530 STKANGER, ALIEN, FOREIGNER
STRANGER, ALIEN, FOREIGNER
ably identical Avith the stoninp; to which he was subjected at Lystra duriii!:; his liist visit to Galatia (Ac 14'"-). He had left Iconium not long before to avoid similar treatment, which some of the inhabi- tants of that city, both Jewish and Gentile, were planning to mete out to him and Barnabas (14^). The same good fortune did not attend hiiiiat Lystra. His Jewish opponents in Antioch and Iconium appeared upon the scene, and so wrought upon the passions of the superstitious townspeople that a riot was created, in which the Apostle was stoned. Although Jews were a party to the outbreak of violence, the stoning was simply the method by whicli the fanatical mob of a heathen city vented their rage upon an advocate of the Christian faith. The attempt on the Apostle's life proved unsuccess- ful. Stunned for a time by the blows of the mis- siles, he was dragged by his assailants outside tlie city, and left there for dead. But, as the disciples stood around his prostrate body, he recovered con- sciousness, and returned with them to the city. The injuries sustained were not sufficiently serious to prevent his leaving Lystra for Derbe next day.
Although the life of the Apostle was not seriously imperilled, he bore ever afterwards the scars left by the encounter. Writing at a later date to the members of the Galatian Church, he closes his Epistle with these solemn words : ' From hence- forth let no man trouble me : for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus ' (Gal 6" RV). Ram- say conjectures thattliese marks were caused — some of them at least — by the stoning at Lystra. ' Obvi- ously, it must appeal,' he says, ' to something that lay deep in the hearts and memories of the Gala- tians' (Historical Commentary on the Galatians, London, 1899, p. 473). Less probable is the con- jecture of T. W. Crafer {Exp, 8th ser., vi. 375-384) that the dadiveia ttjs irapxtls, on account of which he first preached the gospel in Galatia, was caused by the stoning at Lystra. There is no reason to suppose that the maltreatment, however painful for a time, was attended by permanent, or even lengthened, phy.sieal disability. The 'infirmity of the flesh ' in Gal 4'^ and the ' thorn in the fiesh ' in 2 Co 12', are identical, and are best explained as caused by periodical attacks of a painful sort to which the Apostle was subject.
Literature. — T. H. Weir, art. * Stoninsr,' in DC6 ii. 679 ; McClintockand StrongjCi/clopo'dia of Biblical,Theolo<jical, and Ecdesiasticul Literature, New York, 1881 ; E. Kbnig:, ' Stonintr, Hebrew Use of,' in Schaff-Herzog, xi. 105 ; J. Poucher, * Crimes and Punishments,' in HDB i. 527» ; S. Mendelsohn, 'Capital Punishment,' in JE iii. 557a ; I. Benzinger, * Law and Justice," in EBi iii. 2722 ; F. W. Farrar, Ltfe and Pork of St. Paul, London, 1879, vol. L, Excursus vi.
W. S. Montgomery. STRANGER, ALIEN, FOREIGNER. The word ' stranger ' (from extranens) has been so long in possession as the rendering of several distinct words in the Hebrew and Greek texts that it is difficult to introduce changes in translation that appear desirable in order to distinguish those words from each other, and doubtful in some instances whether an exact rendering would be tolerable to the ear of English readers.* Take an instance from the OT, and one from the NT. In Gn 23^ and Ps 39''^, 'I am a stranger and a sojourner' could not well be changed for ' I am a sojourner and a settler' (or 'dweller'). In Jn 10^ 'A stranger {a\\oTpi<))) will they not follow . . . for they know not the voice of strangers {tQv dWor- piiov),' we should not welcome the substitution of 'alien' for 'stranger' in order to distinguish dXXirpios from |^>os. 'Aliens,' however, might
* 'St. Augustine, in a well-known story, tella us that, when a bishop, rearling the chapter about Jonah's f?ourd, ventured to substitute St. Jerome's "hedera" for the established "cucur- biti," such a tunmlt was raised, that if the bishop had persevered he would have been left wiihout a congregation ' (G. Salmon, Introduction to NT^, London, 1889, p. 126).
fitly have been put in RVm in Mt 17", ' From tlieir sons, or from strangers {dirb ruiv dXXorpfujr) ? ' Cf. Lk 17", ' Were there none found that returned to give glory to God, save this str.inger?' where the rencU'ring of dXXo^f;'^? in IlVm by 'alien' heightens the contrast to which our Lord draws attention.
In the numerous NT passages in which changes of a more considerable kind were called for by lidelity to the true meaning of the text, those changes have been judiciously and consistently made by the RV. In Lk 24"* the question <ru fidnos TrapotK€is 'lepovaaXrjfi cannot mean 'Art thou only a stranger ? ' and is rightly changed for ' Dost thou alone sojourn?' (iiiarg. 'Dost thou sojourn alone in Jeru.salem?'), Cleopas implying that none but a solitary sojourner, who had not come in contact with other sojourners at the Passover season, could be ignorant of the death of Jesus. In Ac 2"" oJ iiriSriiJiovpTa 'Poi/iaioi are mentioned in the list of nations present at Pentecost. Here the inadequate rendering ' strangers of Rome ' becomes 'sojourners from Rome,' tho.se meant being ' Romans who had migrated to Jerusalem and had settled in that city ' (Overbeck, quoted by A. Harnack, The Acts of the Apoatles [NT Studies, iii.], Eng. tr., London, 1909, p. 67). In the speech of St. Stephen (Ac 7^, iyhero Tri.poi.iios), we should read ' became a sojourner,' and in that of St. Paul (13", iv T^ irapoiKlq.) 'when they sojourned.' Read also in 17*^ {'AO-qvatoi dk irdi'Tes Kal ol 4irt5fjp.ouvT€s l^voi), 'Now all the Athenians and tlie strangers sojourning there': 'the large number of foreign residents . . . was always a distinguishing feature of Athens ' (J. B. Lightfoot in Smith's DB\ vol. i. pt. i. p. 36»).