406 KOMAN LAW IN THE NT
KOMAN LAW IN THE NT
not enforce a rifjid uniformity of law tlirougliout the Empire. Wlien tliey conquered a country and incorporated it as a Kornan jirovince, tliey found in many cases an excellent system of law in force, and they retained much of it. This was especially the case in tJreek cities, and ahove all in Asia Minor, where the people were particularly tena- cious of old customs. Just as the Romans did not force the Latin lanfcua','e on Greek countries, but recognized the Greek language and made use of it, reserving Latin for State occasions, so they used much of pre-existing (Jreek law and custom. Thus at Ejihesus, a 'free' city, we find, in addition to the iioman pi'oconsulsliip, a Greek constitntion. There was a senate (/3ou\i)), and also the popular assembly (6^/ios, 19™; also called iKK\T]<Tta, vv.'-- ■") which met regularly three times a month and (when required) in extraordinary session ; and this ])opular assembly had its clerk {ypa/i/jiaTevs), a very important official, whose inllucnce over it was great, as this chapter shows (vv.^^"")- Inscriptions of Roman date in Greek cities show the continu- ance of Greek institutions (for these statements see Rackham, Acts, p. 362 ti"., and Ramsav, St. Paul, p. 131 tr.. Gal., pp. 132 H'., 181 f.). At Athens, al.so a ' free' city, we hnd a Greek institution, the court of the Areopagus (17'°- ~), the members of which were called ' Areopagites' (v.'''). This, however, was not a court of law, and St. Paul was not on his trial before it on a criminal charge. It was rather a University court, ' in the midst of ' which (v.--) the Apostle made his defence as a teacher. The scene has been taken by F. C. Conybeare {HDB i. 144) and others, with the AV text in v.=^ (but not AVm), to have been on Mars' Hill outside the city, whence the court derived its name, but Ramsay with more probability (St. Paul, p. 244 f.) places it in the city itself, in or near the Agora or market-place. ' In the midst of Mars' Hill ' as a topographical expression would hardly be possible.
In non-Greek countries which passed under Roman rule, Roman law and organization were more speedily adopted, as there was less of previous civilization to withstand them. But in Palestine, as in the Hellenized districts, local law survived to a considerable extent, even when Roman procura- tors had displaced native kings. Power was left to the Sanhedrin in Judaea, and, though that body had no jurisdiction in Galilee and Samaria, local synagogues outside Judaea were allowed by the civil authorities to exercise a good deal of authority over their members (C. Bigg, ICC, ' St. Peter and St. .Jude,' Edinburgh, 1901, p. 25). The Sanhedrin could not inflict capital punishment without leave of the procurator (Jn 18'"), but the latter often applied Jewish law, and this seems to be the meaning of Fest\is' proposal to send St. Paul to Jerusalem, to be tried in his presence indeed, but by Jewish law (Ac 25'). The sentence would be the procurator's, and the appeal would be from him to the Emperor (see above, 1 (c)). The stoning of Stephen was nodoubtan illegal murder (Ac 7^"*), and other deaths of Christians would fall under the same head (5^ 22* 26'°) ; but the Sanhedrin could arrest persons, and inflict imprisonment and flogging (5i»- " 22* 26'" ; cf. 2 Co IV-"-, Mt 5-^). In 9- 26'- the synagogue at Damascus is requested by the Sanhedrin to exercise its powers (cf. 22", Mk 13'). In the semi-independent kingdoms Roman law found its way less speedily, and only as the local kings deemed it practicable to spread Western ideas. The position of Herod the Great in this respect is well drawn by R,amsay ( Was Christ born at Bethlehem?, London, 1898, ch. ix.), who suggests that the king was allowed to carry out the enrol- ment which took place at the time of our Lord's birth in such a way as to conciliate Jewish pre-
judices, by giving it a tribal character which it did not possess in the other parts of the Empire.
On the other hand, the Romans founded colonies in various parts of the Empire, chiefly for military reasons ; their inhabitants were Roman citizens, and Roman law was observed in them more strictly ; the city officials were named in Roman fashion iluiiviri, quiestores, ir.diles, praitores (the magis- trates in Greek cities were called aTparriyol or dpxofTei, and in Ac IQ-"- ^- ^'- St. Luke gives the former as the translation of ' pnetores 'at Philippi, a Roman colony). In colonies there was no Senate (^ouXiJ), but there were deeuriones (Ramsay, Gal., pp. 117, 182); the language used in the municipal deeds is shown by inscriptions to have been Latin ((/).). The colonies mentioned in the NT are: Antiochof Pisidia (Ac 13'"), Lystra (14"), Pliilip|ii (16'-, where alone of NT |)assages KoKuvla is found), Corinth (18'), Ptolemais (21'). Iconium (13^^') did not become a colony till Hadrian's time (Ramsay, Gal., pp. 123, 218). Here it may be remembered that Roman law gave special privileges to 'citizens.' Citizenship (TroXirefa, 22^) was not conferred on all the inhabitants of the Empire till A.D. 212. Even the inhabitants of ' free ' cities were not Roman citizens, or ' Romans,' as citizens proudly and tersely called themselves (16^' 22-*'''-) ; but citizenship might be acquired by purchase, in the corrupt tiihes of the Emperor Claudius, though at a high price (2'2-*), or by birth, as in St. Paul's case (ib.). The law protected citizens from flog- ging, and St. Paul asserts this right in 16" 22'' ; it exempted Jews who were also Roman citizens from the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin and of the synagogues, though St. Paul did not always assert his exemption (2 Co 11-*'-), and it gave them an appeal from a death sentence by a provincial governor (HDBiv. 292). In Ac 16" 22=^ the word dKa.TaKpiTos (' uncondemned ') does not imply that the Apostle could have been flogged after trial, which is not the case ; the want of trial merely suggests the possible excuse of ignorance which the officials might have urged : St. Paul says that they ouqht to have investigated. Ramsay (St. Paid, p. 225) suggests that the Apostle spoke in Latin and used the phrase re incognita (' without investigating our case '), and that St. Luke rendered it loosely by d^'araKpiros.