Again, it is a rule in this historian's clear and practical style, that when Paul is entering (or intending, even though unsuccessfully, to enter) a new field of missionary enter- prise, the field is defined (as in v. 4) ; and the definition usually takes the form of a Roman provincial district. This will become apparent as the narrative proceeds, and the in- ferences that can be drawn from the form of definition or absence of definition in each case will illustrate and give precision to the rule. It is, I believe, a fair inference from the want of any indication of a wider sphere that when the travellers went to Pisidian Antioch, they had not in mind a wider field of work than the city : they went to Pisidian Antioch and not to the province Galatia, in which it was included.
The name is rightly given as Pisidian Antioch in the great MSS. ; the form "Antioch of Pisidia" is a corrup- tion. Besides other reasons, Antioch was not considered by Luke to be in Pisidia (p. 124).
The facts, then, which can be gathered from the narrative of Acts are these. Paul and his companions came to Perga with the view of evangelising the next country on their route, a country similar in character to and closely con- nected in commerce and racial type with Cyprus and Syria
92 Foundation of the Churches of G alalia. Chap. V.
and Cilicia. For some reason the plan was altered, and they passed rapidly over the Pamphylian lowlands and the Pisidian mountain-lands to Antioch, postponing the evan- gelisation of these districts till a later stage of their journey. They went to Antioch for some reason which concerned only that city, and did not contemplate as their object the evangelisation of the province to which it belonged. John, however, refused to participate in the changed programme, presumably because he disapproved of it. His refusal seems to have been felt as a personal slight by Paul, which suggests that the change of plan was in some way caused by Paul. What then was the reason ? Is any clue to it given in any other part of Acts or in the words of Paul himself?
In passing from Perga to Pisidian Antioch, the travellers passed from the Roman province Pamphylia to the Roman province Galatia, and the rest of their journey lay in Galatia until they returned to Perga. Now, we possess a letter written by Paul to the Churches of Galatia, in which he says : " Ye know that it was by reason of physical infirmity that I preached the Gospel unto you on the first-of-my-two- visits ; and the facts of my bodily constitution which were trying to you were not despised nor rejected by you, but ye received me as a messenger of God ". We learn, then, from Paul himself that an illness (we may confidently say a serious illness) was the occasion of his having originally preached to the churches of Galatia. The words do not necessarily imply that the illness began in Galatia ; they are quite con- sistent with the interpretation that the illness was the reason why he came to be in Galatia and had the oppor- tunity of preaching there ; but they imply that the physi- cal infirmity lasted for some considerable time, and was apparent to strangers, while he was in Galatia.
Sec. i. Pamphylia. 93
Here we have a reason, stated by Paul himself, which fully explains ail the curious phenomena of the text of Acts. Paul had a serious illness in Pamphylia, and on that account he left Perga and went to Antioch. It is unnecessary to repeat the argument that this is in perfect agreement with the known facts. Any constitutional weakness was liable to be brought out by " the sudden plunge into the enervating atmosphere of Pamphylia " after the fatigue and hardship of a journey on foot through Cyprus, accompanied by the constant excitement of missionary work, culminating in the intense nervous strain of the supreme effort at Paphos. The natural and common treatment for such an illness is to go to the higher ground of the interior ; and the situation of Antioch (about 3600 ft. above the sea, sheltered by mountains on the north and east, and overlooking a wide plain to the south and south-west), as well as its Jewish population, and commercial connection with the Pamphylian coast-cities, made it a very suitable place for Paul's purpose.