How long a period of time is covered by v. 49 we cannot tell with certainty ; but it must be plain to every one that the estimate of the whole residence at Antioch as two to six months, is, as is elsewhere said, a minimum.
It may be observed that in the Antiochian narrative a period of some weeks is passed over in total silence, then thirty-three verses are devoted to the epoch-making events of two successive Sabbaths, and then another considerable period is summed up in v. 49.
The action by which Paul and Barnabas were expelled from Antioch has been fully described elsewhere. The expulsion was inflicted by the magistrates of the city, and was justified to their minds in the interests of peace and order. It was not inflicted by officials of the province, and hence the effect is expressly restricted by the historian to Antiochian territory. Slight as the details are, they suit the circumstances of the time perfectly.
A slight addition made in Codex Beza> at this point presents some features of interest. In the Approved Text the Jews " roused persecution " against the Apostles ; bul in the Codex they roused " great affliction and persecution ",
1 Church in R. E., p. 396 ; Cities and Bishoprics, p. 56.
106 Foundation of the Churches of Galatia. Chap. V.
The additional words are not characterised by that delicate precision in the choice of terms which belongs to Luke. " Affliction " (OXiyjns) refers more to the recipient, " perse- cution " (Bio)y/x6<i) to the agent ; hence the " to rouse perse- cution " is a well-chosen phrase, but " to rouse affliction " is not. The words of Codex Bezce have been added under the influence of the enumeration of his sufferings given by Paul in II Cor. XI 23 (cp. II Tim. Ill 11). The dispro- portion between that list and the references to physical sufferings in Acts led to a series of additions, designed to bring about a harmony between the two authorities.
In the additions of this kind made to Codex Bezce we have the beginnings of a Pauline myth. There is nothing in which popular fancy among the early Christians showed itself so creative as the tortures of its heroes. The earliest Acta of martyrs contain only a moderate amount of torture, such in kind as was inseparable from Roman courts of justice ; as time passed, these tortures seemed insufficient, and the old Acta were touched up to suit what the age believed must have taken place. Where we possess accounts of a martyrdom of different dates, the older are less filled with sufferings than the later. A similar process of accretion to Acts was actually beginning, but was checked by the veneration that began to regard its text as sacred.
Luke passes very lightly over Paul's sufferings : from II Tim. Ill 11, we see that he must have endured much. He was three times beaten with the rods of lie- tors before A.D. 56 (II Cor. XI 25). Now, since the Roman governors whom he met were favourable to him, these beatings must have taken place in "colonies," whose magistrates were attended by lictors. It is probable that
Sec 4. The Church at Pisidian Antioch. 107
the persecution which is mentioned in Antioch, and hinted at in Lystra, included beating by lictors. It is noteworthy that the magistrates of these two cities are not expressly mentioned, and therefore there was no opportunity for describing their action. The third beating by lictors was in Philippi, also a colony.
Similarly it can hardly be doubted that some of the five occasions on which Paul received stripes from the Jews were in the Galatian cities, where some Jews were so active against him.
5. ICONIUM. (XIV i) AND IT CAME TO PASS IN ICONIUM AFTER THE SAME FASHION as in Antioch THAT THEY ENTERED INTO THE SYNAGOGUE OF THE JEWS AND SO SPAKE THAT A GREAT MULTITUDE, BOTH OF JEWS AND OF GREEKS, BELIEVED. (2) BUT THE DISAFFECTED AMONG THE JEWS STIRRED UP AND EXASPERATED THE MINDS OF THE GENTILES AGAINST THE BRETHREN. (4) AND THE POPULACE WAS DIVIDED ; AND PART HELD WITH THE JEWS AND PART WITH THE APOSTLES. (5) AND WHEN THERE WAS MADE AN ONSET BOTH OF THE GENTILES AND OF THE JEWS WITH THEIR RULERS, TO ENTREAT THEM SHAMEFULLY, AND TO STONE THEM, (6) THEY BECAME AWARE OF IT, AND FLED INTO LYCAONIA.