The clerk {Grammateus) of the city of Ephesus was not a Roman official, but, as the most important officer of the capital of the province, he was in closer relations with the Roman policy than ordinary city magistrates : and he pointedly acquitted Paul of any treasonable design against the State or against the established order of the city, and challenged the rioters to bring any charge against Paul before the Roman Courts. The Asiarchs, who were officials of the province, and there- fore part of the Roman political system, were his friends, and showed special care to secure his safety at that time. Even the jailor at Philippi was an officer of Rome, though a very humble one : and he found Paul a friend in need, and became a friend in turn.
The magistrates of ordinary Greek cities were not so favourable to Paul as the Roman officials are represented. At Iconium they took active part against him ; and the silence about the magistrates of the colonies Antioch and Lystra is made more marked by the mention of those of Iconium. At Thessalonica the magistrates excluded him from the city as a cause of disorder. At Athens the Areopagus was contemptuous and undecided. The favourable disposition of Roman officials towards Paul is made more prominent by the different disposition of the ordinary municipal authorities.
These facts acquire more meaning and more definite
relation to the historian's purpose when we come to the
20
306 The Voyage to Jerusalem. Chap. XIII.
last scenes of the book. We cannot but recognise how pointedly the Imperial officials are represented as Paul's only safeguard from the Jews, and how their friendly disposition to him is emphasised. Even Felix, one of the worst of Roman officials, is affected by Paul's teaching, and on the whole protects Paul, though his sordid motives are not concealed, and he finally left Paul bound, as " desiring to gain favour with the Jews," XXIV 27 ; but at least there was no official action on the, part of Felix against him. Festus, his successor, is described as just and fair towards Paul ; he found in him "nothing worthy of death," and had difficulty in discovering any definite charge against him that he could report when sending him for trial before the supreme court of the Empire. The inferior officials, from the tribune Claudius Lysias, to the centurion Julius, are represented as very friendly. This is all the more marked, because nothing is said at any stage of the proceedings of kindness shown to Paul by any others ; yet no one can doubt that the household of Philip and the general body of Christians in Caesareia tried to do everything possible for him. We see then that the historian, out of much that might be recorded, selects for emphasis the friendliness of the Roman officials : in the climax of his subject he con- centrates the reader's attention on the conduct of Romans to Paul,1 and on their repeated statements that Paul was innocent in the eyes of Roman Imperial law and policy. Throughout the whole book, from the time when the centurion Cornelius is introduced, great art is shown in
1 Luke says nothing about kindness shown to Paul by James and others in Jerusalem; but we do not (like Dean Farrar) gather that they were unfriendly
Sec. 7. The Crisis in the fate of Paul. 307
bringing out without any formal statement the friendly relations between the Romans and the new teaching, even before Paul became the leading spirit in its development. To a certain extent, of course, that lies in the subject matter, and the historian simply relates the facts as they occurred, without colouring them for his purpose ; but he is responsible for the selection of details, and while he has omitted an enormous mass of details (some of which we can gather from other inform- ants), he has included so many bearing on this point, as to show beyond all question his keen interest in it.