The establishment of the hierarchical system, though imparting, as was thought, greater unity to the structure of the Church, did not really invigorate its constitution. The spiritual commonwealth is very different from any merely earthly organization, for it has no statute-book but the Bible, and it owes explicit obedience to no ruler but the King of Zion. Freedom of conscience, in obedience to the Word, is the heritage of all its members; and every one of them is bound to exercise the privilege, and to resist its violation. Its unity appears, not in adhesion to any visible head, but in cordial submission to its one great Lord and Sovereign. When a change was made in its primitive framework, its essential unity was impaired. After the elders had handed over a considerable share of their authority to their president, they could not be expected to take such a deep interest in its government as when they were themselves individually responsible for its official administration. They still, indeed, acted as his counsellors, but as they no longer held the independent footing they had once occupied, they could neither speak nor act so freely and so energetically as before. Thus, whilst one member of the ecclesiastical body was permitted to attain an unnatural magnitude, others ceased to perform their proper functions, and the whole eventually became diseased and misshapen. And the new arrangement entirely failed in checking the growth of the errorists. After its adoption heresies sprung up as rapidly as ever, and the multitude of its sects continued to be the scandal of Christianity even in the time of Constantine. [654:1] Their suppression is to be attributed, not to the potency of Prelacy, but to the stern intolerance of the Imperial laws. By the rigid enforcement of conformity the Catholic Church at length reigned without a rival.

It is easy to see from the extant ecclesiastical writings of the third century that the doctrine of the visible unity of the Church as represented by the Catholic hierarchy already formed a prominent part of the current creed. As there is "one God, one Christ, and one Holy Ghost," it was affirmed that there could be but "one bishop in the Catholic Church." [654:2] This theory seemed somewhat inconsistent with the fact that there were many bishops in almost every province of the Empire; but the ingenuity of churchmen attempted a solution of the difficulty. It was alleged that the whole episcopacy should be regarded as one, and that each bishop constituted an integral part of the grand unit. "The episcopacy is one," says Cyprian, "it is a whole in which each enjoys full possession." [654:3] "There is one Church from Christ throughout the whole world divided into many members, and one episcopate diffused throughout an harmonious multitude of many bishops." [654:4]

We have seen that the Roman prelate was already recognized as the centre of ecclesiastical unity. A misunderstood passage in the Gospel of Matthew [654:5] was supposed to sanction this ecclesiastical primacy. "There is," said the bishop of Carthage, "one God, and one Christ, and one Church, and one chair founded by the Word of the Lord on the Rock." [654:6] Though the Roman chief pastor might be considered theoretically only the first among the Catholic bishops, his zeal for uniformity had now more than once interrupted the peace of the Christian community. The erection of a new capital and the subsequent dismemberment of the Empire considerably affected his position; but, within a certain sphere, he steadily endeavoured to carry out the idea of Catholic unity. The doctrine reached its highest point of development after the lapse of upwards of a thousand years. Then, the bishop of Rome had become a sovereign prince, and was the acknowledged ruler of a vast and magnificent hierarchy. Then, he swayed his spiritual sceptre over all the tribes of Western Christendom. Then, verily, uniformity had its day of triumph; for, with some rare exceptions, wherever the stranger travelled throughout Europe, he found the same order of divine service, and saw the ministers of the sanctuary arrayed in the same costume, and practising even the same gestures. Then, wherever he entered a sacred edifice, he heard the same language, and listened to the same prayers expressed in the very same phraseology. But what was meanwhile the real condition of the Church? Was there love without dissimulation, and the keeping of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? Nothing of the kind. Never could it be said with greater truth of the people of the West that they were "foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another." There were wars and rumours of wars; nation rose up against nation and kingdom against kingdom; and the Pope was generally the cause of the contention. The very man who claimed to be the centre of Catholic unity was the grand fomenter of ecclesiastical and political disturbance. The Sovereign Pontiff, and the Catholic princes with whom he was engaged in deadly feuds, were equally faithless, restless, and implacable. Freedom of thought was proscribed, and the human mind was placed under the most exacting and intolerable tyranny by which it was ever oppressed.

