Paul, thus obeying the command given by Jesus in his first charge to
the original twelve, went on under the guidance of his Beroean brethren,
according to his own request, by sea, to Athens, where he parted from
them, giving them charge to tell Silas and Timothy to come on after
him, as soon as their commission in Macedonia would allow. He then
went about Athens, occupying the interval while he waited for them,
in observations upon that most glorious of all earthly seats of art
and taste. As he wandered on, an unheeded stranger, among the still
splendid and beautiful, though then half-decaying works, which the
combined devotion, pride and patriotism of the ancient Athenians
had raised to their gods, their country, and its heroes,――in the
beautifully picturesque yet simple expression of the apostolic
historian, “Paul saw the city wholly given to idolatry.” How many
splendid associations does it call up before the mental eye of the
classical scholar who reads it? As the apostle wandered along among
these thousand works of art, still so hallowed in the fond regard
of the scholar, the antiquarian, the man of taste, the poet, and the
patriot, his spirit was moved within him, when he every where saw how
the whole city was given to idolatry. Not a spot but had its altar;
every grove was consecrated to its peculiar nymphs, its Dryads and
its Fauns; every stream and fountain had the votive marble for its
own bright Naiad;――along the plain rose the splendid colonnades of the
yet mighty temples of Jupiter, and all the Olympian gods; and above
all, on the high Acropolis, the noble PARTHENON rose over the glorious
city, proclaiming to the eye of the distant traveler, the honors of
the virgin goddess of wisdom, of taste and philosophic virtue, whose
name crowned the city, of which she, was throughout all the reign of
Polytheism, the guardian deity.
These splendid but mournful testimonies of the misplaced energies of
that inborn spirit of devotion, which, all over the world in all times,
moves the heart of man to the worship of that Eternal power of whose
existence he is ever conscious, touched the spirit of Paul with other
emotions than those of delight and admiration. The eye of the citizen
of classical and splendid Tarsus, was not indeed blind to the beauties
of these works of art, whose fame was spread throughout the civilized
world, and with whose historic and poetic glories his eye and ear
had long been made familiar; but over them all was cast a moral and
spiritual gloom which darkened all these high and rich remembrances,
otherwise so bright. Under the impulse of such feelings, he immediately
sought occasion to make an attack on this dominant spirit of idolatry.
He accordingly, in his usual theater of exertion,――the Jewish
synagogue,――freely made known the new revelation of the truth in Jesus,
both to the Jews, and to those Gentiles who reverenced the God of
Israel, and listened to religious instruction in the Jewish house of
worship. With such effect did he proclaim the truth, and with such
fervid, striking oratory, that the Athenians, always admirers and
cultivators of eloquence, soon had their attention very generally drawn
to the foreign teacher, who was publishing these very extraordinary
doctrines, in a style of eloquence so peculiar and irregular. The
consequence was, that his audiences were soon extended beyond the
regular attendants on the Jewish synagogue worship, and many of the
philosophic sages of the Athenian schools sat listening to the apostle
of Jesus. They soon undertook to encounter him in argument; and Paul
now resorting to that most classic ground, the Athenian forum, or
_Agora_, was not slow to meet them. On the spot where Socrates once
led the minds of his admiring hearers to the noble conceptions of moral
truth, Paul now stood uttering to unaccustomed ears, the far more noble
conceptions of a divine truth, that as far outwent the moral philosophy
of “Athena’s wisest son,” as did the life, and death, and triumphs of
the crucified Son of Man, the course and fate of the hemlock-drinker.
