PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2
Stokes, George Thomas · 158,059 words · 178 reading sections
_The Harvest Of The Gentiles._
Having concluded his work in Cæsarea St. Peter returned to Jerusalem, and there had to render an account of his action and was placed upon his defence. "When Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them." Thi…
941 wordsSECTION 62_The Harvest Of The Gentiles._
It is easy to see why this information reached the missionaries at Antioch. Cæsarea was the Roman capital of Palestine, and was a seaport. Antioch was the Roman capital of the province of Syria, an immense extent of territory, which included not merely the country which we call Syria, but extended to the Euphrates on t…
701 wordsSECTION 63_The Harvest Of The Gentiles._
[84] Cæsarea and Antioch were about two hundred miles distant from each other by sea. A Roman trireme travelling at express speed would easily have accomplished this distance in two or at most three days. III. "When they came to Antioch, they spake the word to the Greek also." And verily the men of Cyprus and Cyren…
1,012 wordsSECTION 64_The Harvest Of The Gentiles._
"Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes."[87] [86] The same orator informs us that the streets of Antioch were lighted at night with public lamps. In this respect it stood alone among the cities of antiquity: see Libanius, I., 363, and the notes of Valesius on Ammianus Marcellinus, xiv., 1, 9. [87] Juv., _Sat…
723 wordsSECTION 65_The Harvest Of The Gentiles._
IV. Now we come to another step in the development. Tidings of the action taken at Antioch came to Jerusalem. The news must have travelled much the same road as that by which, as we have indicated, the story of St. Peter's action was carried to Antioch. The intercourse between Jerusalem and Antioch was frequent enough …
1,039 wordsSECTION 66_The Harvest Of The Gentiles._
[89] See Eusebius, _Eccles. Hist._, v., 18. [90] There is a good description of Daphne as St. Paul may have seen it in Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, ch. xxiii. We borrow a few extracts from it to give a more vivid idea of Antioch in St. Paul's day. "At the distance of five miles from Antioch the Macedonian kings of…
1,265 wordsSECTION 67_The Harvest Of The Gentiles._
[91] The Antiochenes were always famous for the dangerous power of ridicule and giving nicknames. They quarrelled on this account with the emperors Hadrian, Verus, Marcus, Severus, and Julian. The last mentioned has celebrated these tendencies in his celebrated treatise entitled _Misopogon, or the Beard-hater_. Eve…
562 wordsSECTION 68_The Defeat Of Pride._
"Now about that time Herod the king put forth his hands to afflict certain of the Church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.... Immediately an angel of the Lord smote Herod, because he gave not God the glory: and he was…
829 wordsSECTION 69_The Defeat Of Pride._
[93] The Herodian family form a notable instance of the modern doctrine of heredity, which yet is only the ancient principle of Divine action announced long ago in the Second Commandment, "Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." The moral taints which we behold in E…
844 wordsSECTION 70_The Defeat Of Pride._
Again, we notice about this martyred apostle that, though there is very little told us concerning his life and actions, he must have been a very remarkable man. He was clearly remarkable for his Christian privileges. He was one of the apostles specially favoured by our Lord. He was admitted by Him into the closest spir…
709 wordsSECTION 71_The Defeat Of Pride._
Again, this martyrdom of St. James proclaims yet another lesson. God hereby warns the Church against the idolatry of human agents, against vain trust in human support. Let us consider the circumstances of the Church at that time. The Church had just passed through a season of violent persecution, and had lost one of it…
870 wordsSECTION 72_The Defeat Of Pride._
[97] Bishop Lightfoot, in his celebrated essay on the Christian Ministry, _Philippians_, pp. 200-205, 2nd edition, regards Episcopacy as the work of St. John. "By whom was the new constitution organised? To this question only one answer can be given. This great work must be ascribed to the surviving apostles. St. …
1,101 wordsSECTION 73_The Defeat Of Pride._
[98] These elaborate precautions were doubtless taken on account of his escape on the previous occasion, when the Sanhedrin had arrested him, as narrated in the nineteenth verse of the fifth chapter. [99] In the fifth century an order of monks was established at Constantinople who practised this ceaseless worship.…
922 wordsSECTION 74_The Defeat Of Pride._
[100] The early Church has left us a treatise showing how thoroughly it recognised its duty in this respect. The "Pædagogue" or the "Instructor" of Clement of Alexandria is a handbook of the social life of the early Christians, teaching them what to do and wear and say under every conceivable circumstance. Clement …
731 wordsSECTION 75_The Defeat Of Pride._
[101] There is an ancient tradition that our Lord bade the apostles remain twelve years in Jerusalem before they dispersed to preach the gospel all the world over (Eusebius, _H. E._, V., xviii.). Some think that the famine and persecution which now happened may have been the occasion of their dispersion. Such were…
1,256 wordsSECTION 76_The Defeat Of Pride._