The mutilation of this Dagon of hierarchical unity is one of the many glorious results of the great Reformation. The sooner the remaining fragments of this idol be crushed to atoms, the better for the peace and freedom of Christendom. The unity of the Church cannot be achieved by the iron rod of despotism, neither can the communion of saints be promoted by the sacrifice of their rights and privileges. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." [656:1] Christ alone can draw all men unto Him. The real unity of His Church is, not any merely ecclesiastical cohesion, but a unity of faith, of hope, and of affection. It is the fellowship of Christian freemen walking together in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. It is the attraction of all hearts to one heavenly Saviour, and the submission of all wills to one holy law. Looking at the past condition or the present aspect of society, we may think the difficulties in the way of such unity altogether insurmountable; but it will, in due time, be brought about by Him "who doeth great things and unsearchable, marvellous things without number." Its realization will present the most delightful and impressive spectacle that the earth has ever seen. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." [656:2] "Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion." [656:3] "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one." [656:4] AMEN.

THE END.



[ENDNOTES]

[3:1] Mr Merivale, in his "History of the Romans under the Empire," (vol. iv. p. 450,) estimates the population in the time of Augustus at eighty-five millions, but in this reckoning he does not include Palestine, and perhaps some of his calculations are rather low. Greswell computes the population of Palestine at ten millions, and that of the whole empire at one hundred and twenty millions. ("Dissertations upon an Harmony of the Gospels," vol. iv. p. 11, 493.)

[7:1] See the article [Greek: Hetairai] in Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities."

[8:1] "We despise," says an early Christian writer, "the supercilious looks of philosophers, whom we have known to be the corrupters of innocence, adulterers, and tyrants, and eloquent declaimers against vices of which they themselves are guilty."—Octavius of Minucius Felix.

[9:1] "De Republ.," ii.

[9:2] In the "Octavius of Minucius Felix" (c. 25), we meet with the following startling challenge—"Where are there more bargains for debauchery made, more assignations concerted, or more adultery devised than by the priests amidst the altars and shrines of the gods?" This, of course, refers to the state of things in the third century, but there is no reason to believe that it was now much better. Tertullian speaks in the same manner ("Apol". c. 15). See also "Juvenal," sat. vi. 488, and ix. 23.

[10:1] "Origen. Contra Celsum," lib. i. c. 49.

[10:2] Mat. xxii. 23.

[10:3] Luke ii. 25, 36.

[11:1] See Matt. v. 18; John v. 39, and x. 35.

[11:2] See Josephus against Apion, i. Sec. 8. Origen says that the Hebrews had twenty-two sacred books corresponding to the number of letters in their alphabet. Opera, ii. 528. It would appear from Jerome that they reckoned in the following manner: they considered the Twelve Minor Prophets only one book; First and Second Samuel, one book; First and Second Kings, one book; First and Second Chronicles, one book; Ezra and Nehemiah, one book; Jeremiah and Lamentations, one book; the Pentateuch, five books; Judges and Ruth, one book; thus, with the other ten books of Joshua, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, making up twenty-two. The most learned Roman Catholic writers admit that what are called the apocryphal books were never acknowledged by the Jewish Church. See, for example, Dupin's "History of Ecclesiastical Writers," Preliminary Dissertation, section ii. See also Father Simon's "Critical History of the Old Testament," book. i. chap. viii.

[11:3] Matt, xxiii. 15.

[12:1] Many proofs of this occur in the Acts. See Acts x. 2, xiii. 43, xvi. 14, xvii. 4.

[12:2] See Cudworth's "Intellectual System," i. 318, &c. Edition, London, 1845. Warburton has adduced evidence to prove that this doctrine was imparted to the initiated in the heathen mysteries. "Divine Legation of Moses," i. 224. Edit., London, 1837.

[12:3] Gal. iv. 4.

[12:4] Gen. xlix. 10; Dan. ix. 25; Haggai ii. 6, 7.

[12:5] Virgil. Ec. iv. Suetonius. Octavius, 94. Tacitus. Histor. v. 13.

[13:1] Haggai ii. 7.

[13:2] Dan. vii. 14.

[14:1] See Supplementary Note at the end of this chapter on the year of Christ's Birth.

[14:2] Luke ii. 6, 7.

[15:1] Luke i. 11, 19.

[15:2] Luke. 26, 31.

[15:3] Luke ii. 13, 14.

[15:4] Matt. ii. 9.

[15:5] Matt. ii. 12.

[15:6] Matt. ii. 3. The evangelist does not positively assert that the wise men met Herod at Jerusalem. On their arrival in the holy city he was probably at Jericho—distant about a day's journey—for Josephus states that he died there. ("Antiq." xvii. 6. Sec. 5. and 8. Sec. 1.) We may infer, therefore, that he "heard" of the strangers on his sick-bed, and "privily called" them to Jericho. The chief priests and scribes were, perhaps, summoned to attend him at the same place.

