THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
whom he had to deal were intelligent and well-meaning men. His favorable judgment of the Roman order (Rom. xiii. 1-7; I Tim. ii. 2) was founded on personal experience: Lastly, Paul's office as missionary and true apostle imposed the duty of organizing the new congregations which he founded, and of watching and guiding their development. The duty carried with it the right to command (I Cor. vii. 10-13, 17, xi. 17, 34, xiv. 37, xvi. 1; I Thess. iv. 2, 11; II Thess. iii. 4-12) and demanded an obedience which was not always accorded (II Cor. ii. 9, x. 5-6; II Thess. iii. 14). But the relation of the congregations to their founder was that between paternal authority and child-like reverence (I Cor. iv. 14 sqq.), and Paul, in accordance with his conviction that freedom is an inalienable characteristic of Christian morality, left no means untried to convince of the necessity and wisdom of his opinions, recommendations, and ordinances. His command and skilful use of argument, pathos, and irony are evident in his epistles; the correspondence with the unruly Church of Corinth, which is not wholly preserved, gives the best picture of this side of Paul's burdensome work, and shows also how, though absent, he cooperated in local church discipline without imposing his opinion as the only one valid (I Cor. v. 1-8; II Cor. ii. 1-11, vii. 2-12). 5. Contest with Judaism: When the Gospel was first offered to the Gentiles there were some in the mother congregation at Jerusalem who found it hard to accept such as fellow believers (Acts xi. 2-3). Men of this type came to Antioch while Paul and Barnabas were absent on the first missionary journey and endangered the growth, if not the very existence, of the Gentile congregation there by teaching that circumcision and full observance of the Mosaic law were essential to salvation (Acts xv. 1). The Apostolic Council at Jerusalem (q.v.) followed and repudiated the teaching of these Judaizers (Acts xv. 2-29; Gal. ii. 1-10), but they continued active. They visited the South Galatian churches while Paul was on his way to Europe on the second missionary journey and produced an effect there which threw Paul, when he heard of it, into the state of agitation and indignation in which the epistle to the Galatians was written. It must not be assumed that the Judaizers were insincere. They were Pharisees (Acts xv. 5) ; and they doubted as little as any Pharisee (Matt, xxiii. 15; Rom. ii. 17-20) that it was the duty of the Jews to open to all men the way of salvation revealed to them. They preached Jesus in their way (II Cor. xi. 4) and zealously. But they asserted that Gentiles, in order to be Christians, must first become Jews. Herein lay the ground of controversy between them and Paul; and Paul entered the contest with a strenuousness and carried it through with a fertility of resource which won him the victory. Appealing to his own experience and that of all upright Christians of Jewish origin (Gal. ii. 15-21; Rom. vii. 1-6; cf. Acts xv. 7-11) and to the results of his labors as divine commendation, he characterized the contention of the Judaizers as a misunderstanding of the law and all pre-Christian history, as a perversion of the Gospel, and as a mischievous attack not merely on the Gentile Christians but
even on the true freedom of all Christians (Gal. ii. 4). None the less he refrained from criticizing Jewish Christians for observing the law and conformed to it himself. The first period of the contest was closed by the decision of the Apostolic Council (in the winter of 51-52 a.d.) that, instead of the uniformity demanded by the Judaizers, there should be a Gentile Church and a Jewish Church. Thenceforth Paul did not lack the approval and support of the Jerusalem Church, or at least of its leaders. But attempts, always emanating from Palestine, continued to be made to undermine his work and disparage him personally. Judaizers appeared in Galatia, in Corinth, in Rome, and no doubt elsewhere. Distorted reports about Paul (cf. Acts xxi. 21) inflamed feeling against him, and his adversaries were able to cite in their favor with some apparent reason the example and teaching of Jesus (cf. Matt. v. 17-19) and the practise of the Jerusalem Church. He felt it of the highest importance to right himself in Palestine, so far as he could, by visiting Jerusalem before he transferred his activity to the West, and he went thither with a large sum of money for the poor, collected in the congregations which he had founded, and attended by an imposing array of deputies from the Macedonian, Asian, and Galatian churches (Acts xx. 4, xxi. 29; II Cor. viii. 16-24). He evidently wished to show that the Gentiles whom he had converted regarded the original congregation with grateful love and hoped to convince the non-believing Jews that he was not devoid of sympathy with his suffering people (cf. Acts xxiv. 17; Rom. xv. 31).
6. Paul's Gospel and Theology: Paul deemed but one Gospel worthy of the name and called it indifferently the Gospel (or testimony or word) of God (Rom. i. 1; I Cor. ii. 1; I Thess. ii. 13; etc.), and of Jesus or Christ or the Lord (Gal. i. 7; I Cor. i. 6; Col. iii. 16; etc.). The genitive in each case is subjective, indicating the originator. Paul's Gospel was the " Gospel of God " because it was a message sent by God into the world and because God spoke to men through human preachers and called them to salvation (Rom. viii. 30; II Cor. v. 19-20; Gal. i. 6; I Thess. ii. 12-13); and it was also the " Gospel of Christ " because Christ was the first preacher of this Gospel (Eph. ii. 17) and continues to offer salvation to men through his ambassadors (II Cor. v. 20; Gal. iv. 14). All apostles truly called preach this Gospel (Rom. i. 1-5; I Cor. xv. 11), and wherever conversions result it is the true Gospel which is preached (Rom. vi. 17; Eph. i. 13-16; Col. i. 7). When he speaks of a " gospel of the circumcision " and " of the uncircumcision " (Gal. ii. 7-8), Paul means different forms of one and the same Gospel — not different Gospels for Jews and Gentiles, but different methods of preaching. The Gospel of the uncircumcision was specially committed to Paul, and because of this unique commission and the far-reaching extent of his missionary labors, he is preeminently the apostle to the Gentiles and the Gospel which he preaches is his Gospel (Rom. ii. 16, xvi. 25; II Tim. ii. 8); though he does not deny that others recognized the need of preaching to the Gentiles and fulfilled the duty before him (Eph. iii. 5-6). Paul had a theology distinctly