Greatly surprised were his philosophical hearers, at these very
remarkable doctrines, before unheard of in Greece, and various were
the opinions and comments of the puzzled sages. Some of those of
the Epicurean and Stoic schools, more particularly, had their pride
and scorn quite moved at the seeming presumption of this fluent
speaker, who without diffidence or doubt uttered his strange doctrines,
though characterized by a style full of irregularities, and a dialect
remarkably distinguished by barbarous provincialisms, and scornfully
asked, “What does this rattling fellow mean?” Others, observing that
he claimed such divine honors for Jesus, the founder of his faith,
remarked, that “he seemed to be a preacher of foreign deities.” At last,
determined to have their difficulties resolved by the very highest
authority, they took him before the very ancient and venerable court
of the Areopagus, which was the supreme council in all matters that
concerned religion. Here they invited him to make a full communication
of the distinctive articles of his new faith, because they felt
an honest desire to have the particulars of a subject never before
introduced to their notice; and a vast concourse stood by to hear that
grand object of life to the news-hunting Athenians,――“A NEW THING.”
“With regard to the application of _babbler_, Eustathius
gives two senses of the word σπερμολόγος. 1. The Attics called
those σπερμολόγοι who conversed in the market, and places of
merchandise. (In Odys. B. ad finem.) And Paul was disputing with
those he met in the market-place. 2. It is used of those who,
from some false opinions, boasted unreasonably of their learning.
(Idem.) Œcumenius says, a little bird that gathered up the seeds
scattered in the market-place, was called σπερμολόγος; in this
etymology, Suidas, Phavorinus, the scholiast upon Aristophanes
de Avibus, p. 569, and almost all grammarians agree. (Cave’s
Lives of the Apostles.) (Whitby’s Annotations.)
“18. σπερμολόγος. This word is properly used of those little
insignificant birds which support a precarious existence
by picking up seeds scattered by the sower, or left above
ground after the soil has been harrowed. See Maximus of Tyre,
Dissertations, 13, p. 133., Harpocrates, Aristophanes Av. 232.,
and the Scholiast, and Plutarch, T. 5, 50, edited by _Reiske_.
It was metaphorically applied also to paupers who prowled about
the market place, and lived by picking up any thing which might
be dropped by buyers and sellers; and likewise to persons who
gleaned in the corn fields. See Eustathius on Homer’s Odyssey
ε 241. Hence it was at length applied to all persons of mean
condition, who, as we say, “live on their wits.” Thus it is
explained by Harpocrates εὐτελὴς, _mean_ and _contemptible_.
And so Philo 1021 c. χρησάμενος――δούλῳ σπερμολόγῳ περιτρίμματι.”
(Bloomfield’s Annotations, Acts xvii. 18.)
“The _Areopagus_ was a place in Athens, where the senate usually
assembled and took its name (as some think) from Ἄρης which is
the same as Mars, the god of war, who was the first person tried
here, for having killed Apollo’s son. Others think that, because
ἄρης sometimes signifies _fighting_, murder, or violence of any
kind, and that παγὸς is properly a _rock_, or rising hill, it
therefore seems to denote a court situated upon an eminence,
(as the Areopagus was,) where causes of murder, &c. were tried.
This court at present is out of the city, but in former times
it stood almost in the middle of it. Its foundations, which are
still standing, are built with square stones of prodigious size,
in the form of a semi-circle, and support a terrace or platform,
of about a hundred and forty paces, which was the court where
this senate was held. In the midst of it, there was a tribunal
cut in a rock, and all about were seats also of stone, where the
senate heard causes in the open air, without any covering, and
(as some say) in the night time, that they might not be moved to
compassion at the sight of any criminal that was brought before
them. This judicature was held in such high esteem for its
uprightness, that when the Roman proconsuls ruled there, it was
a very common thing for them to refer difficult causes to the
judgment of the Areopagites. After the loss of their liberty,
however, the authority of the senate declined, so that in
the apostles’ times, the Areopagus was not so much a court
of judicature as a common rendezvous, where all curious and
inquisitive persons, who spent their time in nothing else, but
either in hearing or telling some new thing, were accustomed
to meet, Acts xvii. 21. Notwithstanding, they appeared still
to have retained the privilege of canonizing all gods that
were allowed public worship; and therefore St. Paul was brought
before them as an assertor and preacher of a Deity, whom they
had not yet admitted among them. It does not appear that he was
brought before them as a criminal, but merely as a man who had
a new worship to propose to a people religious above all others,
but who took care that no strange worship should be received on
a footing of a _tolerated religion_, till it had the approbation
of a court appointed to judge such matters. The address of the
court to St. Paul, ‘May we know what this doctrine is whereof
thou speakest?’ implies rather a request to a teacher, than an
interrogatory to a criminal; and accordingly his reply has not
the least air of _an apology_, suiting a person accused, but is
one continued information of important truths, such as it became
a teacher or benefactor, rather than a person arraigned for
crime, to give. He was therefore neither acquitted nor condemned,
and dismissed as a man _coram non judice_. We are indeed told,
that when they heard of ‘the resurrection of the dead,’ some
mocked, and others said, ‘We will hear thee again of this
matter,’ putting off the audience to an indefinite time; so
that nothing was left him but to depart.” (Calmet’s Commentary.