[16:1] Matt. ii. 16. The estimates formed at a subsequent period of the number of infants in the village of Bethlehem and its precincts betray a strange ignorance of statistics. "The Greek Church canonised the 14,000 innocents," observes the Dean of St Paul's, "and another notion, founded on a misrepresentation of Revelations (xiv. 3), swelled the number to 144,000. The former, at least, was the common belief of our Church, though even in our liturgy the latter has in some degree been sanctioned by retaining the chapter of Revelations as the epistle for the day. Even later, Jeremy Taylor, in his 'Life of Christ,' admits the 14,000 without scruple, or rather without thought."—Milman's History of Christianity, i. p. 113, note.

[16:2] Matt. ii. 11.

[16:3] Luke ii. 38. It is a curious fact that in the year 751 of the city of Rome, the year of the Birth of Christ according to the chronology adopted in this volume, the passover was not celebrated as usual in Judea. The disturbances which occurred on the death of Herod had become so serious on the arrival of the paschal day, that Archelaus was obliged to disperse the people by force of arms in the very midst of the sacrifices. So soon did Christ begin to cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. See Greswell's "Dissertations," i. p 393, 394, note.

[17:1] Luke ii. 40.

[17:2] Luke ii. 52.

[17:3] Mark vi. 3.

[17:4] John vii. 15.

[18:1] Luke ii. 46, 47.

[18:2] Luke iv. 16.

[18:3] Luke iii. 21-23. "It became Him, being in the likeness of sinful flesh, to go through these appointed rites and purifications which belonged to that flesh. There is no more strangeness in His having been baptized by John, than in His keeping the Passover. The one rite, as the other, belonged to sinners, and among the transgressors He was numbered."—ALFORD, Greek Testament, Note on Matt. iii. 13-17.

[18:4] See Greswell's "Dissertations upon an Harmony of the Gospels," vol. i. p. 362, 363. John probably commenced his ministry about the feast of Tabernacles, A.D. 27.

[18:5] See Josephus, "Antiq." xviii, 5, Sec. 2.

[19:1] Matt. iv. 23.

[19:2] Matt. iv. 24, 25.

[19:3] Isaiah xlv. 15.

[19:4] 1 Kings viii. 10-12.

[19:5] John v. 13, vi. 15, viii. 59, xii. 36; Mark i. 45, vii. 24.

[19:6] Mark ii. 1, 2; Matt. xiv. 13, 14, 21, xv. 32, 38, 39.

[20:1] Matt. iv. 13. Hence it is said to have been "exalted unto heaven" in the way of privilege. Matt. xi. 23; Luke x. 15. It was the residence as well of Peter and Andrew (Matt. xvii. 24), as of James, John (Mark i. 21, 29), and Matthew (Mark ii. 1, 14, 15), and there also dwelt the nobleman whose son was healed by our Lord (John iv. 46). It was on the borders of the Sea of Galilee, so that by crossing the water He could at once reach the territory of another potentate, and withdraw Himself from the multitudes drawn together by the fame of His miracles. See Milman's "History of Christianity," i. 188.

[21:1] John i. 46.

[22:1] Luke xxiv. 32.

[22:2] Matt. vii. 29.

[23:1] According to Mr Greswell our Lord adopted this method of teaching about eighteen months after the commencement of His ministry, and the Parable of the Sower was the first delivered. "Exposition of the Parables," Vol. i. p. 2.

[23:2] Isa. xxxv. 5, 6.

[23:3] See John v. 13, ix. 1, 6, 25, 36.

[23:4] Mark ii. 6, 7, 10, 11, iii. 5, 22.

[24:1] John vi. 9.

[24:2] Matt. xiv. 24, 25.

[24:3] Mark iv. 39; Matt. viii. 26, 27.

[24:4] John ix. 16.

[24:5] Matt. xxi. 19. Neander has shown that this was a typical action pointing to the rejection of the Jews. See his "Life of Christ." Bohn's Edition.

[24:6] John ii. 9.

[24:7] Matt. ix. 28, 29; Mark vi. 5, ix. 23, 24.

[25:1] John viii. 12.

[26:1] Several of the early fathers imagined that it continued only a year. Some of them, such as Clemens Alexandrinus, drew this conclusion from Isaiah lxi. 1, "To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." See Kaye's "Clement of Alexandria," p. 347.

