5. THE LATER HISTORY OF THE CHURCHES OF GALATIA is obscure. They took part in the contribu- tion raised by the Pauline Churches for the poor brethren at Jerusalem (p. 286 f.), and were represented in the delegation that carried it to Jerusalem. Thereafter history ends, and tradition alone preserves some scraps of infor- mation about Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. Derbe alone is not mentioned either in the tradition (so far as my knowledge extends) or in the history of the Church until we come down to A.D. 381, when its bishop Daphnus was present at the Council of Constantinople. The only hope of further information about the four Churches lies in
Sec. 5. Later History of the Churches of Galatia. 193
archaeology ; but unless the spade can be brought to supplement the too scanty records that remain above ground, little can be hoped for.1
JThe Christian antiquities of Antioch and Iconium will be dis- cussed at some length in my Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia. If my dream of excavating the deserted sites of Derbe and Lystra be ever realised, they would form the subject of a special treatise.
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i. ACROSS ASIA. (XVI 6) AND THEY, HAVING MADE A PROGRESS THROUGH THE PHRYGIAN REGION OF the province GALATIA, AND HAVING BEEN PREVENTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM SPEAKING THE WORD IN the province ASIA, (7) AND HAVING REACHED A POINT OVER AGAINST MYSIA (or, perhaps, on the skirts of Mysid), WERE ATTEMPTING TO MAKE THEIR WAY INTO the province BITHYNIA; AND THE SPIRIT OF JESUS SUFFERED THEM NOT; (8) AND, NEGLECTING MYSIA, THEY CAME DOWN TO the harbour TROAS. (9) AND A VISION APPEARED TO PAUL BY NIGHT: THERE WAS A CERTAIN MAN, A MACEDONIAN, STAND- ING, AND EXHORTING HIM AND SAYING, "COME OVER TO MACEDONIA, AND HELP US ". (io) AND WHEN HE SAW THE VISION, IMMEDIATELY WE SOUGHT TO GO OUT from Asia INTO the province MACEDONIA, AS- SUREDLY GATHERING THAT "GOD HAS SUMMONED US TO BRING THE GOOD NEWS TO THEM".
Paul and his companions made a missionary pro- gress through the Phrygian Region of the province Galatia (p. 104), and then crossed the frontier of the province Asia : but here they were prevented from preaching, and the prohibition was made absolute for
(i94)
Sec. i. Across Asia. 195
the entire province. They therefore kept to the north across Asian Phrygia with the intention of entering the adjoining Roman province Bithynia ; but when they came opposite Mysia, and were attempting to go out of Asia into Bithynia, the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not. They therefore kept on towards the west through Mysia, without preaching in it (as it was part of Asia), until they came out on its western coast at the great harbour of Alexandria Troas.
The expression marks clearly the distinction between the prohibition to preach in Asia, while they were actu- ally in it, and the prohibition even to set foot in Bithynia. It was necessary for them to cross Asia in order to fulfil the purpose for which they were about to be called.
The geographical facts of this paragraph are stated with great clearness in the text followed by the Author- ised Version and the older editions ; but the reading which they give is founded on Manuscripts of an inferior class (while the great MSS. have a different text), and is characterised by the sequence of three participial clauses, a sequence almost unique in Luke's writings, and therefore suspected and altered. But the strange form of construction by a succession of participles suits so perfectly the strange and unique character, the hurry, and the deep-lying emotion of the passage (see § 2) that, as Lightfoot's judgment, Bibl. Essays, p. 237, per- ceived, the inferior MSS. must here be followed. The text of the great MSS., though it does not quite conceal the feeling of the passage, yet obscures it a little, and, by approximating more to Luke's ordinary form of sentence, loses that perfect adaptation of form to sense, which so