In Ezk 30^ the RV has changed Lydia into Lud, and the country Lydia is never mentioned in the NT. The Roman provincial system created a nomenclature which most of the writers of the Apostolic Age habitually employ. Like many other geographical and ethnological names, Lydia ceased to have any political signiticance. St. Paul, the Roman citizen, uses the provincial name Asia, and never Lydia. John writes to five Lydian churches, along with one in Mysian Pergamos and one in Phrygian Laodicea, but all the seven are 'churches which are in Asia' (Rev 1^- i^). It is contended, indeed, by Zahn (op. cit. i. 187) that the Grecian Luke, to whom the unofficial termin- ology would come naturally, uses Asia in the popu- lar non-Roman sense as synonymous with Lydia, to which F. Blass {Acta Apo'itolorum, 1895, p. 176) would add Mysia and Caria. J. B. Lightfoot, however, states good reasons for maintaining that ' Asia in the New Testament is always Proconsular Asia' (Galatian-^, 1876, p. 19 n.), andW. M. Ramsay strongly supports this view, refusing now to admit an exception (as he formerly did [The Church in the Roman Empire, 1893, p. 150]) even in the case of Ac 2*. James Steahan.
LYING {\jjev5eadai, ' to lie ' ; yj/evSos, ^evfffia, ' a lie ' ; ypevSrjs, 'false'; ••pev<TT-r)s, ' a deceiver'). — 1. It is the glory of Christianity that this religion reveals ' the God who cannot lie,' 6 d\j/ev5rj$ Beos (Tit 1^), qui non mentitur Dens (Vulg. ). He is true in both senses of the word — a\7)di.v6s and ak-qd-qs, verus and verax. He cannot be false to His own nature, just as men, made in His image, cannot lie without being un- true to themselves. It is likewise impossible to imagine His Revealer departing from the truth in word or deed. While Hermes, the so-called messenger of the gods, was often admired for his dexterous lying, Christ is loved becau.<e He is the Truth (Jn 14«), the faithful and true ^Yitness (Rev 3"), through whom men are able, amid all earthly changes and illusions, to lay hold on eternal realities.
2. The detection and exposure of imposture was an urgent duty of the early Church. The speedy appearance of false teachers was one of the most remarkable features of the Apostolic Age, and the Church was enjoined not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits (1 Jn 4^). There were xj/evo- d5€\(poi (Gal 2^), \//evdaTr6(TTo\oi (2 Co IP^), \pevbo- irpocpvrai (Ac 1.3«, 2 P 2\ 1 Jn 4i, Rev W^ I920 20i«), xpevdo\6yoL (1 Ti 4-), ^€vdodi8d<rKa\oi (2 P 2^). These deceivers were as the shadows which always ac- company the light. To the apostolic founders of Cliristianity the bare thought of being ever found false witnesses of God {^evdofMaprvpei rod deoO, 1 Co 15^") was intolerable. St. Paul often protests, and solemnly calls God to witness, that he does not lie (Ro 91, 2 Co Ipi, Gal l"", 1 Ti 2^). The Church of Ephesus was praised because she had tried soi-
728
LYSIAS
LYSTRA
disant apostles and found them false (xj/evSeh, Rev 2^). If there were false teachers, there were also false disciples, Avho claimed the Christian name without having Christ's spirit, and John had to formulate some clear and simple tests by which 'the liar' (6 rj/etjo-nji) could be known (1 Jn 2^* ^-
3. The same writer emphasizes the gravity of certain moral and intellectual errors — the denial of personal sin (1 Jn P"), the rejection of the historical Christ (5^"). He brands them as blasphemous as- sertions that God (whose Word calls all men sinners, and whose Spirit inwardly witnesses to the truth of the gospel) is a liar.
46. Christians must not lie one to another (Col 3^). In the pagan, e.g. the Cretan (Tit l^^), lying is bad ; in the Jew (Rev 2^) it is worse ; in the "Christian it should be impossible. The Law was made for the repression of liars (1 Ti 1^") ; the gospel gives every believer the spirit of truth (I Jn 4^). 'All liars,' ' every one that loveth and maketh a lie,' end the black list of the condemned (Rev 21^ 22^^), who shall not in any wise enter the City of God (212^).
James Strahan.
LTSIAS. — Claudius Lysias was the chiliarch, the tribune, in command of the Roman troops stationed at the Tower of Antonia at the time of St. Paul's last visit to Jerusalem. The conjec- ture is probable that he was by birth a Greek, and that he adopted the name Claudius when ' with a great sum' he obtained the station of a Roman citizen (Ac 222»; seeR. J. Knowling, EGT, 'Acts,' 1900, p. 463 ; cf. Ac 21^^). The Tower of Antonia communicated by a stairway with the cloisters of the Temple (see G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, 1S9S, ii. 495 f., and art. JERUSALEM for the position of the tower), and care was taken to have soldiers there in readiness for any emergency, especially at the time of the Jewish festivals (Jos. BJ v. 5. 8), like that of Pentecost, which St. Paul was attending. News was quickly brought up to the Tower of the riotous attack made upon the Apostle in the Temple at the instigation of ' Jews from Asia ' (2r-'f'-). It was suggested to Lysias, or the idea occurred spontaneously to him, that the object of the fury of the mob might be a man whom he was anxious to apprehend — viz. the leader of a recent seditious movement, who had managed to escape when the procurator Felix fell upon him and the crowd of his followers (Jos. Ant. xx. 8. 6, and BJ ii. 13. 5). Hence the surprise with which the chiliarch turns to St. Paul, so soon as he had been snatched from his assailants, with the question : ' You are not, then, the Egyptian . . . ? ' (Ac 2138), After allowing St. Paul to address the people from 'the stairs,' Lysias had him taken within the Tower, and had given orders that he should be examined by scourging, when he was made aware that his prisoner was a Roman citizen, whom ' it was illegal to subject to such treatment' {•22^^-). Seeking to obtain the information he desired by other means, Lysias convened a meeting of the Jewish Council on the following day, ' and brought St. Paul down and set him before them' (v.^o). The tumult that arose on St. Paul's statement that he was a Pharisee, and was called in question ' touching the hope and resurrection of the dead,' was so great that he had to be rescued by the soldiers, who took him again to the "Tower. Then followed the ' plot of certain of the Jews to kill St. Paul,' if the chiliarch could be induced to bring him again before the Council. News of this was carried to Lysias by ' Paul's sister's son.' Thereupon the resolution was taken to send the Ajiostle for greater safety to Caesarea (23i'"''-). "V\ ith the escort, Lysias sent a letter to the Gover- nor Felix (v.2«r-). In writing, he forgot the mis- conception about ' the Egyptian ' under which he