Beausobre’s and Hammond’s Annotations, and Warburton’s Divine
Legation.)
Illustration: THE AREOPAGUS, OR MARS HILL;
WITH THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS, ATHENS.
Acts xvii. 22.
“That Athens _was_ wholly enslaved to idolatry, has been
abundantly proved by our philological illustrators, especially
the indefatigable Wetstein, from Pausanias Attic. 1, 24: Strabo
10. p. 472, c: Lucian, t. 1. Prometheus p. 180: Livy 45, 27.
So also Pausanias in Attic. c. 18, 24. (cited by Pearce and
Doddridge,) who tells us, that Athens had more images than
all the rest of Greece; and Petronius Satyricon c. 17, who
humorously says, ‘It was easier to find a god than a man
there.’” (Bloomfield Annotations.)
“καὶ ἐν τῆ ἀγορᾶ. Of the _market-places_ at Athens, of which
there were many, the most celebrated were the Old and the New
Forum. The former was in the Ceramicus, a very ample space, part
within, and part without the city. See Meursius, dissertatione
de Ceramico Gemino, § 46. and Potter’s Archaeology 1, 8. p. 30.
The latter was outside of the Ceramicus, in a place called
Eretria. See Meursius, Ath. Attic. l. 1. c. 6. And this seems
to be the one here meant. For no forum, except the Ceramicus and
the Eretriacum, was called, absolutely, ἄγορα, but had a name
to denote _which_ was meant, as Areopagiticum, Hippodamium,
Piraeum, &c. In process of time, and at the period when Paul
was at Athens, the forum was transferred from the Ceramicus into
the Eretria; a change which, indeed, had been introduced in the
time of Augustus; and that this was the most frequented part of
the city, we learn from Strabo 10. p. 447. Besides, the Eretriac
forum was situated before the στοὰ, or portico, in which the
Stoics, of whom mention is just after made, used to hold their
public discourses. It was moreover called κύκλος, from its round
form.”
“Ἄρειον πάγον, _Mars’ Hill_. Πάγος signifies properly a _high
situation_. _This_ was a hill opposite to that of the citadel
on the west; as we learn from Herodias 8, 52. [See the passages
produced supra, to which I add Livy 26, 44. Tumulum quem
Mercurii vocant. Editor.] It was so called, either because it
had been consecrated to Mars (as the Campus Martius at Rome,)
or because (as ♦Pausanias relates, Att. C. 28,) Mars, when he
had slain Halyrrothius, son of Neptune, was the first who there
pleaded a capital cause, which took place before the twelve gods.
The judges used to sit by night, and _sub dio_; and whatever
was done was kept _very secret_. [whence the proverb Ἀρεοπαγίτου
σιωπηλότερος, to which may be compared ours, ‘_as grave as a
Judge_.’ Editor.] They gave their judgment, not _viva voce_, but
in writing. Nor were any admitted into the number of Areopagists
but persons of noble birth, of unspotted morality, and eminent
for justice and equity. See more in Meursius de Areopago.”
