2o8 The Coming of Luke. Chap. IX.
touches of quiet humour are perhaps less characteristically Greek ; but he was not the old Greek of the classical period : he was the Greek of his own age, when Greece had been for centuries a power in Asia; when Macedonia had long been the leading Greek country ; when Stoicism and Epicureanism were the representative philosophies (XVII 18); and when the Greek language was the recognised speech of many eastern Roman provinces, along with the Latin itself. To appreciate Luke, we must study the modern Greek, as well as the Greek of the great age of freedom.
I know that all such mundane characteristics are commonly considered to be non-existent in " the early Christian" ! But an "early Christian" did not cease to be a man, and a citizen. Christianity has not taught men to retire from society and from life ; and least of all did Pauline Christianity teach that lesson. It has impressed on men the duty of living their life better, of striving to mould and to influence society around them, and of doing their best in the position in which they were placed. When Luke became a Christian, he continued to be a Greek, and perhaps became even more intensely a Greek, as his whole life became more intense and more unselfish. It is a complete and ruinous error for the historical student to suppose that Luke broke with all his old thoughts, and habits, and feelings, and friends, when he was converted. He lived in externals much as before ; he observed the same laws of politeness and good- breeding in society (if he followed Paul's instructions) ; his house, his surroundings, continued much the same ; he kept up the same family names ; and, when he died, his grave, his tombstone, and his epitaph, were in the
Sec. 4. The Entrance into Macedonia. 209
ordinary style. It took centuries for Christianity to disengage itself from its surroundings, and to remake society and the rules of life. Yet one rarely finds among modern historians of Christianity in the first two centuries of its growth, any one who does not show a misconception on this point ; and the climax, perhaps, is reached in one of the arguments by which Dr. Ficker attempts to disprove the Christian character of the epitaph of the Phrygian second-century saint, Avircius Marcellus, on the ground that a Christian epitaph would not be engraved on an altar. I presume his point is that the altar-shaped form of tombstone was avoided by the Christians of that time, because it was connected with the pagan worship. But a Pauline Christian would hold that " a gravestone will not commend us to God ; neither, if we use it not, are we the worse, nor if we use it, are we the better" (I Cor. VIII 8); and Avircius Marcellus mentions Paul, and Paul alone among the Apostles, in his epitaph. In fact, almost all the early Christian epitaphs at Eumeneia are engraved on altars, because there that shape was fashionable ; whereas at Apameia they are rarely on altars, because there that shape was not in such common use.
Our view that the author of Acts was a Macedonian does not agree with a tradition (which was believed to occur in Eusebius, see p. 389) that Luke was an Antiochian. The modern authorities who consider this tradition to be founded on a confusion between Lucas and Lucius, an official of the Antiochian Church (XIII 1), seem to have strong probability on their side. The form Lucas may very well be a vulgarism for Lucius ; but, except the name, these two persons have nothing in common. The name
2io The Coming of Lttke. Chap. IX.
Lucas is of most obscure origin : it may be a shortened form of Lucius, or Lucilius, or Lucianus, or Lucanus, or of some Greek compound name. The Latin names, Lucius, Lucilius, etc., were spelt in earlier Greek Aevieto<;, in later Greek Aovkhx; ; and the change may roughly be dated about A.D. 50-75, though Aev/cios in some rare cases occurs later, and possibly Aovklo^ sometimes earlier. It is note- worthy that Aov/cas has the later form.