The order in which the different threads of the narrative here succeed one another exactly recalls the method of XI 27-XII 25. There vv. 27-30 narrate the events in Antioch, and bring Barnabas and Saul to the gates of Jerusalem ; next, the events in Jerusalem are brought up to date ; and then the action of the envoys in Jerusalem is described. So here Paul's journey is narrated, and he is brought to the frontier of Asia ; next, the events in Ephesus are brought up to date ; and then Paul's entrance into Asia and his action at Ephesus are described.
3. EPHESUS. (XIX I) AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT, WHILE APOLLOS WAS AT CORINTH, PAUL, HAVING PASSED THROUGH THE UPPER DISTRICTS, CAME TO EPHESUS. (8) AND HE ENTERED INTO THE SYNAGOGUE, AND SPAKE BOLDLY FOR THE SPACE OF THREE MONTHS, REASONING AND PERSUADING AS TO WHAT CONCERNS THE KINGDOM OF GOD. (9) BUT WHEN SOME WERE HARDENED AND DISOBEDIENT, SPEAKING EVIL OF THE WAY BEFORE THE MULTITUDE, HE DEPARTED FROM THEM AND SEPARATED THE DISCIPLES, REASON- ING DAILY IN THE SCHOOL OF TYRANNUS [FROM THE FIFTH TO THE TENTH HOUR], (io) AND THIS CON- TINUED FOR THE SPACE OF TWO YEARS.
270 The Church in Asia. Chap. XII.
The distinction between the period of preaching in the synagogue and the direct address to the Ephesian population is very clearly marked, and the times given in each case. In vv. 2-7 a strange episode is related before Paul entered the synagogue. He found twelve men who had been baptised by the baptism of John, and induced them to accept re-baptism. This episode I must confess not to understand. It interrupts the regular method of Luke's narrative ; for in all similar cases, Paul goes to the synagogue, and his regular efforts for his own people are related before any exceptional cases are recorded. The circumstances, too, are difficult. How had these twelve escaped the notice of Aquila, Priscilla, and Apollos, and yet attracted Paul's attention before he went to the synagogue ? Perhaps the intention is to represent Paul as completing and perfecting the work begun by Apollos ; re-baptism was, apparently, not thought necessary for Apollos, and now Paul lays down the principle that it is required in all such cases. But that seems distinctly below the level on which Luke's conception of Paul is pitched. If there were any authority in MS. or ancient Versions to omit the episode, one would be inclined to take that course. As there is none, I must acknowledge that I cannot reconcile it with the conception of Luke's method, founded on other parts of the narrative, which is maintained in this book. Possibly better knowledge about the early history of the Ephesian Church might give this episode more significance and importance in the development oi history than it seems to possess.
We should be glad to know more about the lecture- room of Tyrannus. It played the same part in Ephesus
Sec. 3. Ephesus. 271
that the house of Titius Justus adjoining the synagogue did in Corinth. Here Paul regularly taught every day ; and the analogy which we have noticed in other cases (pp. 75, 243) between his position, as it would appear to the general population, and that of the rhetors and philosophers of the time, is very marked. There is one difference, according to the Bezan Text of v. 9 Paul taught after the usual work of the lecture-room was concluded, i.e., " after business hours ". Doubtless he himself began to work (XX 34, I Cor. IV 12) before sunrise and continued at his trade till closing time, an hour before noon. His hours of work are defined by himself, I Thess. II 9, "ye remember our labour and toil, working day and night " ; there, as often in ancient literature, the hours before daybreak are called " night," and his rule at Thessalonica may be extended to Ephesus. Public life in the Ionian cities ended regularly at the fifth hour ; and we may add to the facts elsewhere stated a regulation at Attaleia in Lydia that public distribution of oil should be " from the first to the fifth hour"1. Thus Paul himself would be free, and the lecture-room would be disengaged, after the fifth hour ; and the time, which was devoted generally to home-life and rest, was applied by him to mission-work.