Even his missionary activity bears at this time somewhat of a supplementary character. After ‘confirming’ on his way ‘all the disciples’ gained en his last tour (Ac 18%, ef. 16°: for the expression τι Γαλατικὴν χώραν x. Φρυγίαν see note* on p. 7074), ‘when he had made a missionary progress through the higher-lying quarters’ (this implies a fairly complete evangelizing of central Asia Minor), Paul ‘came to Ephesus’ (19'). Ephesus, with its rich and populous province of Asia, lay in the centre of the fields already occupied. It was the ob- jective point of St. Paul’s second journey; God’s nand had then diverted his course (16%), but onl for a while. Here, as at Corinth, Paul’s wor was under the shield of the Roman administration (19°) ; and he won the friendship even of ‘some of the Asiarchs’ (v.*!), who were the ‘high priests of Asia, the heads of the imperial politico-religious organization of the province’ (St. Paul the Trav. Ρ. 281). ‘Many,’ therefore, as his ‘adversaries’ were, and though he had to ‘fight with wild beasts in Ephesus’ (1 Co 1553 16°), Paul held his ground in this a for three years, until ‘all those that dwelt in Asia had heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks’ (Ac 1919. 17:30. 26 9031), This success led to a great destruction of the Ephesian books of magic; it so much diminished the sale of the images of Artemis that the craftsmen took alarm and stirred up a riot of the city multitude, who were enraged at the disparagement of their world-famed goddess. The tumult hastened Paul’s departure ; but he had done an immense work at Ephesus. This city, afterwards the home of the frets John, was the most powerful centre of Christianity in the later apostolic age. The Ep. to Philemon and that to the Colossians, written to an outlying town of the province which Paul had not himself visited, and the general (provincial) destination of the so-called Ep. to the EPHESIANS (see art.), indicate how widely Paul’s mission per- meated the province of Asia. With the establish- ment of the gospel at Troas, evangelized by Paul on leaving Ephesus (2 Co 228; ef. Ac 20°12), and the excursion into [Illyria (Ro 15%!) made apparently
PAUL THE APOSTLE
during his sojourn in Macedonia in the following summer, two more links were added to the chain of Churches, which by the end of the third tour stretched ‘ from Jerusalem round about unto Illy- ricum.’ The apostle felt that things were ripening for his advance to Rome (Ac 19”).
Besides the daily pressure of his mission, never verhaps so great as at Ephesus, there lay on St. Paul heavily at this time ‘the care of all the Churches’ (2 Co 11%). Of this care the Corinthian and Galatian Epistles are evidence. GALATIANS is commonly referred to the Ephesian sojourn ; ‘Light- foot has given good reasons, though not all equally ‘ood’ (Hort’s ἢ ud. Chr. p. 99), for placing it later, ietwoct 2 Co and Ro, as written from Macedonia or Corinth (Comm. on Gal., Introd. iii.). Ramsay, in accordance with his 5, Galatian theory, carries the Epistle back to St. Paul’s stay at Antioch before the third journey ; while Clemen (Chronologie d. Paulin. Briefe, τ. A. 1) makes it follow Romans because of its extreme controversial position.
In 1 AND 2 CORINTHIANS we see Paul closely watching affairs at Corinth, during his residence in Ephesus. But the exact course of his proceed- ings is difficult to determine. Krenkel (in his Beitrage) and Schmiedel (in the ‘ Handeommentar z. NT,’ Einleit. an Kor.) have lately examined the data minutely, arriving at involved and con- tradictory theories as to Paul’s communications with Corinth during this period. From 2 Co 13'3 it is almost certain that Paul had been at Corinth a second time, ‘in sorrow’ (2') and humiliation (12”-*1). He found a number of his converts re- lapsing into heathen vice; and he rebuked and warned, but forbore to strike. This forbearance had compromised his authority and given an im- pression of weakness on his part, of which his opponents subsequently took an injurious advan- tage, contrasting his imperious letters with his feeble presence and challenging a ‘proof’ of his apostolic powers (2 Co 10! 131-10. This inter- vening visit (an excursion by sea from Ephesus, unnoticed by Luke) was made not long before 1 Co (so Schmiedel),—and, since this letter was written in the spring (1 Co 5° 16%), probably in the pre- vious autumn. In 1 Co 4'**! Paul meets the in- sinuation, based on the result of this encounter, that he is afraid to come to Corinth; his seeming vacillation between the Ist and 2nd Ep. gave addi- tional colour to the imputation, afterwards repeated (2Co 1!5-*4), This episode, not directly mentioned in 1 Co and which both parties ke wish to forget, Paul is compelled to recall in 2 Co by the taunts of his opponents. On his return to Ephesus under the painful impression of what he had just wit- nessed at Corinth, the apostle wrote a sharp dis- ciplinary Epistle, to which 1Co 5518 refers in explanation and reinforcement. In spite of this eppeal the Church of Corinth had permitted ‘the old leaven’ to remain, until the monstrous case of incest compelled the apostle to give the solemn and peremptory directions of 1 Co δ᾽“,