It is apparent how far removed we are from a view, which has been widely entertained, "that there was an entire dislocation and discontinuity in the history of Christianity in Asia Minor at a certain epoch ; that the Apostle of the Gentiles was ignored and his teaching repudiated, if not anathematised"; and that this anti- Pauline tendency found in " Papias a typical representa- tive". Like Lightfoot, whose summary we quote, we must reject that view. We find in the epitaph of the second-century Phrygian saint, Avircius Marcellus, a proof of the deep reverence retained in Asia Minor for St. Paul : when he travelled, he took Paul everywhere with him as his guide and companion.
These considerations show the extreme importance of the change of plan that led Paul across Taurus to Pisidian Antioch. So far as it is right to say that any single event is of outstanding importance, the step that took Paul away from an outlying corner and put him on the
I40 St. Paul in Galatia. Chap. VI.
main line of development at the outset of his work in Asia Minor, was the most critical step in his history. It is noteworthy that the historian, who certainly understood its importance, and whose sympathy was deeply engaged in it, does not attribute it to Divine suggestion, though he generally records the Divine guidance in the great crises of Paul's career ; and it stands in perfect agreement with this view, that Paul himself, when he impresses on the Galatian Churches in the strongest terms his Divine com- mission to the Gentiles, does not say that the occasion of his going among them was the Divine guidance, but ex- pressly mentions that an illness was the cause why he preached among them at first.
Now, every reader must be struck with the stress that is laid, alike by Paul and by Luke, throughout their writings, on the Divine guidance. They both find the justification of all Paul's innovations on missionary enter- prise in the guiding hand of God. We demand that there should be a clear agreement in the occasions when they discerned that guidance ; and in this case the South- Galatian theory enables us to recognise a marked negative agreement.
Further, there is evidently a marked difference between the looser way of talking about " the hand of God " that is common in the present day, and the view entertained by Paul or Luke. Where a great advantage results from a serious illness, many of us would feel it right to recognise and acknowledge the " guiding hand of God " ; but it is evident that, when Luke or Paul uses such language as " the Spirit suffered them not," they refer to some definite and clear manifestation, and not to a guidance which be- came apparent only through the results. The superhuman
Sec i. The Imperial and tlie Christian Policy. 141
element is inextricably involved in Luke's history and in Paul's letters.
All that has just been said is, of course, mere empty verbiage, devoid of any relation to Paul's work and policy in Galatia, if the Churches of Galatia were not the active centres of Roman organising effort, such as the colonies Antioch and Lystra, or busy trading cities like Claud - Iconium and Claudio-Derbe, but Pessinus and some villages in the wilderness of the Axylon (as Professor Zockler has quite recently maintained). Lightfoot saw the character of Paul's work, and supposed him to have gone to the great cities of North Galatia, and specially the me- tropolis Ancyra ; but the most recent development of the North-Galatian theory denies that Paul ever saw the Roman central city.
2. THE JEWS IN ASIA AND SOUTH GALATIA. In
Cyprus, Barnabas and Saul had confined themselves within the circle of the synagogue, until Paul stepped forth from it to address the Roman proconsul. In entering Galatia Paul was passing from Semitic surroundings into a province where Greek was the language of all even moderately edu- cated persons, and where Graeco-Roman manners and ideas were being actively disseminated and eagerly assimilated by all active and progressive and thoughtful persons. How then did Paul, with his versatility and adaptability, appear among the Galatians, and in what tone did he address them ?