right across the continent as far as beyond Babylon. And we learn from Josephus (' Ant.,' xii. 3, 4) that this king, with a view to the consolidation of his power, ordered his general Zeuxis to remove two thousand Jewish fa.milie11 from Mesopotamia and Babylon into Lydia and Phrygia, and to locate them "in the castles and places most convenient ; " at the same time securing to them the free exercise of their religion, making them grants of land for building homes and for husbandry, and conferring various immunities indicative of his confidence in their loyalty to his government. I£ this scheme was fully carried out, it would infer the implantation in those countries of a population of not less than ten thonsand people. Some of these could hardly fail of becoming established in Galatia. It is, indeed, quite supposable that the disquiets in these parts of his dominions which, as he tells Zenxis, led him to adopt this measure, had their origin in part in the turbulent spirit of the Ganls recently settled in Asia Minor or still roving about unsettled. At all events, these Jewish settlements in "Phrygia" would become nuclei, sending forth ramifications which would quickly spread in districts so fertile as Galatia was. That J ewe did abound in the Galatic region in particular is evinced by another fact recorded by Josephus (' Ant.,' xvi. 6, 2), who tells that by Augnstns's command a copy of an address which he had received from the Jews, together with a decree of his issued in consequence of it, which ensured to them protection in their religions observances, was inscribed upon a pillar in his temple at Ancyra, the capital of the province. Accordingly, we find in the history of the Acts abundant proofs of the great influence which the Jews were able to exercise in all these parts of .A.sia Minor of whose evangelization St. Luke has given any details; and the like may be presumed to have been the case in other places his references to which are only brief and allusive. The important influence of the Jewish population of "those parts" (.A.cts xvi. 3) is further shown by the circumstance that, in consideration thereof, St. Paul at Lystra or Iconium thought it advisable to circumcise Timothy to facilitate his evangelizing work. Roman roads. The spreading abroad of the now co=ercial people of the Jews was favoured by the accommodation which the Roman government provided for easier locomotion, in the roads it built intersecting these countries of .A.sia Minor in all directions, and they are particularized (we are told) in the Itineraries, and some of them are still in existence. These passed through Gordium, formerly the capital city of Phrygia, and still in those days an important centre of traffic, lying on the north-western frontier of Galatia, and went out by Tavium, another important centre of commerce on the eastern side. These roads had no doubt much to do with the direction of the course which St. Paul took in his three great journeyings in .A.sia Minor. On this subject the reader is referred to the interesting and highly illustrative chapters in Conybeare and Howson's work on St. Paul, in which Dean Howson follows up the apostle's travels m those countries (eh. vi.-viii.). vl INTRODUC1'10N 'l'O
'l_'hc Jewz'..sh tincfore of the Epistle. Attention has been drawn by Dr. JoweU. and others to the especially Jewish character which in this Epistilo marks St. Paul's reasonings and style of illustration. And this h:tS been supposed to favour an inference which has be:-m deduced from eh. iv. 9, that the persons he addresses were to a great degree actually Jews. This inference, however, itself rests, as I venture to think, upon a mistaken view of the apostle's meaning in that passage (see note, iii Zoe.); whilo further he expressly affirms, in the immediately preceding verse, that the Churchmen . he is writing to had before their conversion been in bondao-e to ~ gods which were really no gods. Moreover, that they were Gentiles is clea.rly implied in eh. ii. 5, " That the truth of the gospel might continne with yon," and is rendered certain by their not having been circumcised, but. only solicited to receive circumcision (eh. v. 2, 3; vi. 12). The Jewish tincture which St. Paul feels at liberty to give to his discourse admits of being more satisfactorily explained by other considerations, which have ~ot, so far as I have observed, been sufficiently taken into account. The method which the apostle uniformly pursued in his· work of evan- gelizing the heathen, that is, by addressing in each place " the Jew first," was both justified and recommended for his adoption by the consideration that Jewish converts might be expected to snpply the most ready and, when genuine believers, the most reliable instruments for the religious guidance in the first instance of the newly formed Churches. The new economy was professedly based upon the old, being in fact its proper and its all along designed development; so that "the scribe discipled to the kingdom of heaven" stood in a position, relatively to other Christians, pre- eminently favourable for being quaJified to instruct his brethren drawn from the Gentiles : out of his already well-filled treasure he could bring forth things old as well as new (Matt. xiii 52). The "old things" were familiar to hie hand, and when illuminated and more completely vitalized by combination with the new, were immediately available for the most effective enforcement of the doctrine of Christ. First presbyters mostly Jewish converts. We read in the Acts that when Barnabas and Paul, retracing their steps homewards, -visited Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia, confirming the souls of the disciples, they appointed for them elders in every Church (Acts xiv. 21-23). We read this at first with some surprise; how was it possible that communities composed of converts so recently made, and after the small amount of Christian instruc- tion which was all they could have possibly received, should be able to supply men qualified to take the lead in teaching as well as in practical guidance? Having in view bodies of converts in the present day gatherod in by our own missionaries, for example in India or in China, it strikes our minds that the appointment to the presbyteral office of neophytes so recent would seem to be a measnre which, if unavoidable, would, however, bo fraught with great hazard. I3ut our embarrassment is greatly relieved when we recall to mind the converts from the synagogue. Here were men 'l'IIE EPISTLI~ 'l'O TIIE GALATIANS. vii