[26:2] John ii. 13, v. 1, vi. 4, xii. 1. Eusebius argues from the number of high priests that our Lord's ministry did not embrace four entire years. "Ecc. Hist." i. c. x.

[26:3] He lived, therefore, about thirty-three years. According to Malto Brun ("Universal Geography," book xxii.), "the mean duration of human life is between thirty and forty years," and, in the same chapter, he computes it at thirty-three years. It would thus appear that, at the time of His death, our Lord was, in point of age, a fitting representative of the species.

[26:4] Luke iv. 44, viii. 1; Matt. ix. 35.

[27:1] John iii. 1, 2.

[27:2] Matt. xxvi. 63-66.

[27:3] Matt, xxvii. 38.

[27:4] Matt, xxvii. 24; John xviii. 38.

[27:5] Mark xv. 10, 15.

[28:1] Acts ii. 23.

[28:2] Matt. xxvi. 38; Mark xiv. 33.

[28:3] Luke xxii. 44.

[28:4] Matt, xxvii. 46.

[28:5] Luke xxii. 43.

[28:6] Luke xxiii. 44; Mark xv. 33.

[29:1] Matt, xxvii. 51, 52.

[29:2] Matt, xxvii. 54.

[29:3] John x. 18.

[29:4] Ps. xvi. 10; Acts ii. 31.

[29:5] John ii. 19; Mark viii. 31; Luke xviii, 33.

[29:6] John xiv. 19; 1 Thess. iv. 14.

[29:7] Rom. i. 4; 1 Cor. xv. 14, 17; 1 Pet. i. 3; Rev. i. 18.

[29:8] John xix. 33, 34.

[29:9] Matt, xxvii. 60.

[30:1] Matt, xxvii. 66.

[30:2] Matt, xxviii. 2, 4.

[30:3] Matt, xxviii. 11.

[30:4] Matt, xxviii. 12, 13, 15.

[30:5] Rev. i. 5.

[30:6] Acts x. 40, 41.

[30:7] John xiv. 22.

[31:1] Acts i. 3.

[31:2] Luke xxiv. 27.

[31:3] Matt, xxviii. 19.

[31:4] Luke xxiv. 50, 51.

[32:1] John i. 10-12.

[36:1] Isa. liii. 3.

[36:2] John vii. 39.

[36:3] Acts i. 15.

[37:1] 1 Cor. xv. 6.

[37:2] See Matt. xv. 31; John ii. 23, vii. 31, viii. 30.

[37:3] See Joshua xv. 25.

[37:4] Hence called Iscariot, that is, Ish Kerioth, or, a man of Kerioth. See Alford, Greek Test., Matt. x. 4.

[37:5] Acts ii. 7.

[37:6] Compare Matt. ix. 9, 10, and Mark ii. 14, 15.

[37:7] "As St John never mentions Bartholomew in the number of the apostles, so the other evangelists never take notice of Nathanael, probably because the same person under two several names; and as in John, Philip and Nathanael are joined together in their coming to Christ, so in the rest of the evangelists, Philip and Bartholomew are constantly put together without the least variation."—Cave's Lives of the Apostles. Life of Bartholomew. Compare Matt. x. 3; Acts i. 13; and John i. 45, xxl. 2.

[38:1] Compare Matt. x. 3, and Acts i. 13.

[38:2] John xi. 16, xxi. 2.

[38:3] Mark xv. 40. He was in some way related to our Lord, and hence called His brother (Gal. i. 19). But though Mary, the mother of our Saviour, had evidently several sons (see Matt. i. 20, 25, compared with Matt. xiii. 55; Mark vi. 3; Matt. xii. 46, 47), they were not disciples when the apostles wore appointed, and none of them consequently could have been of the Twelve. (See John vii. 5). The other sons of Mary, who must all have been younger than Jesus, seem to have been converted about the time of the resurrection. Hence they are found among the disciples before the day of Pentecost (Acts i. 14).

[38:4] Mark iii. 17.

[38:5] Matt. x. 2.

[38:6] John i. 42.

[38:7] Matt. x. 4; Mark iii. 18; Luke vi. 15; Acts i. 13. Some think that Kananites is equivalent to Zelotes, whilst others contend that it in derived from a village called Canan. See Alford, Greek Test., Matt. x. 4; and Greswell's; "Dissertations," vol. ii. p. 128. Some MSS. have [Greek: Kananaios].