(Kuinoel.) (Bloomfield Annotations.)
♦ “Pausanius” replaced with “Pausanias”
Paul taking his stand there, in that splendid scene, uttered in a bold
tone and in his noblest style, the great truths which he was divinely
consecrated to reveal. Never yet had Athens, in her most glorious state,
heard a discourse which, for solemn beauty and lofty eloquence, could
equal this brief declaration of the providence of God in the religion
of his creatures. Never did the world see an orator in a sublimer scene,
or in one that could awaken higher emotions in those who heard, or him
who spoke. He stood on the hill of Mars, with Athens beneath and around
him, and the mighty Acropolis rising with its “tiara of proud towers,”
walls and temples, on the west,――bounding and crowning the view in
that direction;――to the north-east lay the forum, the late scene
of his discussions, and beyond lay the philosophic Academia, around
and through which rolled the flowery Cephisus. Before him sat the
most august and ancient court in the Grecian world, waiting for
the revelation of his solemn commission respecting the new deities
which he was expected to propose as an addition to their polytheistic
list;――around him were the sages of the Athenian schools, listening
in grave but curious attention, for the new things which the eastern
stranger had brought to their ears. The apostle raised his eyes to all
the monuments of Athenian devotion which met the view on every side.
Before him on the high Acropolis was the mighty temple of the Athenian
Minerva; on the plain beyond was the splendid shrine of the Olympian
Jove; on his right was the temple of Theseus, the deified ancient king
of Attica, who laid the first foundation of her glories; and near were
the new piles which the later Grecian adulation had consecrated to the
worship of her foreign conquerors――to the deified Caesars. Beginning
in that tone of dignified politeness, which always characterized his
address towards the great ones of earth, he won their hearts and their
attention by a courteously complimentary allusion to the devout though
misguided zeal, whose solid tokens everywhere surrounded him. “Ye men
of Athens! I see in all places that you are VERY RELIGIOUS. For passing
along and gazing at the shrines of your devotion, I found an altar on
which was written,――‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD;’――Him therefore, whom, not
knowing, you worship, I preach to you.” The rest of this splendid,
though brief discourse, need not be repeated, because it is given with
tolerable fidelity in the common English translation; but it deserves
notice how readily and completely, on all occasions, Paul accommodated
himself to the circumstances of his hearers. His style on this occasion
is remarkably protracted and rounded in its periods, highly cumulative
in structure, and harmonious in its almost rhythmical flow;――the whole
bearing the character which was best suited to the fancy and fashion of
the Athenians,――though still very decidedly marked by the peculiarities
of his eastern origin. Here too, he gave them a favorable impression of
his knowledge of the Grecian classics, by his apt and happy quotation
from Aratus, the philosophical poet of his native province, Cilicia.
“For we also are his offspring.”
_Very religious._――This is unquestionably the just meaning of
xvii. 22. See Bloomfield and all the standard commentators. “Too
superstitions” is insulting.
“‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.’ (xvii. 23.)――It is very evident from the
testimony of Laertius, that the Athenians had altars in their
public places, inscribed to unknown gods or demons. He informs
us, that when Athens was visited with a great plague, the
inhabitants invited Epimenides the philosopher, to lustrate
their city. The method adopted by him was to carry several
sheep to the Areopagus; whence they were left to wander as
they pleased, under the observation of persons sent to attend
them. As each sheep lay down, it was sacrificed on the spot to
the _propitious god_; (In vita Epimenides lib. xi.) and as the
Athenians were ignorant of what god was propitious, they erected
an altar with this inscription, ♦ΘΕΟΙΣ ΑΣΙΑΣ, ΚΑΙ ΕΥΡΩΠΗΣ, ΚΑΙ
ΛΙΒΗΥΣ, ΘΕΩ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΩ ΚΑΙ ΞΕΝΩ:――_To the gods of Asia, Europe, and
Africa, to the strange and unknown god_.
