of the Church, although we must never forget that “twice over did Barnabas save Saul for the work of Christianity ’’. —Mapkov: In his two imprisonments St. Paul mentions Mark in terms of high approval, Col. iv. 10, 11, Philem. 24, 2 Tim, iv. 11. In the first imprisonment St. Paul significantly recommends him to the Colossians as being the cousin of Barnabas, one of his own fellow-labourers unto the kingdom of God, one amongst the few who had been a παρηγορία, a comfort unto him. In such words as these St. Paul breaks the silence of the years during which we hear nothing of the relations between him and Mark, although the same notice in Colossians seems to indicate an earlier reconciliation than the date of the letter, since, the Churches of the Lycus valley had al- ready been instructed to receive Mark if he passed that way, Expositor, August, 1897, ‘St. Mark in the N.T.” (Dr. Swete), . 85. 5 Ver. 4ο. Π. δὲ ἐπιλεξ. Σ.: not in the place of Mark, but in the place of Barna- bas, Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 171; having chosen, {.έ., for himself: sibi eligere; only in N.T. in this sense, but in classical Greek and in LXX, 1 Sam. ii. 28 A, 2 Sam. x. g R, Ecclus. vi. 18, 1 Esdras ix; 16, 1 Macc. i. 63 R, v. 17, etc.; “elegit ut socium, non ut. ministrum” (Blass). If Silas had not returned to Jerusalem, but had remained in Antioch (see above on ver. 35), he had doubtless recommended himself to Paul by some special proof of fitness for dealing sym- pathetically with the relations of the Jewish Christians and the Gentile con- νετί This sympathy on the part of Silas would be the more marked and significant as he was himself almost cer- tainly a Hebrew; otherwise we cannot account for his high position in the Jerusalem Church, ver. 22, although his Roman citizenship is implied in xvi. 37; perhaps this latter fact may account for his freedom from narrow Jewish pre- judices. If we may identify, as we’ reasonably may, the Silas of Acts with the Silas (Silvanus) of the Epistles, 2 Cor. i. 19, 1 Thess. i. 1, 2 Thess. i. 1, I Pet. v. 12, the last mention of him by St. Peter becomes very suggestive. For St. Peter’s First Epistle contains the names of the two men, Mark and Sil-
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