ἀγνοούμενος τῷ προσώπῳ ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τῆς Ἰουδαίας ταῖς ἐν Χριστῷ, 3 μόνον δὲ ἀκούοντες ἦσαν ὅτι Ὁ διώκων ‘O ἡμᾶς ποτὲ νῦν εὐαγγελίζεται τὴν πίστιν ἥν ποτε ἐπόρθει, 4 καὶ ἐδόξαζον ἐν ἐμοὶ τὸν Θεόν. ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις κ.τ.λ.] ' unknown to the Churches of Judæa' generally, as distinguished from that of Jerusalem; comp. John iii. 22. To the latter he could not have failed to be known, as might be inferred from the account here, even without the narrative of his energetic preaching in the Acts. From Jerusalem he was hurried off to Cæsarea, and there embarking he left the shores of Palestine. The other churches of Judæa therefore had no opportunity of knowing him. Judæa is here distinguished from Jerusalem, as Italy is frequently distinguished from Rome, e.g. probably Hebr. xiii. 24. The addition ταῖς ἐν Χριστῷ was necessary when speaking of the Christian brotherhoods of Judæa; for the unconverted Jewish communities might still be called 'the Churches of Judæa.' See the note on I Thess. ii. 14, Tŵv EKκλησιῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ τῶν οὐσῶν ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ. 23. or introduces an abrupt change from the oblique to the direct mode of speaking, e.g. Acts xiv. 22, xxiii. 22. So it is used frequently in introducing a quotation, e.g. Gal. iii. 10. O diákov nμâs Tоré] 'Our persecutor of former times'; o diákwv being used as a substantive, i.e. without reference to time, as Matt. xxvii. 40 ὁ καταλύων τὸν ναόν: see Winer, § xlv. 7, p. 444. On the position of TоTé, see the note on ver. 13. τὴν πίστιν] It is a striking proof of the large space occupied by 'faith' in the mind of the infant Church, that it should so soon have passed into a synonym for the Gospel. See Acts vi. 7. Here its meaning seems to hover between the Gospel and the Church. For the various senses of πίστις, see the notes on iii. 23, vi. 10, and the detached note on the term 'faith.' 24. év époí] See the note ver. 16, and comp. Is. xlix. 3 δουλός μου ei σὺ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ἐν σοὶ ἐνδοξασθήσομαι. 'He does not say,' adds Chrysostom, 'they marvelled at me, they praised me, they were struck with admiration of me, but he attributes all to grace. They glorified God, he says, in me.' St Paul's sojourn in Arabia. cident. A veil of thick darkness hangs over St Paul's visit to Arabia. Of Obscurity the scenes among which he moved, of the thoughts and occupations which of the inengaged him while there, of all the circumstances of a crisis which must have shaped the whole tenour of his after life, absolutely nothing is known. 'Immediately,' says St Paul, 'I went away into Arabia.' The historian passes over the incident without a mention. It is a mysterious pause, a moment of suspense in the Apostle's history, a breathless calm which ushers in the tumultuous storm of his active missionary life. Yet it may be useful to review the speculations to which this incident has given rise, even though we cannot hope to arrive at any definite result; for, if such a review bears no other fruit, it will at least bring out more clearly the significance of the incident itself. Of the place of the Apostle's sojourn various opinions have been held. ConjecArabia is a vague term, and affords scope for much conjecture. tures as to the place. I. The Arabic translator1, whose language gives him a fictitious claim (1) El Belto a hearing on such a point, renders the passage 'Immediately I went ka. to El Belka.' In like manner in Gal. iv. 25 he translates, 'This Hagar is Mount Sinai in El Belka, and is contiguous to Jerusalem.' Now the only district, so far as I can discover, which bears or has borne the name of El Belka, is the region lying to the east and north-east of the Dead Sea2. If so, how are we to account for this translation of 'Apaßía by El Belka? That the same rendering of the word in both passages arose from the translator's connecting them together in some way, can scarcely be doubted. Was his starting-point then a misapprehension of the meaning of ovvOTOIXEî in the second passage, which he renders 'is contiguous to3,' and arguing from this, did he suppose that part of Arabia to be meant in both passages, which was nearest to Jerusalem? Or on the other hand, did he start from some tradition of St Paul's preaching in 'El Belka,' and having thus defined from the first passage the meaning of 'Arabia,' did he apply it to the second passage also? But in any case how could he talk of Mount Sinai in 'El Belka'? Was this ignorance of geography? or must we resort to the improbable supposition that some wandering Arab tribe, which gave its name to the country in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea, at one time occupied the region about Sinai? At all events the tradition here preserved about St Paul, if it be a tradition, is of little worth, as the translator seems to have lived at a comparatively late date1. 