_Ludh_,) its original Hebrew
name, and was long the seat of a great college of Jewish law
and theology, which at this very period of Peter’s visit was
in its most flourishing state. This appears from the fact that
Rabbi Akiba, who raised the school to its greatest eminence,
was contemporary with the great Rabban Gamaliel, who bears an
important part in the events of the apostolic history. (The
data of this chronological inference I find in Lightfoot.) It
is easy to see, then, why so important a seat of Jewish theology
should have been thought deserving of the particular notice
and protracted stay of Peter, who labored with remarkable
earnestness and effect here, inspired by the consciousness
of the lasting and extensive good, that would result from an
impression made on this fountain of religious knowledge. The
members of the college, however, did not all, probably, profess
themselves followers of Christ.
It is also described as possessing some importance in addition
to its literary privileges. Josephus (Antiquities XX. vi. 3.)
mentions “Lydda” as “a village not inferior to a city in
greatness.” Its importance was, no doubt, in a great measure
derived from the remarkably rich agricultural district which
surrounded it. This was the plain of Sharon, so celebrated in
the Hebrew scriptures for its fruitful fields and rich pastures,
――its roses and its flocks. (Solomon’s Song ii. 1: Isaiah xxxiii.
9: xxxv. 2: lxv. 10: 1 Chronicles xxvii. 29.) “All this country
is described by Pococke as very rich soil, throwing up a great
quantity of herbage; among which he specifies chardons, rue,
fennel, and the striped thistle, ‘probably on this account
called the holy thistle.’ A great variety of anemonies, he
was told, grow in the neighborhood. ‘I saw likewise,’ he adds,
‘many tulips growing wild in the fields (in March;) and any
one who considers how beautiful those flowers are to the eye,
would be apt to conjecture that these are the lilies to which
Solomon, in all his glory, was not to be compared.’”――[Modern
Traveler, p. 57.] Its distance from Jerusalem is ascertained,
by Lightfoot, to be one day’s journey, as it is stated with
some circumlocution in the Mishna. It was destroyed, as Josephus
relates, by Cestius Gallus, the Roman general, who marched his
army through that region, in the beginning of the war, which
ended in the destruction of Jerusalem. Under the peaceful times
of the later Roman sway in Palestine, it was rebuilt, and called
Diospolis. But like many other such instances, it has lost its
temporary heathen name, and is now called by its old scripture
appellation, _Ludd_. Travelers describe it as now a poor village,
though the stones to be seen in the modern buildings show that
it has been a place of great consequence.
The New Testament name _Lydda_, (Λυδδα,) by which Josephus also
mentions it, is only so much changed from the Hebrew _Ludh_,
as was necessary to accommodate it to the regular forms and
inflexions of the Greek language. Lightfoot well refutes the
blunder of many modern geographers who make the two names refer
to different places. This learned author is remarkably full in
the description of this place, and is very rich in references
to the numerous allusions which are made to it in the Talmudic
writings. See his _Centuria Chorographica_, (Chapter 16,)
prefixed to Horae Hebraica et Talmudicae in Matthew.
_Aeneas._――This name is unquestionably Greek, which seems to
show the man to have been a Hellenist; and that he was already
a believer in Christ, would appear from the fact of Peter’s
finding him among the brethren there.