in which some learned men think they can detect the signs of a moderately clever fiction.
The course of the voj'age from Miletus was by Cos and Rhodes to Patara, and from Patara in another ves- sel past Cyprus to Tyre. Here Paul and his company spent seven days ; and there were disciples " who said to Paul through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem." Again there was a sorrowful parting: " They all brought us on our wa}', with wives and children, till we were out of the city ; and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed." From Tyre they sail- ed to Ptolemais, where they spent one day, and from Ptolemais proceeded, apparently by land, to Cajsarea. In this place was settled Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven, and he became the host of Paul and his friends. Philip had four unmarried daughters, who "prophesied," and who repeated, no douljt, the warn- ings already heard. Cajsarea was within an easy jour- ney of Jerusalem, and Paul maj' have thought it pru- dent not to be too long in Jerusalem before the fes- tival ; otherwise it might seem strange that, after the former haste, they now '• tarried man j' days" at Cajsarea. During this interval the prophet Agabus (Acts xi, 28) came down from Jerusalem, and crowned the previous intimations of danger with a prediction expressively delivered. It would seem as if the approaching im- prisonment were intended to be conspicuous in the eyes of the Church, as an agencj' for the accomplish- ment of God's designs. At this stage a final effort was made to dissuade Paul from going up to Jerusa- lem, by the Christians of Cassarea, and by his travel- ling companions. But "Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart ? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying. The will of the Lord be done." So, after a while, thej' wont up to Jerusa- lem, and were gladly received by the brethren. This is Paul's fifth and last visit to Jerusalem.
9. First Imprisonment. — (1.) Arrest at Jenisalem (A.D. 55). He who was thus conducted into Jerusa- lem by a company of anxious friends had become by this time a man of considerable fame among his coun- tr^'men. He was widely known as one who had taught with pre-eminent boldness that a way into God's favor was opened to the Gentiles, and that this way did not lie through the door of the Jewish law. He had more- over actually founded numerous and important com- munities, composed of Jews and Gentiles together, which stood simply on the name of Jesus Christ, apart from circumcision and the observance of the law. He had thus roused against himself the bitter enmity of that unfathomable Jewish pride which was almost as strong in some of those who had professed the faith of Jesus as in their unconverted brethren. This enmit}' had for years been vexing both the body and the spirit of the apostle. He had no rest from its persecutions; and his jo}- in proclaiming the free grace of God to the world was mixed with a constant sorrow that in so doing he was held to be disloyal to the calling of his fathers. He was now approaching a crisis in the long struggle, and the shadow of it had been made to rest upon his mind throughout his journey to Jerusalem. He came " read}- to die for the name of the Lord Jesus," but he came expresslj' to prove himself a faithful Jew, and this purpose emerges at every point of the history.
Luke does not mention (except incidentally, Acts xxiv, 17) the contributions brought by Paul and his companions for the ]iO(ir at Jerusalem. But it is to bo assumed tliat their first act was to deliver these funds into the proper hands. This might be done at the in- terview which took jilace on the following day with ■'James and all the elders." As on former occasions, the believers at Jerusalem could not but glorify (iod tor what tliey heard; but they had been alarmed by the prevalent feeling concerning Paul. They said to
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him, " Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which beUeve ; and they are all zealous of the law ; and they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among tlie Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circum- cise their children, neither to walk after the customs." This report, as James and the elders assume, was not a true one; it was a perversion of Paul's real teaching, whicli did not, in fact, differ from theirs. In order to dispel such rumors, they ask him to do publicly an act of homage to the law and its observances. They had four men who were under the Nazaritish vow. The completion of this vow involved (Numb, vi, 13-21) a considerable expense for the offerings to be presented in the Temple; and it was a meritorious act to provide these offerings for the poorer Nazarites. Paul was re- quested to put himself under the vow with those other four, and to supply the cost of their offerings. He at once accepted the proposal, and on the next day, hav- ing performed some ceremonj' which implied the adop- tion of the vow, he went into the Temple, announcing that the due offerings for each Nazaritc were about to be presented and the period of the vow terminated. It appears that the whole process undertaken by Paul re- quired seven days to complete it. Towards the end of this time certain Jews from "Asia," who had come up for the Pentecostal feast, and who had a personal knowl- edge both of Paul himself and of his companion Trophi- mus, a Gentile from Ephesus, saw Paul in the Temple. They immediately set upon him, and stirred up the people against him, crying out, '"Men of Israel, help: this is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place ; and further brought Greeks also into the Temple, and hath polluted this holy place." The latter charge had no more truth in it than the first : it was only suggested by their having seen Trophimus with him, not in the Temple, but in the city. They raised, however, a great commotion: Paul was dragged out of the Temple, of which the doors were immediately shut, and the people, having him in their hands, were proposing to kill him. But tidings were soon carried to the commander of the force which was serving as a garrison in Jerusalem, that "all Jerusalem was in an uproar;" and he, taking with him soldiers and centurions, hastened to the scene of the tumult. Paul was rescued from the violence of the multitude by the Roman officer, who made him his own prisoner, causing him to be chained to two soldiers, and then proceeded to inquire who he was and what he had done. The inquiry only elicited confused outcries, and the "chief captain" seems to have imagined that the apostle might perhaps be a certain Egyptian pre- tender who had recently stirred up a considerable rising of the people, apparently the same impostor mentioned by Josephus (.Ih^xx, 7, C; IFo?-, ii, 13,5). The ac- count in the Acts (xxi, 84-40) tells us with graphic touches how Paul obtained leave and opportunity to address the people in a discourse which is related at length.