[102] It is noteworthy, indeed, that it was with Tyre and Sidon in the days of Herod as it was with them in the earlier days of King Solomon and of the prophets. In 1 Kings v. 10, 11 we see that Hiram, king of Tyre, depended on Solomon for food: "So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of fir according to …
659 wordsSECTION 77_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
"As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, went down to Seleucia; and from thence they…
1,070 wordsSECTION 78_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
[105] One great lesson which the true expositor will derive from this typical history is this, the long, doubtful, painful strife which the battle of truth and justice ever involves. The struggle for Gentile freedom waged by St. Paul is typical of the battle for freedom of conscience, for freedom of knowledge, for …
1,054 wordsSECTION 79_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
[106] See, for instance, ch. xiv. 4: "Part held with the Jews and part with the apostles"; and again, verse 14: "But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it." It must be remembered that the term apostle was one used very freely among the Jews to signify the official delegates of the high priest, the Sanhedr…
723 wordsSECTION 80_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
[107] An elaborate plan of ancient Antioch, accompanied with a description of its various parts and references to the authorities for the same, will be found in Lewin's _St. Paul_, vol. i., p. 92. From Seleucia the apostles itinerated through the whole island unto Paphos, celebrated in classical antiquity as the fav…
713 wordsSECTION 81_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
[110] St. Paul, writing in 2nd Corinthians, speaks of himself as at times in perils of robbers. This danger may well have happened to him in the central districts of Asia Minor. There is an interesting story of St. John and the bandits in Eusebius, _H. E._, iii., 23. The incidents there told took place in Asia Mino…
664 wordsSECTION 82_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
[113] It is well perhaps to note that the ι in this name is long, representing the diphthong ει, the Greek name of the town being Ἀττάλεια. III. Let us now more particularly notice some of the details recorded concerning this journey. The apostles began their work at Cyprus, where they proclaimed the gospel in the J…
668 wordsSECTION 83_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
[114] See vol. i., p. 216. There is an interesting illustration of the historic accuracy of St. Luke connected with the apostolic visit to Paphos and to Sergius Paulus the proconsul. Thrice over in the narrative of St. Luke, Sergius Paulus is called proconsul--first in the seventh verse of the thirteenth chapter, wher…
708 wordsSECTION 84_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
[115] The words of Dion are: "Eo tempore Cyprum ac Galliam Narbonensem, quia nihil armis suis indigerent, populo reddidit; atque ita proconsules etiam in istas provincias mitti cœperunt." See the works of Dion, edited by H. Valerius, vol. i., p. 733 (Hamburg, 1750). Valerius, in his note on this passage, notes the…
918 wordsSECTION 85_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
We have of course not much more than the heads of the apostolic sermon. Five or seven minutes of a not very rapid speaker would amply suffice to exhaust the exact words attributed to St. Paul. He must have enlarged on the various topics. He could not have introduced John the Baptist in the abrupt manner in which he is …
916 wordsSECTION 86_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
IV. So far we have dealt with St. Paul's address at Antioch as typical of his methods in dealing with the Jews, and their treatment of the Apostle as typical of that hostility which the Jews ever displayed to the earliest teachers of Christian truth, as witnessed not only by the New Testament, but also by the writings …
991 wordsSECTION 87_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
[117] See the story of Philemon and Baucis as told in Smith's _Dictionary of Classical Biography and Mythology_. [118] The site of Lystra and the fact that it was a Roman colony were unknown till 1884, when Sterrett discovered an inscription which ascertained both facts: see Ramsay's _Historical Geography of Asia …
768 wordsSECTION 88_St. Paul'S Ordination And First Missionary Tour._
[119] The Romans had a local police in Asia Minor, organised after the manner of our own local police. The chief of the police in each town was called the eirenarch, and was annually appointed by the proconsul. The Romans never made the mistake of placing the police in the hands of discontented subjects. See, on th…
527 wordsSECTION 89_The First Christian Council._
"And certain men came down from Judæa and taught the brethren, saying, Except ye be circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye cannot be saved. And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and questioning with them, the brethren appointed that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jeru…
1,087 wordsSECTION 90_The First Christian Council._
II. And now this leads us to consider the occasion of the Synod. The time was not, as we have said, quite twenty years after the Crucifixion, yet that brief space had been quite sufficient to raise questions undreamt of in earlier days. The Church was at first completely homogeneous, its members being all Jews; but the…
667 wordsSECTION 91_The First Christian Council._