[38:8] Mark vi. 7. "Although no two of these catalogues (of the Twelve) agree precisely in the order of the names, they may all be divided into three quaternions, which are never interchanged, and the leading names of which are the same in all. Thus the first is always Peter, the fifth Philip, the ninth James the son of Alpheus, and the twelfth Judas Iscariot. Another difference is that Matthew and Luke's Gospel gives the names in pairs, or two and two, while Mark enumerates them singly, and the list before us (in the Acts) follows both, these methods, one after the other."—Alexander on the Acts, vol. i. p. 19.

[39:1] Gal. i. 19.

[39:2] Acts i. 13. See also Jude v. 1.

[39:3] Upon this subject see the conjectures of Greswell, "Dissertation," vol. ii. p. 120.

[39:4] John i. 35, 40.

[39:5] From the great minuteness of the statements in the passage, it has been conjectured that the evangelist himself was the second of the two disciples mentioned in John i. 35-37.

[39:6] John iii. 30.

[39:7] Matt. xix. 27.

[40:1] Mark i. 20.

[40:2] Luke xix. 2.

[40:3] Luke xix. 2.

[40:4] Mark ii. 15.

[40:5] John vii. 52.

[40:6] John xi. 16. See also v. 8.

[41:1] John xx. 25.

[41:2] John xx. 28.

[41:3] Some writers have asserted that he is a different person from James "the Lord's brother" mentioned Gal. i. 19, but the statement rests upon no solid foundation. Compare John vii. 5; 1 Cor. xv. 7; Acts i. 14, xv. 2, 13. See also note p. 38 [38:3] of this chapter.

[41:4] John i. 47.

[41:5] Mark v. 37, ix. 2; Matt. xxvi. 37.

[41:6] Acts xii. 2, 3. "It is remarkable that, so far as we know, one of these inseparable brothers (James and John) was the first, and one the last, that died of the apostles."—Alexander on the Acts, i. 443.

[41:7] See Greswell's "Dissertations," vol. ii. p. 115.

[42:1] Matt. xx. 20, 21.

[42:2] Some writers have asserted that Philip and Nathanael were learned men, but of this there is no good evidence. See Cave's "Lives of the Apostles," Philip and Bartholomew.

[42:3] Greswell makes it nine months. See his "Harmonia Evangelica," p. xxiv. xxvi.

[42:4] Matt. x. 5, 6.

[42:5] See Vitringa "De Synagoga Vetere," p. 577, and Mosheim's "Commentaries," by Vidal, vol. i. 120-2, note.

[43:1] This is the calculation of Greswell. "Harmonia Evangelica," p. xxvi. xxxi. Robinson makes the interval considerably shorter. See his "Harmony of the Four Gospels in Greek."

[43:2] They received new powers at the close of their first missionary excursion. See Luke x. 19.

[43:3] Selden in his treatise "De Synedriis" supplies some curious information on this subject. See lib. ii. cap. 9, Sec. 3. See also some singular speculations respecting it in Baumgarten's "Theologischer Commentar zum Pentateuch," i. 153, 351. Some of the fathers speak of seventy-two disciples and of seventy-two nations and tongues. See Stieren's "Irenaeus," i. p. 544, note, and Epiphanius, tom. i. p. 50, Edit. Coloniae, 1682; compared with Greswell's "Dissertations," ii. p. 7.

[43:4] Gen. x. 32.

[44:1] The following tabular view of the names of the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, mentioned in the 10th chapter of Genesis, will illustrate this statement:—

SHEM. HAM. Elam.Asshur.Arphaxad, Lud. Aram, Cush, Mizraim, Phut. Canaan, Salah, Uz, Seba, Ludim, Sidon, Eber, Hul, Havilah, Anamim, Heth, Peleg, Gether, Sabtah, Lehabim, Jebusite, Joktan, Mash. Raamah, Naphtuhim, Amorite, Almodad, Sabtechab,Pathrusim, Girgasite, Sheleph, Sheba, Caslubim, Hivite, Hazarmaveth, Dedan, Caphtorim, Arkite, Jerah, Nimrod. Philistim. Sinite, Hadoram, Arvadite, Uzal, Zemarite, Diklah, Hamathite. Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, Jobab.

JAPHETH. Gomer, Magog. Madai. Javan, Tubal. Meshech. Tiras. Ashkenaz, Elishah, Riphath, Tarshish, Togarmah. Kittim, Dodanim.

It often happens that one branch of a family is exceedingly prolific whilst another is barren. So it seems to have been with the descendants of the three sons of Noah. Thus, Elam, Ashur, and others, appear each to have founded only one nation, whilst Arphaxad and his posterity founded eighteen.

