86 Journey of Barnabas and Saul. Chap. IV.
followed by that transport of power, which attested the grace that was given to the bold innovator, and the Divine approval and confirmation of his step. On former occasions the grace that was evident in Antioch confirmed the high character of the Antiochian Brotherhood in the eyes of Barnabas {Acts XT 23), and the grace that was given Paul had justified his apostolate in the eyes of James, Peter and John {Gal. II 9).
Such is the situation in which we stand when we trans- port ourselves in thought to the time and the country where the events took place, and take the few brief words of Luke in the sense which they bore to the men of his time. But now let us turn from this picture to see what is made of the scene by the critic, who sits in his study and writes as if the men of this book were artificial figures and not real human beings. Weizsacker, one of the most dis- tinguished of modern German scholars, finds in this delicacy of language nothing but a sign of double authorship. The late author, he says, used two earlier authorities, one of whom employed the name Saul, while the other designated the Apostle as Paul, and by a mere conjecture he puts the change at this point. Weizsacker emphasises this view that the point was selected by an arbitrary conjecture, and that any other point might have been chosen equally well. It might almost seem that, in a statement like this, the learned professor is taking his fun off us, and is experimenting to see how much the world will accept at the mouth of a deservedly famous scholar without rebelling.
Mr. Lewin states better than almost any other the force of this passage when he says : " The dropping of the Jewish, and the adoption of a Roman name, was in harmony with the great truth he was promulgating — that henceforth the
Sec. 4. Saul, otherwise Paul. 87
partition between Jew and Gentile was broken down". He then asks, " Why is not the name of Paul introduced when he first left Antioch to commence his travels?" and after he has in a rather hesitating way suggested some quite un- suitable occasions as possible for the change, he rightly concludes, u It occurs more naturally immediately after- wards when Saul stands forth by himself and becomes the principal actor".
The marvels described in Acts concern my present pur- pose only in so far as they bear upon the historical effect of the narrative. In themselves they do not add to, but detract from its verisimilitude as history. They are dif- ficulties ; but my hope is to show first that the narrative apart from them is stamped as authentic, second that they are an integral part of it. To study and explain them does not belong to me. Twenty years ago I found it easy to dispose of them ; but now-a-days probably not even the youngest among us finds himself able to maintain that we have mastered the secrets of nature, and determined the limits which divide the unknown from the impossible. That Paul believed himself to be the recipient of direct re- velations from God, to be guided and controlled in his plans by direct interposition of the Holy Spirit, to be en- abled by the Divine power to move the forces of nature in a way that ordinary men cannot, is involved in this narrative. You must make up your own minds to accept or to reject it , but you cannot cut out the marvellous from the rest, nor can you believe that either Paul or this writer was a mere victim of hallucinations. To the men of that age only what was guaranteed by marvellous accompaniments was true ; to us unusual accompaniments tend to disprove truth. The contrast between the ages is himmelweit.