♦ “AΙΒΗΥΣ” replaced with “ΛΙΒΗΥΣ” and
“KΛI” replaced with “ΚΑΙ”
“On the architrave of a Doric portico at Athens, which was
standing when that city was visited about sixty years since,
by Dr. Chandler and Mr. Stuart, is a Greek inscription to the
following purport:――‘The people’ [of Athens have erected this
fabric] ‘with the donations to Minerva Archegetia,’ [or the
conductress,] ‘by the god Caius Julius Caesar and his son the
god Augustus, when Nicias was Archon.’ Over the middle of the
pediment was a statue of Lucius Caesar, with this inscription:
――‘The people’ [honor] ‘Lucius Caesar, the son of the Emperor
Augustus Caesar, the son of the god.’ There was also a statue
to Julia, the daughter to Augustus, and the mother of Lucius,
thus inscribed:――‘The Senate of the Areopagus, and the Senate of
the Six Hundred’ [dedicate this statue to] ‘the goddess Julia,
Augusta, Provident.’ These public memorials supply an additional
proof of the correctness of Paul’s observations on the Athenians,
that they were too much addicted to the adoption of objects for
worship and devotion.” (Hammond’s Annotations of Cave’s Lives of
the Apostles, Horne’s Introduction.)
As he concluded however, with the solemn declaration of the great
foundation-truth of Christianity,――that God had raised Jesus from
the dead,――there was a very general burst of contempt from the more
scornful portion of his audience, at the idea of anything so utterly
against all human probability. Of the immortality of the soul, the
divinest of their own philosophers had reasoned,――and it was by most of
the Athenian sects, considered on the whole, tolerably well established;
but the notion of the actual revivification of the perished body,――the
recall of the scattered dust and ashes, to the same breathing, moving,
acting, thinking form, which for ages had ceased to be,――all amounted
to a degree of improbable absurdity,――that not the wildest Grecian
speculator had ever dreamed of. So the proud Epicureans and Stoics
turned sneeringly away from the barbarian stranger who had come so far
to try their credulity with such a tale; and thus they for ever lost
the opportunity to learn from this new-opened fountain of truth, a
wisdom that the long researches of all the Athenian schools had never
reached and could never reach, without the light of this truly divine
eastern source, which they now so thoughtlessly scorned. But there
were some, more considerate, among the hearers of the apostle, who
had learned that it is the most decided characteristic of a true
philosopher, to reject nothing at first sight or hearing, though it
may happen to be contrary to his own personal experience and learning;
and these, weighing the matter with respectful doubt, told Paul――“We
will hear thee again about this.” Without any further attempt to unfold
the truth at that time, Paul departed from the Areopagus, and no more
uplifted his voice on the high places of Athens, in testimony of that
solemn revelation of the Son of Man from the dead,――the conviction
of whose truth, in spite of all philosophic sneers, was destined
to oversweep the whole of that world which they knew, and a new one
beyond it, and to exalt the name of that despised wanderer to a fame
compared with which that of Socrates should be small. Paul was however
afterwards visited by several of those who heard him before the
Areopagus; and after a free, conversational discussion of the whole
subject, and a more familiar exhibition of the evidences of his
remarkable assertions, professed their satisfaction with the arguments,
and believed. Among these, even one of the judges of the august
Areopagus owned himself a disciple of Jesus. Besides him is mentioned
a woman named Damaris; and others not specified, are said to have
believed.
“‘_Dionysius the Areopagite._’ Acts xvii. 34.――Dionysius is
said to have been bred at Athens in all the arts and sciences:
at the age of twenty-five he went into Egypt to learn astronomy.
At the time of our Savior’s death he was at Heliopolis, where,
observing the darkness that attended the passion, he cried
out thus:――‘That certainly, at that time, either God himself
suffered, or was much concerned for somebody that did.’