[45:1] Luke x. 1.

[45:2] John iv. 39.

[45:3] Mark vii. 24, 26, 30, 31.

[45:4] This is the opinion of Dr Robinson. See His "Harmony." See also Luke ix. 51, 52, x. 33.

[45:5] Luke x. 13, 17, 18.

[45:6] Matt. xv. 24.

[46:1] Rev. xxi. 14.

[46:2] It is certain that some were called apostles who were not of the number of the Twelve. See Acts xiv. 4. In 1 Cor. xv. 5, 7, both "the Twelve," and "all the apostles," are mentioned, and it may be that the Seventy are included under the latter designation. Such was the opinion of Origen—[Greek: epeita tois eterois para tous dodeka apostolois pasi, tacha tois ebdomekoita]. "Contra Celsum," lib. ii. 65. See also "De Recta in Deum Fide," sec. i., Opera, tom. i. p. 806.

[46:3] Luke x. 9, 16, 19, 24.

[46:4] Eph. ii. 20. See also Eph. iii. 5. It is evident, especially from the latter passage, that the prophets here spoken of belong to the New Testament Church.

[47:1] Acts xv. 6, xxi. 18.

[47:2] 1 Pet. v. 1; 2 John v. 1; 3 John v. 1. It is remarkable that Papias, one of the very earliest of the fathers, actually speaks of the apostles simply as the elders. See Euseb. book iii. chap. 39.

[47:3] Thus, Simon Zelotes is said to have travelled into Egypt and thence passed into Mesopotamia and Persia, where he suffered martyrdom; whilst, according to others, he travelled through Egypt to Mauritania and thence to Britain, where he was crucified. See Cave's "Lives of the Apostles," Life of Simon the Zealot. No weight can be attached to such legends. Origen states that the Apostle Thomas laboured in Parthia, and Andrew in Scythia. "In Genesim," Opera, tom. ii. p. 24.

[47:4] Acts vi. 6.

[48:1] Matt. vii. 16.

[48:2] Acts xxvi. 16; Luke x. 2; 1 Tim. i. 12.

[48:3] Such was Valentine, the most formidable of the Gnostic heresiarchs, said to be a disciple of Theodas, the companion of Paul. Clem. Alex. Strom. vii. Paul of Samosata and Arius were able to boast, at least as much as their antagonists, of their apostolic descent.

[49:1] 1 John iv. 1, 6.

[49:2] 2 John 10, 11.

[49:3] Gal. i. 8, 9.

[50:1] Luke x. 16.

[50:2] 2 Cor. iii. 1-3.

[51:1] Acts i. 3.

[51:2] Luke xxiv. 46, 47.

[52:1] Acts ii. 41.

[52:2] Acts ii. 44, 45.

[53:1] See Acts iv. 34. Barnabas was probably obliged to go to Cyprus to complete the sale.

[53:2] Acts vi. 1.

[54:1] Acts vi. 2, 3.

[54:2] Acts i. 15, 23. They selected two, and not knowing which to prefer, they decided finally by lot.

[54:3] Acts vi. 6.

[55:1] Acts iv. 18.

[55:2] Acts iv. 19.

[55:3] That is, A.D. 34, dating the crucifixion A.D. 31. Tillemont, but on entirely different grounds, assigns the same date to the martyrdom of Stephen. See "Memoires pour servir a L'Histoire Ecclesiastique des six premiers siecles," tome prem. sec. par. p. 420. Stephen's martyrdom probably occurred about the feast of Tabernacles.

[55:4] Daniel ix. 27. A day in prophetic language denotes a year. Ezek. iv. 4, 5. A prophetic week, or seven days, is, therefore, equivalent to seven years.

[56:1] "The one week, or Passion-week, in the midst of which our Lord was crucified A.D. 31, began with His public ministry A.D. 28, and ended with the martyrdom of Stephen A.D. 34."—Hales' Chronology, ii. p. 518. Faber and others, who hold that the one week terminated with the crucifixion, are obliged to adopt the untenable hypothesis that John the Baptist and our Lord together preached seven years. The view here taken is corroborated by the statement in Dan. ix. 27—"In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,"—as Christ by one sacrifice of Himself "perfected for ever them that are sanctified."

[56:2] Matt, xxviii. 19.

[57:1] Acts viii. 6, 12.

[57:2] John iv. 9.

[57:3] Acts viii. 1.