1 The Arabic version of the Poly. glotts, which was made directly from the Greek. The translator not unfrequently gives geographical comments. See Hug Einleit. § cix, I. p. 431. The other Arabic version, the Erpenian, translated from the Syriac, retains ‘Arabia.' 2 See Burckhardt Trav. in Syria App. ш, Ritter Erdkunde XII. p. 426 sq, Stanley's Sinai and Palestine pp. For this rendering however he Hug 1. c. states that the translator has unexpectedly revealed his country by his rendering of Acts ii. 10, 2. Arabia, in the widest use of the term, might extend to the gates of Damascus, and even include that city itself. 'You cannot any of you deny,' says Justin, arguing against his Jew as to the interpretation of a passage in one of the prophets, 'that Damascus belongs and did belong to Arabia, though now it has been assigned to Syrophoenicia1. Thus no very distant journey would be necessary to reach Arabia. A retirement in the immediate neighbourhood of Damascus would suffice, and such a visit, especially if it were brief, might well be passed over by the historian as a merely temporary interruption of the Apostle's long residence in that city, which was unknown to him, or which knowing, he did not care to record. Into these wild regions then, beyond the sway of Roman dominion, beyond the reach of civilization, far away from all his old haunts and associations, it is thought that the Apostle plunged himself in the first tumult of his newly-acquired experiences2. This explanation however is open to objection. It gives to 'Arabia' an extension, which at all events seems not to have been common, and which even the passage of Justin shows to have required some sort of justification. It separates the Arabia of the first chapter from the Arabia of the fourth. And lastly, it deprives this visit of a significance which, on a more probable hypothesis, it possesses in relation to this crisis of St Paul's life. 3. For if we suppose that the Apostle at this critical moment betook himself to the Sinaitic peninsula, the scene of the giving of the law, then his visit to Arabia becomes full of meaning. He was attracted thither by a spirit akin to that which formerly had driven Elijah to the same region3. Standing on the threshold of the new covenant, he was anxious to look upon the birthplace of the old: that dwelling for a while in seclusion in the presence of 'the mount that burned with fire,' he might ponder over the transient glories of the 'ministration of death,' and apprehend its real purpose in relation to the more glorious covenant which τὰ μέρη τῆς Λιβύης τῆς κατὰ Κυρήνην, 'Cyrene,' the change involving only a 1 Dial. c. Tryph. p. 305 A. See also μηται τῇ Συροφοινίκῃ λεγομένῃ seem to refer to the arrangement of these provinces by Hadrian. See Becker and Marquardt Röm. Alterth. III. 1, p. 195 sqq and comp. [Bardesanes] de Fato, in Cureton's Spicil. Syr. p. 30. On the limits of Arabia see also Ephr. Syr. Op. Syr. I. p. 464 sq. 2 See the instructive passage in Ewald, Gesch. des Volkes Isr. vI. p. 398. Ewald however, though he takes St Paul into this region, guards against the objections which I have alleged in the text, by supposing him to travel as far as Sinai also (p. 400). this so was now to supplant it. Here, surrounded by the children of the desert, the descendants of Hagar the bondwoman, he read the true meaning and power of the law1. In the rugged and barren region, whence it issued, Signifihe saw a fit type of that bleak desolation which it created and was in- cance of tended to create in the soul of man. In the midst of such scenes and journ. associations, his spirit was attuned to harmony with his divine mission, and fitted to receive fresh 'visions and revelations of the Lord.' Thus in the wilderness of Sinai, as on the Mount of the transfiguration, the three dispensations met in one. Here Moses had received the tables of the law amid fire and tempest and thick darkness. Here again Elijah, the typical prophet, listened to the voice of God, and sped forth refreshed on his mission of righteousness. And here lastly, in the fulness of time, St Paul, the greatest preacher of Him of whom both the law and the prophets spoke, was strengthened and sanctified for his great work, was taught the breadth as well as the depth of the riches of God's wisdom, and transformed from the champion of a bigoted and narrow tradition into the large-hearted Apostle of the Gentiles2. What was the length of this sojourn we can only conjecture. The Its durainterval between his conversion and his first visit to Jerusalem, St Paul tion. here states to have been three years. The notices of