Antioch was recognised at Jerusalem as the centre of Gentile Christianity. Certain, therefore, of the zealous, Judaising disciples of Jerusalem repaired to Antioch, joined the Church, and secretly proceeded to organise opposition to the dominant practice, using for that purpose all the authority connected with the name…
817 wordsSECTION 92_The First Christian Council._
This is the explanation of St. Paul's own conduct. Some have regarded him as at times inconsistent with his own principles with regard to the law of Moses. And yet if men will but look closer and think more deeply, they will see that St. Paul never violated the rules which he had imposed upon himself. He refused to cir…
656 wordsSECTION 93_The First Christian Council._
III. Now let us turn our attention to the actual history of the controversy and strife which raged at Antioch and Jerusalem, and endeavour to read the lessons the sacred narrative teaches. What a striking picture of early Church life is here presented! How full of teaching, of comfort, and of warning! How corrective of…
930 wordsSECTION 94_The First Christian Council._
[124] The conduct of the Romish clergy in Ireland when the Papal rescripts were issued concerning the Parnell tribute, boycotting, and the Plan of the Campaign was an amusing commentary on their view of Papal Infallibility. Any one who will take the trouble to search the columns of the _Freeman's Journal_ at that t…
783 wordsSECTION 95_The First Christian Council._
[125] The reader should consult what Mr. Findlay has written on this point in his _Galatians_, chs. vi. and vii., pp. 92-112. Is there not something very modern in the glimpse thus given us of the negotiations and private meetings which preceded the formal meeting of the Apostolic Council? Some persons may think that…
781 wordsSECTION 96_The First Christian Council._
[126] The fifth verse states that after Paul had rehearsed the wonders done among the Gentiles certain of the sect of the Pharisees rose up saying, "It is needful to circumcise them." Some maintain that this was in a missionary meeting before the Synod, but that this is no proof that such laymen, if they were layme…
1,114 wordsSECTION 97_The First Christian Council._
[128] I may perhaps be allowed to refer to a little tract of my own on this topic published at the time, on "The Work of the Laity in the Church of Ireland," as embodying the principles of Hooker applied to modern times and needs. V. The proceedings of the Apostolic Synod next demand our attention. The account whic…
1,256 wordsSECTION 98_Apostolic Quarrels And The Second Tour._
"And after some days Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us return now and visit the brethren in every city wherein we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they fare.... And there arose a sharp contention between them, so that they parted asunder one from the other."--ACTS xv. 36, 39. "And they went through the r…
684 wordsSECTION 99_Apostolic Quarrels And The Second Tour._
[129] St. Jerome places the beginning of St. Peter's twenty-five years' episcopate at Rome in A.D. 42--that is, two years before Herod's attempt to put St. Peter to death. This idea has been worked up into an elaborate story, which will be found duly set forth in great detail in Fleury's _Ecclesiastical History_, B…
677 wordsSECTION 100_Apostolic Quarrels And The Second Tour._
I. There are few portions of the Acts more fruitful in spiritual instruction, or teeming with more abundant lessons, or richer in application to present difficulties, than this very incident. Let us note a few of them. One thought, for instance, which occurs at once to any reflecting mind is this: what an extraordinary…
1,110 wordsSECTION 101_Apostolic Quarrels And The Second Tour._
[130] "Origen started this theory that the dispute between Peter and Paul was simulated; in other words, being of one mind in the matter they got up this scene that St. Paul might the more effectually condemn the Judaisers through the chief of the apostles, who, acknowledging the justice of the rebuke, set them an…
950 wordsSECTION 102_Apostolic Quarrels And The Second Tour._
[132] The sequel of this story as made known through the Epistles is most interesting. The quarrel between St. Paul and St. Barnabas was not a permanent one. Five years or so later, when writing the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians (ix. 6), St. Paul associates himself with Barnabas as if they were companions once aga…
750 wordsSECTION 103_Apostolic Quarrels And The Second Tour._
The effect of the quarrel between the friends was that St. Paul took Silas and St. Barnabas took Mark, and they separated; the latter going to Cyprus, the native country of Barnabas, while Paul and Silas devoted themselves to Syria and Asia Minor and their Churches. The division between these holy men became thus doubl…
760 wordsSECTION 104_Apostolic Quarrels And The Second Tour._
Let us now briefly indicate the course of St. Paul's labours during the next three years, as his second missionary tour must have extended over at least that space of time. St. Paul and his companion Silas left Antioch amid the prayers of the whole Church. Evidently the brethren viewed Paul's conduct with approbation, …
1,129 wordsSECTION 105_Apostolic Quarrels And The Second Tour._
[135] The record of a very similar journey performed five years ago in July 1887 may be read in the _Journal of Hellenic Studies_ for April 1890. Mr. D. G. Hogarth, who writes the story, travelled on that occasion from the borders of Galatia to the Cilician coast. His narrative gives a vivid picture of the scenery …
