and Mark, and with others in the church at Antioch (Ac 13^), who could not fail to instruct him as to what was new and distinctive in the teaching of Christ. In Gal 1^^ he speaks of him- self as paying a visit to Peter at Jerusalem and spending a fortnight in his company. Both there and in Gal 2- a considerable comparing of notes seems to be implied. There are sufficient in- dications of oral intercourse between St. Paul and the older disciples to explain the knoAvledge which he evidently possessed.
(ii.) Had he, in addition to this, anything in writing that he could refer to? He cannot have had access to our present Gospels ; but is it not possible that he may have had in his hands one or other of the documents out of which our present Gospels are composed? The Mark-Gospel is ex- cluded by its date ; but not so the second main document, often called Logia, and now generally known by the symbol Q. There is nothing, so far as we can see, in this document to make it im- possible for St. Paul to have had the opportunity of consulting it. If we are right in forming our conception of it from the passages common to St. Matthew and St. Luke that are not found in St. Mark, it would be a work of precisely such a character as would bring out clearly the new moral ideal taught by Christ. We may well believe that this was really the object with which it was composed — that it was a manual for Christian missionaries to put into the hands of their converts as supplying them with a rule of life. The principal argument against this view is that, if it was early enough to be used by St. Paul, it is difficult to see why it should not have been used by St. Mark. Some scholars think that it was used by him, but we should not like to commit ourselves to that alternative. The question must be left open.
On the other hand, the markedly individual character of the two chief specimens of the Pauline tradition, as compared with the Gospels, would go to show that the sources from which he drew were distinct from those used by our present Evangelists.
Y. Outlines of the Pauline theology. — As we have already implied, the great and central event in St. Paul's career was his conversion. It is this that really gives the key to his theology. It deter- mined for him at once his conception of Christ, and the nature of his own response to the appeal which Christ made to him.
1. The glorified Christ. — The vision that he saw was of Christ glorified. In other words, Christ appeared to him as Spirit ; and it is this spiritual Christ that henceforth controlled his experience. And yet, not that alone. The glorified Christ was none the less identical with the crucified Jesus of Nazareth. It is in this double aspect that the exalted Form that he saw made such an intense impression upon the Apostle.
2. Christ loithin. — The vision was for him; it appealed personally and directly to him ; and he responded with all the ardour of his being. It was as if he clasped to his heart the image of Christ that he saw, and it entered into him and possessed him. Or, conversely, it might be said that the extended arms of the Christ ^\'nom he saw embraced and enfolded himself. These two ways of speaking St. Paul always treats as equivalent — to say that he clasped Christ or that Christ clasped him, that he was 'in Christ' or that Christ was 'in him,' meant the same thing. The same act had a Divine side and a human ; and the one corresponded to the other. The process of which the Apostle was con- scious in himself had to be repeated in his converts (Gal 4^*). It is all a way of expressing the closest appropriation, assimilation, and union.
3. Faith. — In another connexion St. Paul calls the act W which he entered into this relation ' faith.' This act of faith could be expressed intel- lectually as assent to the proposition that ' Jesus is the Christ,' or that 'Jesus is Lord.' But any such process of the intellect was swallowed up at once in the warmer emotion of loyalty, gratitude, and adoring love. We must think of it always as love for One who is in heaven and not on earth, and therefore as at one and the same time love and adoration. It is this which gives its peculiar quality and value to ' faith,' as St. Paul conceived it. The impression that the Apostle received was so overpowering, that it seemed to make his whole life a different thing ; ' a new creation,' he called it himself (Gal 6'^) ; ' the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me ' (2-").
4. The death of Christ. — We go back to the Damascus vision. It was proof that Jesus of Nazareth, whose followers the Ajjostle in his blindness had persecuted, was no mere ambitious pretender, but all that His disciples believed Him to be — both Lord and Christ. But if that was so, the apparently shameful death that He died could not be really shameful : whatever appearance it wore in the eyes of men, there must really be in it a Divine virtue — a virtue infinite, because Divine.