614
SILAS
SILAS
assicmment of tlie laml in Nu 32**, Dt 1^ 3- " 4"- ■" 29" 31^ Jos 2'» 9'" 12- 13'»-!'>- =", 1 K 4^^ Nell 9-, Ps 135" 13(5". ' Silioii ' in Jer 48" is in parallelism with ' Heshbon,' and equivalent to tlie city of Sihon.
In tliese passages the name of Sihon occurs almost invariably in close connexion with that of Og, king of Bashan. The territories of these two kin^s became the inheritance of Israel on the E. of the Jordan, and were assigned to Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh. According to Nu 21* the Amorite king Sihon had, before the coming of Israel, taken from the Moabites the portion of their kingdom lying to the N. of the Arnon. For the criticism of this passage and of the song in Nu 21""*', and discussion of the wars of Sihon against Moab and Israel, see art. MOAB in vol. iii. p. 409 f. A. T. Chapman.
SILAS (2(\oj, in Acts), SILYANUS (XiXorai-is, in Epp. ).* — A prophet and leading member (riyovfievos) of the primitive church of Jerusalem (Ac 15"-'*), who seems to have possessed the Roman citb.enshipt (16"). He was sent as a delegate of that church to Antioch, along with Judas Barsabbas as colleague, and in company with Paul and Barnabas, in order to convey to the converted Gentiles of Syria and CUieia a brotherly greeting, and the epistle which embodied the decrees of the Council of .lerusalem ; and also to ' tell them the same things by mouth,' with any necessary explanations (Ac 15--"^). SUas, as well as Judas, remained at Antioch ' for some time,' and, in the exercise of the gift of ' prophecy,' ' exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them ' (15'-). Thereafter he returned to Jerusalem ; t but, prior to St. Paul's Second Mis- sionary .lourney, Silas came again to Antioch, perhaps along with St. Peter, on the occasion of the latter's visit recorded in Gal 2", or at St. Paul's invitation after the rupture with Barnabas (Ac 1.5^'). St. Paul's choice of Silas as missionary colleague (15^°) was particularly appropriate in view of the projected tour ' through Syria and Cilicia' (15^'), to the Gentile Christians, for which Silas had been accredited by the church of Jeru- salem (15'^). If SUas possessed the Roman citizen- ship, tliis may also have led, in part, to his being selected, in view of missionaiT ' perils from the Gentiles,' as well as from the Jews. The accept- ance of St. Paul's invitation by a leading member of the church of Jerusalem, even after the apostle's ecclesiastical as well as personal ditt'erence (Gal oi3(.) ^vith Barnabas, the trusted ambassador of that church (Ac U'-'-'), testifies to the fulness of confidence reposed at that time in St. Paul by the more liberal Je^vish Christians.
Ill company with St. Paul, Silas journeyed not only through Syria and Cilicia, but in Lvcaonia, Phrygia, Galatia, and the Troad (Ac 16'-8). He crossed over with the apostle to Macedonia, shared his varied experiences at Philippi {16'-''-),§ accom-
• Silag may be ft contraction of Siivantu (ct Apollos from Apolloniiis), or the orii,^inal name (perh. = 8*^17 1 Ch 7^, but see Zahn, Einl. i. 22 f.), of which Silvanus is a Latinized fomi. Several liersons called Silas are mentioned by Josephus (Ant, xiv. iii. 2, xviii. vi. 7 ; Vita, 17). The identity of Silas and the Silvanus of 1 Th 11. 2 Th 11, and 2 Co lis, ja generally accepted (cf. Ac 171 1S5); althou;;h pseudo-Doroth. (6th cent.) in his ^Cy j,^jea,tM6 represents them as separate individuals; and Weizsaclter, with some hesitation {Apost. Age, i. 292 f.), surest*, without reasonable prounds, that the author of Act« lias substituted Silas of Jerusalem for the Pauline Silvanus, * in onler to signalize the apostle's connexion with the primitive Church.'
t So Ew. BI vii. 361 ; Mey. Comm. ; Uamsay, St. Paul, p. 17fl ; McOiflert, Ap. Aye, 242, etc. On the other side, see Wendt (Comm.), who regfards the inclusion of Silas with St. Paul io Ac 163^f- as due to * Inaccuracy for the sake of brevity.'
t Ac 1534 is ))rob. an interpolation ; it is not found in NAB.
5 For vindication of the credibihty of Ac 162M4 (assailed on Internal sfrounds bv Weizs., Wendt, and R Weiss) see Giesckke In SK, 1S9S, p. 348 It., and Kxp. Tiimt, March 1888, p. 274 f.
panied him to Thesijalonica, and thence to Beroea, where he remained with Timotheus after St. Paul's departure for Athens (17"). He rejoined St. Paul, apparently, not at Athens, as originally had been intended (17"), but (owing probably to the apostle's early departure from that city) at Corinth (18').* His evangelistic service there ia referred to in 2 Co 1'*. In the two letters, sent by St. Paul from Corinth to the Thessalonians, Silvanus is associated with him in the opening salutations. His name then disappears from the history.
That he did DOt leave Corinth in company with St. Pan]
appears to be indicated by Ac 1818, and by the absence of all reterence to him in the record of the remaining st.at;e8 of St. Paul's Second Missionary Journey (IS^^ff-). That he did not settle at Corinth, in permanent charge of the church there (aa suggested by pseudo-Doroth., who calls him bishop of Corinth),! maybe inferred from the omission of any greeting to him in 1 and 2 Cor., and also from the fact that both Timotheus and Titus act as deputies of St. Paul in Corinth a few years later (1 Co 417, 2 Co 86 1218). Probably Silas left Corinth during St. Paul's protracted sojourn of 18 months (Ac 181^). He may not have been prejiared for longer absence from Jerusalem. More- over, at Corinth, where the Jewish element in the churt^ was weak (Ac IS^), St. Paul does not seem to have felt bound to impose the decrees of the Jerusalem Council (1 Co 8). These decrees were intended, immediately at least, for the churches of Syria and Cilicia ; they were ' delivered for to keep ' in Lycaonia (Acl6-*) ; but at Corinth the circumstances were dif- ferent. We can readily undei-stand, however, that the bearer of the Council's communication might deem it improper for him to take part in any deliberate disreg:ard of the Council's compromise between liberty and restriction, and would feel constrained, without any personal quarrel, to separate from one who went beyond what Silas's own fellow-churchmen of Jerusalem would approve. The addition of Timotheus, also, to the missionary' party, and the strong personal attachment of St. Paul to him, may have caused Silas to feel that he was no longer indispensable to the apostle, and may thus have loosened the tie between the two men. Beyond question, the attitude of the Jewish Christians towards St. Paul changed considerably prior to the Third Missionary Journey. It was about this time that the Judaistic counter-mission to Galatia and elsewhere originated ; and the same broadened ecclesiastical policy of St. Paul, which aroused the hostility of the narrower party in Jerusalem, probably also cooled, to some extent, the cordiality previously subsisting between the apostle and the more Uberal section to which Silas belonged, t