But why then did the historian not state this simple fact ? It lies out of his purpose and method to notice such personal details. He states in the briefest possible form the essential facts of the evangelisation of the world ; and everything else he passes over as of ephemeral nature. We are dealing with a first century, and not a nineteenth century historian, — one who had not the eager desire to understand causes and reasons which characterises the present day, one who wrote for a public that was quite satisfied with a statement of facts without a study of causes. There is too much tendency to demand from the first century writers an answer to all the questions we should like to put.
94 Foundation of the Churches of Galatia. Chap. V.
Moreover, Luke passes very lightly over the sufferings and the dangers that Paul encountered ; many he omits entirely, others he mentions without emphasising the serious nature of the case (p. 279 f.).
It is plain that Paul at the moment felt deeply wounded. The journey which he felt to be absolutely necessary in the interests of future work was treated by Mark as an abandonment of the work ; and his sensitive nature would consider Mark's arguments, plausible as they were in some respects, as equivalent to a declaration of want of confidence. But that feeling, though it lasted for some years, was not of the permanent nature which would put it on the same plane as the facts recorded by Luke. Who can think that Paul would have desired permanent record of his illness and Mark's desertion ? And his desire on a matter personal to himself would be Luke's law.
2. THE "THORN IN THE FLESH". The character of the Pamphylian country, not merely in its modern half- cultivated condition, but at all times, must have been enervating and calculated to bring out any latent weakness of constitution. Now it is a probable and generally accepted view that the " physical weakness," which was the occasion why Paul preached to the Galatians, was the same malady which tormented him at frequent intervals. I have suggested that this malady was a species of chronic malaria fever ; and, in view of criticisms, it is necessary to dwell on this point ; for I have incurred the blame of exagger- ating an ephemeral attack. The question is put whether such an illness "could reasonably have called forth their contempt and loathing ".*
1 Expositor, Dec, 1893, p. 417.
Sec 2. The " Thorn in the Flesh
95
A physical weakness, which recurs regularly in some situation that one is regularly required by duty to face, produces strong and peculiar effect on our human nature. An attentive student of mankind has caught this trait and described it clearly in one of the characters whom his genius has created. I quote from Charles Reade's description of a clergyman engaged in warfare against the barbarity of prison discipline, upon whom every scene of cruelty which he had often to witness produced a distressing physical effect, sickness and trembling. "His high-tuned nature gave way. He locked the door that no one might see his weak- ness ; and, then, succumbing to nature, he fell first into a sickness and then into a trembling, and more than once hysterical tears gushed from his eyes in the temporary pros- tration of his spirit and his powers. Such are the great. Men know their feats, but not their struggles." The feeling of shame at this weakness is several times described in the course of the narrative {It is Never too Late to Mend) ; and, when at last nature, on the verge of a more serious physical prostration, ceased to relieve itself in this painful way, " he thanked Heaven for curing him of that contemptible infirmity, so he called it ". Yet that weakness did not prevent the sufferer from facing his duty, but only came on as a consequence ; and it could be hidden within the privacy of his chamber. Let the reader conceive the distress and shame of the sufferer, if the weakness had prostrated him before his duty was finished, and laid him helpless before them all when he required his whole strength. Surely he would have " besought the Lord that it might depart from" him, and regarded it as "a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him" (II Cor. XII 7, 8).