[57:4] Luke xxiv. 47; Acts i. 4.

[57:5] Acts i. 8.

[57:6] Acts viii. 27-38.

[57:7] Acts x. 19, 30, 32.

[57:8] Acts x. 1.

[58:1] Acts x. 2.

[58:2] Acts xxi. 39.

[58:3] Strabo, xiv. p. 673.

[58:4] Rom. xi. 13; 1 Tim. ii. 7; 2 Tim. i. 11.

[58:5] Matt. x. 5, 6.

[59:1] 1 Cor. xv. 8.

[59:2] Rom. i. 1.

[59:3] Acts xxii. 3.

[59:4] Acts xxii. 3.

[59:5] Acts xxvi. 5.

[59:6] Acts vii. 58.

[60:1] Acts xxvi. 10. [Greek: psephon]. See Alford on Acts xxvi. 10, and Acts viii. 1. See also "The Life and Epistles of St Paul" by Conybeare and Howson, i. 85. Edit., London, 1852. Paul says that "all the Jews" knew his manner of life from his youth—a declaration from which we may infer that he was a person of note. See Acts xxvi. 4. There is a tradition that he aspired to be the son-in-law of the high priest. Epiphanius, "Ad Haer.," 1, 2, Sec. 16 and Sec. 25.

[60:2] Acts ix. 2, and xxii. 5.

[60:3] Acts ix. 3-21.

[60:4] Gal. i. 17, 18.

[60:5] This date may be established thus:—Stephen, as has been shewn, was martyred A.D. 34. See note, p. 55 of this chapter. Paul seems to have been converted in the same year, and therefore, if he returned to Damascus three years afterwards, he must have been in that city in A.D. 37. It would appear, from another source of evidence, that this is the true date. The Emperor Tiberius died A.D. 37, and Aretas immediately afterwards seems to have obtained possession of Damascus. He was in possession of it when Paul was now there. See 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33. It is probable that he remained master of the place only a very short time.

[60:6] Gal. i. 12.

[60:7] 2 Cor. xi. 5.

[61:1] Acts ix. 17, 18.

[61:2] Acts xiii. 1, 2.

[61:3] Simeon or Niger, according to Epiphanius, was one of the Seventy. "Haeres," 20, sec. 4. Luke, the writer of the Book of the Acts, is said to have been one of the Seventy, and some have asserted that he is the same as Lucius of Cyrene, mentioned Acts xiii. 1.

[61:4] Ananias, by whom he was baptized, was, according to the Greek martyrologies, one of the Seventy. See Burton's "Lectures," i. 88, note. It is evident that Ananias was a person of note among the Christians of Damascus.

[62:1] Acts ix. 23.

[62:2] See Josephus' "Antiquities," xviii. 5.

[62:3] See Burton's "Lectures," i. 116, 117.

[62:4] 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33.

[62:5] Acts ix. 26, 27.

[62:6] This statement rests on the authority of a monk of Cyprus, named Alexander, a comparatively late writer. See Burton's "Lectures," i. 56, note.

[62:7] Acts xxii. 21.

[63:1] Acts ix. 29, 30.

[63:2] Gal. i. 21.

[63:3] Acts xv. 23, 41.

[63:4] Acts xi. 25, 26.

[64:1] Griesbach, Lachmann, Alford, and other critics of great note, here prefer [Greek: Hellenas] to [Greek: Hellenistas], but the common rending is better supported by the authority of manuscripts, and more in accordance with Acts xiv. 27, where Paul and Barnabas are represented, long afterwards, as declaring to the Church of Antioch how God "had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." See an excellent vindication of the textus receptus in the Journal of Sacred Literature for January 1857, No. VIII., p. 285, by the Rev. W. Kay, M.A., Principal of Bishop's College, Calcutta.

[64:2] Acts xi. 20.

[65:1] John xix. 19-22.

[65:2] Acts xi. 27-30.

[66:1] It is obvious from Acts ix. 31, xxvi. 20, and Gal. i. 22, that such churches now existed.

[66:2] Acts xii. 3, 24, 25.

[66:3] Clem. Alex. Strom, vi. p. 742, note; Edit. Potter. Eusebius, v. 18.

[66:4] "Antiquities," xix. c. 8, Sec. 2, xx. c. 2, Sec. 5.

[66:5] Acts xii. 20-23.