1,580 wordsSECTION 106_Apostolic Quarrels And The Second Tour._
[137] The provinces of Asia Minor all retained their ancient languages at the time of St. Paul. Latin and Greek were the language of society, but the mass of the people all spoke the original language of the country. In the time of St. Jerome, four centuries after St. Paul, Celtic was still spoken in Galatia as we…
683 wordsSECTION 107_Apostolic Quarrels And The Second Tour._
[141] See this sermon in Taylor's works, vol. viii., Ed. C. P. Eden (London, 1850). On p. 380 we find the following eloquent and profound passage bearing on this point: "Lastly there is a sort of God's dear servants who walk in perfectness, who perfect holiness in the fear of God, and they have a degree of charity …
526 wordsSECTION 108_St. Paul In Macedonia._
"The jailor called for lights, and sprang in, and, trembling for fear, fell down before Paul and Silas, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house"--ACTS xvi. 29-31. "When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they ca…
698 wordsSECTION 109_St. Paul In Macedonia._
[143] Posts for the conveyance of intelligence were established by Augustus (see Suetonius, _Aug._, 49). Gibbon, in the second chapter of his _History_, has much information on this point. The reader curious in such matters will find a learned account of the Roman postal service in Godefroy's _Commentary on the The…
736 wordsSECTION 110_St. Paul In Macedonia._
[144] The remains of this rampart still exist. They are described in the _Mission Archéologique de Macédoine_, p. 103, carried out under the direction of M. Leon Heuzey, by order of Napoleon III., and published at Paris between 1864 and 1876. Augustus made Philippi into a colony, erecting a triumphal arch to celebr…
834 wordsSECTION 111_St. Paul In Macedonia._
[146] The common pronunciation of Attaleia, or as it is spelt in the Authorised Version, Attalia, is with the ι short. The "i" represents, however, the Greek diphthong ει, and is long. [147] See Dr. John Lightfoot's _Horæ Hebraicæ_ on Matt. iv. 23; Works (London, 1684), vol. ii., pp. 132-34, for the Rabbinical le…
760 wordsSECTION 112_St. Paul In Macedonia._
[150] The guild of dyers at Thyatira is celebrated in the inscriptions belonging to that city found in Bœckh's _Corpus Inscriptionum Græcarum_. This was an important incident in the history of the Philippian Church, and was attended by far-reaching results. Lydia herself, like so many others of God's most eminent sa…
1,524 wordsSECTION 113_St. Paul In Macedonia._
[151] See Leon Heuzey's _Mission Archéologique de Macédoine_, p. 71 (Paris, 1864-76). One tablet found furnishes a list of benefactions. One man gives a bronze statue of the deity, another helps to roof the building. Another tablet gives a list of the officials of the temple worship. Curiously enough among these o…
1,196 wordsSECTION 114_St. Paul In Macedonia._
[155] See more on this point in vol. i., pp. 134-37, where I have given conclusive proofs of the misuse of this text from the writers of the seventeenth century. This text, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved," is often quoted in one-sided and narrow teaching to show that man has nothing to do to be …
908 wordsSECTION 115_St. Paul In Macedonia._
Such was St. Paul's stay at Philippi. It lasted a considerable time, and made its mark, as a flourishing Church was established there, to which he addressed an Epistle when he lay the first time a captive at Rome. This Epistle naturally forms a most interesting commentary on the notices of the Philippian visit in the A…
713 wordsSECTION 116_St. Paul In Macedonia._
[157] Bishop Lightfoot (_Philippians,_ p. 57) says: "St. Paul's first visit to Philippi closed abruptly amid the storm of persecution. It was not to be expected that where the life of the teacher had been so seriously endangered, the scholars would escape all penalties. The Apostle left behind him a legacy of suff…
1,007 wordsSECTION 117_St. Paul In Macedonia._
[159] Thessalonica is to this day the abode of a large Jewish population. Tozer, in his _Highlands of Turkey_, vol. i., p. 146, says: "Of the sixty thousand inhabitants of Salonica two-thirds are Jews, the rest being Turks and Greeks.... From early times the Hebrew race seem to have been attracted by the commercial…
813 wordsSECTION 118_St. Paul In Macedonia._
Before we terminate this chapter we desire to call attention to one other point where the investigations of modern travel have helped to illustrate the genuineness of the Acts of the Apostles. It has been the contention of the rationalistic party that the Acts was a composition of the second century, worked up by a cle…
514 wordsSECTION 119_St. Paul In Greece._
"Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him, as he beheld the city full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market-place every day with them that met with him. And certain also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encounter…
674 wordsSECTION 120_St. Paul In Greece._
The voyage was an easy one, and not too prolonged. The boat or ship in which the Apostle was embarked passed through splendid scenery. On his right hand, as he steered for the south, was the magnificent mountain of Olympus, the fabled abode of the gods, rising a clear ten thousand feet into the region of perpetual snow…
715 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.