1 1 2 Foundation of the Churches of Galatia. Chap. V.
visit to Derbe and the long visit to Lystra. (3) In XVIII 23, as he enters the Roman Region from the " Antiochian Part," the writer uses the name which Paul would use as he was entering it, and calls it " the Galatic Region ". This is characteristic of Acts : it moves amid the people, and the author has caught his term in many a case from the mouth of the people. But this is done with no subservience to vulgar usage ; the writer is on a higher level of thought, and he knows how to select those popular terms which are vital and powerful, and to reject those which are vulgar and inaccurate : he moves among the people, and yet stands apart from them.
The subsequent narrative makes it clear that Paul visited only Lystra and Derbe. Why, then, should the author mention that Paul proceeded " to Lystra and Derbe and the Region in which they lie " ? The reason lies in his habit of defining each new sphere of work according to the existing political divisions of the Roman Empire.
It is characteristic of Luke's method never formally to enunciate Paul's principle of procedure, but simply to state the facts and leave the principle to shine through them ; and here it shines clearly through them, for he made the limit of Roman territory the limit of his work, and turned back when he came to Lystra. He did not go on to Laranda, which was probably a greater city than Derbe at the time, owing to its situation and the policy followed by King Antiochus. Nor did he go to the uncivilised, uneducated native villages or towns of Roman Galatia, such as Barata.
Accordingly, the historian in the few words (XIV 6, 7) assumes and embodies the principle which can be
Sec. 6. The Cities of Lycaonia. 113
recognised as guiding Paul's action, viz., to go to the Roman world, and especially to its great cities. There is no more emphatic proof of the marvellous delicacy in expression that characterises the selection of words in Acts, — a delicacy that can spring only from perfect knowledge of the characters and actions described.
But the passage, not unnaturally, caused great difficulties to readers of the second century, when the bounds of Galatia had changed, and the remarkable definition of XIV 6 had become unintelligible. It was then gathered from these words that some preaching took place in " the region round about," and the explanation was found in the later historical fact (which we may assume unhesitatingly as true), that converts of Paul carried the new religion over the whole region. This fact, got from independent knowledge, was added to the text, and thus arose the " Western " Text, which appears with slight variations in different authorities. In Codex Bezce the result is as follows (alterations being in italics) : —
"(4) AND THE POPULACE remained divided, SOME TAKING PART WITH THE JEWS, AND SOME WITH THE APOSTLES, cleaving to them through the word of God. (5) And again the fews, along with the Gentiles, roused per- secution for the second time, and having stoned them they cast them out of the city ; (6) and fleeing they came into Lycaonia, to a certain city called LYSTRA, AND DERBE, AND THE whole SURROUNDING REGION ; (7) AND THEY WERE THERE ENGAGED IN PREACHING, and the entire population was moved at the teaching ; but Paul and Barnabas continued in Lystra."
In this text the Pauline myth has been considerably developed. The disciples cling to the Apostles, are per-
8
1 1 4 Foundation of the Churches of Gatatia. Chap. V.
secuted with them, accompany their flight, and preach in the surrounding Region, while Paul and Barnabas spent their time at Lystra. But the enlarged text moves in the atmosphere of the second century. It gives us an idea of the difficulties besetting the study of Acts even then, owing to the changes that had occurred in the surroundings of the events narrated ; and it shows that these difficulties were not ignored and the text accepted as inspired and above comprehension, but facts of history were applied to explain the difficulties.