Returning to Athens he became one of the senators of the
Areopagus; he was converted by St. Paul, and by him appointed
bishop of Athens. Having labored and suffered much for the holy
cause, he became a martyr to the faith, being burnt to death
at Athens, in the 93d year of Christ.” (Cave’s Lives of the
Apostles. Stanhope on Epistles and Gospels. Calmet’s Dictionary.)
From the grave manner in which this story is told, the reader
would naturally suppose that these great writers had some
authority for these incidents; but in reality, everything that
concerns Dionysius the Areopagite, is utterly unknown; and not
one of these impudent inventions can be traced back further than
the sixth century.
After this tolerably hopeful beginning of the gospel in Athens, Paul
left that city, and went southwestward to Corinth, then the most
splendid and flourishing city of all Greece, and the capital of the
Roman province of Achaia. It was famous, beyond all the cities of the
world, for its luxury and refinement,――and the name of “Corinthian” had,
long before the time of Paul, gone forth as a proverbial expression for
what was splendid in art, brilliant in invention, and elegant in vice.
Here first arose that sumptuous order of architecture that still
perpetuates the proverbial elegance of the splendid city of its birth,
and the gorgeously beautiful style of the rich Corinthian column,
“waving its wanton wreath,”――may be taken as an aptly expressive emblem
of the general moral and internal, as well as external characteristics
of this last home of true Grecian art. Here longest tarried the taste,
art and refinement, which so eminently marked the first glories of
Greece, and when the triumphs of that ancient excellence were beginning
to grow dim in its brighter early seats in Attica and in Ionian Asia,
they flashed out with a most dazzling beauty in the splendid city of
the Isthmus,――but alas!――in a splendor that was indeed only a passing
flash,――a last brilliant gleam from this glorious spot, before the lamp
of Hellenic glory in art, went out forever. In the day of the apostle’s
visit however, it was in its most “high and palmy state,”――the queen of
the Grecian world. It was glorious too, in the dearest recollections of
the patriotic history of Greece; for here was the center of that last
brilliant Achaian confederacy, which was cherished by the noble spirits
of Aratus and Philopoemen; and here too was made the last stand against
the all-crushing advance of the legions of Rome: and when it fell at
last before that resistless conquering movement,――“great was the fall
of it.” The burning of Corinth by Mummius, (B. C. 144, the year of the
fall of Carthage,) is infamous above all the most barbarous acts of
Roman conquest, for its melancholy destruction of the works of ancient
art, with which it then abounded. But from the ashes of this mournful
ruin, it rose soon after, under the splendid patronage of Roman
dominion, to a new splendor, that equalled, or perhaps outwent the
glories of its former perfection, which had been ripening from the day
when, as recorded by old Homer, in the freshness of its early power, it
sent forth its noble armaments to the siege of Troy, or set afloat the
earliest warlike navy in the world, or was made, through a long course
of centuries, the center of the most brilliant of Grecian festivals,
in the celebration of the Isthmian games before its walls. The Roman
conquerors, as if anxious to make to this ancient seat of Grecian
splendor, a full atonement for the barbarous ruin with which they had
overwhelmed it, now showered on it all the honors and favors in their
power. It was rebuilt as a Roman colony,――endowed by the munificence
of senates, consuls, and emperors, and made the capital of the Roman
province of Achaia, until the dismemberment of the empire. Shining in
its gaudy fetters, it became what it has been described to be in the
apostolic age, and was then beyond all doubt the greatest Grecian city
in Europe, if not in the world. Athens was then mouldering in more than
incipient decay――“the ghost of its former self;” for even Cicero, long
before this, describes it as presenting everywhere spectacles of the
most lamentable ruin and decline; but Corinth was in the highth of
its glory,――its luxury,――its vice,――its heathen wickedness,――and may
therefore be justly esteemed the most important scene of labor into
which apostolic enterprise had ever yet made its way, and to have been
well worthy of the attention which it ever after received from him,
to the very last of his life, being made the occasion and object of a
larger and a more splendid portion of his epistolary labors, than all
with which he ever favored any other place in the world; nor can this
protracted notice of its condition and character be justly blamed for
its intrusion on this hurried narrative.