time in St Luke are vague, but not contradictory to this statements. From Damascus St Paul tells us he went away into Arabia, whence he returned to Damascus. St Luke represents him as preaching actively in this city after his conversion, not mentioning and apparently not aware of any interruption, though his narrative is not inconsistent with such. It seems probable then that St Paul's visit to Arabia took place early in this period before he 1 A stronger argument for St Paul's visit to Sinai might be drawn from his reference to Hagar, the supposed Arabic name of Sinai (Gal. iv. 25), which he was not likely to have heard anywhere but on the spot: comp. Stanley Sinai and Palestine p. 50. But the reading and the interpretation alike are highly doubtful. See the notes there. 2 The significance of Sinai, as the holy place of inspiration, will be felt by readers of Tancred. 8 The notices of time in the narrative of the Acts are these: He remained with the disciples in Damascus some days (nμépas Tivàs) and straightway (evθέως) he began to preach (ἐκήρυσσεν)... and Saul was the more strengthened... and when many days (ἡμέραι ἱκαναὶ) were accomplishing (èπλnρoûvтo) the Jews took counsel to slay him, in consequence of which he left and went to Jerusalem (ix. 20-26). 'Hμépaι ikaval is an indefinite period in St Luke, which may vary according to circumstances; Acts ix. 43, xviii. 18, xxvii. 7. Cer- Its pur pose. commenced his active labours1. 'Immediately,' he says, 'instead of conferring with flesh and blood, I went into Arabia.' The silence of the historian is best accounted for on the supposition that the sojourn there was short; but as St Luke's companionship with the Apostle commenced at a much later date, no great stress must be laid on the omission. Yet on the other hand there is no reason for supposing it of long duration. It was probably brief-brief enough not to occupy any considerable space in the Apostle's history, and yet not too brief to serve the purpose it was intended to serve. For can we doubt that by this journey he sought seclusion from the outer world, that his desire was to commune with God and his own soul amid these hallowed scenes, and thus to gather strength in solitude for his active labours? His own language implies this; 'I conferred not with flesh and blood, but departed into Arabia.' The fathers for the most part take a different view of this incident. They imagine the Apostle hurrying forth into the wilds of Arabia, burning to impart to others the glad tidings which had so suddenly burst upon himself. 'See how fervent was his soul,' exclaims Chrysostom, 'he was eager to occupy lands yet untilled; he forthwith attacked a barbarous and savage people, choosing a life of conflict and much toil. This comment strikes a false note. Far different at such a crisis must have been the spirit of him, whose life henceforth was at least as conspicuous for patient wisdom and large sympathies, as for intense self-devotion. He retired for a while, we may suppose, that 'Separate from the world, his breast Might duly take and strongly keep And what place more fit for this retirement than that holy ground, God's chariot wheels have left distinctest trace'? 1 It must in this case be placed before the notice of his active preaching, ix. 20 καὶ εὐθέως, κ.τ.λ. Some have put it later and seen an indirect allusion to it in the expression μᾶλλον ἐνεδυvаμoûто, ver. 22; but there is no trace of a chronological notice in these words, and such an allusion is scarcely natural. 2 Similarly also Victorinus, Hilary, Theodore Mops., Theodoret, Primasius, and the Ecumenian commentator. Some of the Latin fathers might have been helped to this view by a curious blunder arising out of the Latin translation 'non acquievi carni et sanguini,' 'I did not rest in flesh and blood,' which Victorinus explains, 'Omnino laboravi carnaliter,' adding 'Caro enim et sanguis homo exterior totus est.' Tertullian however, de Resurr. Carn. c. 50, quotes the passage, 'Statim non retulerit ad car nem et sanguinem,' explaining it, 'id est ad circumcisionem, id est ad Judaismum.' Jerome supposes that St Paul preached in Arabia, but that his preaching was unsuccessful. His comment is curious. Why, he asks, is this visit to Arabia, of which we know nothing, which seems to have ended in nothing, recorded at all? It is an allegory from which we must extract a deep meaning. Arabia is the Old Testament. In the law and the prophets St Paul sought Christ, and having found Him there, he returned to Damascus, hoc est ad sanguinem et passionem Christi.' So fortified, he went to Jerusalem, 'locum visionis et pacis.' This interpretation is doubtless borrowed from Origen. 3 Christian Year, 13th Sunday after Trinity, said of Moses. 4 Christian Year, 9th Sunday after Trinity, said of Elijah. |