“_Corinth._――There is scarcely any one of the seats of ancient
magnificence and luxury, that calls up more vivid and powerful
associations, than are awakened by the name of this once opulent
and powerful city. Corinth, ‘the prow and stern of Greece,’
the emporium of its commerce, the key and bulwark of the
Peloponnesus, was proverbial for its wealth as early as the
time of Homer. Its situation was so advantageous for the
inexperienced navigation of early times, that it became of
necessity the center of trade. The first naval battle on record
was fought between Corinth and its colony Corcyra, about 657
B. C. ‘Syracuse, the ornament of Sicily, Corcyra, some time
sovran of the seas, Ambracia in Epirus, and several other cities
more or less flourishing, owe their origin to Corinth.’ (Travels
of ♦Anacharsis, vol. III. c. 37.) Thucydides states, that the
Corinthian ship-builders first produced galleys with three
benches of oars. The circumnavigation of the peninsula was
tedious and uncertain to a proverb; while at the Isthmus, not
only their cargoes, but, if requisite, the smaller vessels might
be transported from sea to sea. By its port of Cenchreae, it
received the rich merchandise of Asia, and by that of Lechaeum,
it maintained intercourse with Italy and Sicily. The Isthmian
Games, by the concourse of people which they attracted at their
celebration, contributed not a little to its immense opulence;
and the prodigality of its merchants rendered the place so
expensive, that it became a saying, ‘It is not for every one
to go to Corinth.’ Even after its barbarous destruction by
the Romans, it must have been an extremely magnificent city.
Pausanias mentions in and near the city, a theater, an odeum,
a stadium, and sixteen temples. That of Venus possessed above a
thousand female slaves. ‘The women of Corinth are distinguished
by their beauty; the men by their love of gain and pleasure.
They ruin their health by convivial debauches, and love with
them is only licentious passion. Venus is their principal
deity.... The Corinthians, who performed such illustrious acts
of valor in the Persian war, becoming enervated by pleasure,
sunk under the yoke of the Argives; were obliged alternately
to solicit the protection of the Lacedaemonians, the Athenians,
and the Thebans; and are at length reduced to be only the
wealthiest, the most effeminate, and the weakest state in
Greece.’” (Anacharsis.) (Modern Traveler, pp. 160, 161.)
♦ “Anarchasis” replaced with “Anacharsis”
The Hebrew stranger, entering without despondency, this new scene of
labor, passed on unnoticed, and looking about for those with whom he
might be bold to communicate, on the score of national and religious
sympathies, he found among those who like himself were strangers, a
Jew, by name Aquilas, who with his wife Priscilla had lately arrived
from Italy, whence they had just been driven by a vexatious decree of
Claudius Caesar, which, on some groundless accusation, ordered all the
Jews to depart from Rome. Aquilas, though lately a resident in Italy,
was originally from Pontus in the northern part of Asia Minor, not very
far from Paul’s native province; and this proximity of origin joined
to another circumstance arising out of it, drew the strangers together,
in this foreign city. In Pontus even at this day is carried on that
same famous manufacture of camlet articles for which Cilicia was also
distinguished and proverbial, and it is therefore perfectly reasonable
to suppose that in that age also, this business was common in the same
region, because the variety of goat which produces the material, has
always been confined within those limits. Being of the same trade, then,
and both of them friendless strangers, seeking employment and support,
Paul and Aquilas fell into one another’s company and acquaintance,
and getting work at the same time, they seem to have set up a kind of
partnership in their trade, living together, and working in the same
way, from day to day. This, of course, gave constant opportunity for
the freest communication on all subjects of conversation; and Aquila
would not be long in finding out the great object, which had led Paul
away from his country and friends, to a place where his necessities
drove him to the laborious exercise of an occupation, which a person
of his rank and character could not originally have acquired with
any intention of gaining his livelihood thereby. That this was the
sole motive of his present application to his tedious business, is
abundantly testified in the epistles, which he afterwards wrote to this
same place; for he expressly says, that he “was chargeable to no man,”
but “labored with his own hands.” Yet the diligent pursuit of this
laborious avocation, did not prevent him from appearing on the sabbath,
in the synagogue, as a teacher of divine things; nor would the noble
principles of Jewish education permit any man to despise the stranger
on account of his necessitous and apparently humble circumstances.
His weekly ministry was therefore pursued without hindrance, and with
success; for “he persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” Among those who
received the most eminent advantage from his apostolic labors, was his
fellow-workman Aquilas, who with his wife Priscilla, here imbibed such
a portion of Christian knowledge, as ever after made both him and her,
highly useful as teachers of the new faith, to which they were at this
time converted. It would seem, however, that Paul did not, during the
first part of his ministrations, very openly and energetically proclaim
the grand doctrine of the faith; for it was not till after the arrival
of Silas and Timothy from Macedonia, that he “pressed on in the word,
and testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.” As had usually
been the case, whenever he had proclaimed this solemn truth to his own
countrymen, he was met by the Corinthian Jews, for the most part, with
a most determined and scornful opposition; so that renouncing their
fellowship in the expressive gesture of an Oriental,――shaking his
raiment,――he declared――“Your blood be on your own heads:――I am clean.
Henceforth, I will go to the Gentiles.” Leaving their company, he then
went into the house of a religious friend, close to the synagogue,
and there took up his abode. But not all the Jews were involved in
the condemnation of this rejection. On the contrary, one of the most
eminent men among them, Crispus, either then or formerly the ruling
elder of the synagogue, professed the faith of Jesus, notwithstanding
its unpopularity. Along with him his whole family were baptized,
and many other Corinthians received the word in the same manner. In
addition to these nobly encouraging results of his devoted labors, his
ardor in the cause of Jesus received a new impulse from a remarkable
dream, in which the Lord appeared to him, uttering these words of
high consolation,――“Fear not, but speak, and hold not thy peace; for
I am with thee, and no one shall hurt thee. I have many people in this
city.” Under the combined influence of both natural and supernatural
encouragements, he therefore remained zealously laboring in Corinth,
and made that city his residence, as Luke very particularly records,
for a year and six months.
“xviii. 5. συνείχετο τῳ λόγω, &c. The common reading is πνεύματι.
Now since συννέχεσθαι, among other significations, denotes
_angi_, _maerore corripi_, (see Luke ♦xii. 50, and the note on
Matthew ♦iv. 24,) many Commentators, as Hammond, Mill, and Wolf,
explain, “angebatur Paulus animo, dum docebat Judaeos, Jesum
esse Messiam;” viz. “since he could produce no effect among
them.” And they compare verse 6. But this interpretation is at
variance with the context.
♦ “12” replaced with “xii” and
“4” replaced with “iv” for consistency
“Now this verb also signifies to _incite_, _urge_; as in
2 Corinthians v. 14. Hence Beza, Pricaeus, and others,
explain: ‘intus et apud se aestuebat prae zeli ardore;’ which
interpretation I should admit, if there were not reason to
suppose, from the authority of MSS. and Versions, that the true
reading, (though the more difficult one,) is λύγῳ, of which the
best interpretation, and that most suitable to the context, is
the one found in the Vulgate ‘instabat verbo.’ For συνέχεσθαι
denotes also to be _held, occupied by_ anything; as in Sappho 17,
20. Herodotus 1, 17, 22. Aelian, Varia Historia, 14, 22. This
♦signification of the word being admitted, the sense will be:
‘When they had approached whom Paul (who knew that _combined_
strength is most efficacious) had expected as his assistants in
promulgating the Christian doctrine, and of whom, in so large
and populous a city there was need, _then_ he _applied himself
closely_ to the work of teaching.’ Kuinoel. (Bloomfield’s
Annotations, p. 593.)
♦ “significaiion” replaced with “signification”