[66:6] From the comparative table of chronology appended to Wieseler's "Chronologie des apostolischen Zeitalters," it appears that the date given in the text is adopted by no less than twenty of the highest chronological authorities, including Ussher, Pearson, Spanheim, Tillemont, Michaelis, Hug, and De Wette. It is also adopted by Burton. Wieseler himself, apparently on insufficient grounds, adopts A.D. 45.

[67:1] Though Peter was taught, by the case of Cornelius, that "God also to the Gentiles had granted repentance unto life" (Acts xi. 18), and though he doubtless felt himself a debtor, both to the Greeks and to the Jews, yet still he continued to cherish the conviction that his mission was, primarily to his kinsmen according to the flesh. James and John had the same impression. See Gal. ii. 9; James i. 1; 1 Pet. i. 1.

[68:1] Acts xii. 2.

[68:2] Acts xxii. 17-21.

[68:3] I here partially adopt the translation of Conybeare and Howson. Their work is one of the most valuable contributions to sacred literature which has appeared in the present century.

[68:4] The Second Epistle to the Corinthians was written about fourteen years after this, or towards the close of A.D. 57. See Chap. IX. of this Section. The Jews often reckoned current time as if it were complete.

[68:5] 2 Cor. xii. 2-4.

[68:6] Exodus iii. 2-10.

[68:7] Isaiah vi. 1, 2, 8, 9.

[70:1] Acts xiii. 1-3.

[70:2] Acts iv. 36.

[71:1] Deut. xxxiii. 10.

[72:1] Rom. i. 1.

[73:1] Gen. xlviii. 13-15.

[73:2] Lev. viii. 18, and iv. 4.

[73:3] Num. xxvii. 18.

[74:1] 1 Tim. v. 17.

[74:2] This portion of the apostolic history may illustrate 1 Tim. iv. 14, for Paul had official authority conferred on him "by prophecy," or in consequence of a revelation made, perhaps, through one of the prophets of Antioch, "with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery." Something similar, probably, occurred in the case of Timothy. But, in ordinary circumstances, the rulers of the Church must judge of a divine call to the ministry from the gifts and graces of the candidate for ordination.

[75:1] Acts xiii. 4.

[75:2] Acts xiii. 4.

[75:3] Acts iv. 36.

[75:4] Until this date we read of "Barnabas and Saul," now of "Paul and Barnabas." Paul was the Roman, and Saul the Hebrew name of the great apostle. His superior qualifications had now full scope for development, and accordingly, as he takes the lead, he is henceforth, generally named before Barnabas.

[75:5] 2 Cor. xi. 26,—[Greek: potamon].

[76:1] Acts xv. 38.

[76:2] Acts xv. 39.

[76:3] Acts xiv. 6.

[76:4] Acts xiv. 23.

[76:5] [Greek: Cheirotonesantes de autois kat' ekklesian presbuterous].—The interpretation given in the text is sanctioned by the highest authorities. See Rothe's "Anfange der Christlichen Kirche," p. 150; Alford on Acts xiv. 23; Burton's "Lectures," i. 150; Baumgarten's "Acts of the Apostles," Acts xiv. 23; Litton's "Church of Christ," p. 595.

[76:6] Acts xiv. 27.

[76:7] They set out on the mission probably in A.D. 44, and returned to Antioch in A.D. 50. The Council of Jerusalem took place the year following.

[77:1] Acts xiii. 48.

[77:2] Acts xiv. 13.

[77:3] Acts xiii. 6-8.

[77:4] Acts xiii. 50.

[77:5] Acts xiv. 2.

[78:1] Acts xiv. 19.

[78:1] 2 Tim. iii. 10, 11.

[79:1] Acts xv. 1.

[79:2] This inference was indeed admitted. See Acts xv. 5, 24.

[79:3] Gal. v. 2-4, vi. 13, 14.

[79:4] Acts xvi. 31; John iii. 36.

[80:1] Luke xxiii. 43.

[80:2] Ps. ii. 12.

[80:3] Acts xv. ii.

[81:1] Acts xv. 2.

[81:2] Acts xv. 23, 24, 41.

[81:3] Acts xvi. 4.

[81:4] Paul and Barnabas, with the other deputies, were sent "to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders" (Acts xv. 2); "when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders" (Acts xv. 4); and the decrees are said to have been ordained "of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem" (Acts xvi. 4); but not one of these statements necessarily implies that these rulers were exclusively elders of the Church of Jerusalem.

[82:1] It has been argued by Burton ("Lectures," vol. i. p. 122), that the first visit of Paul to Jerusalem after his conversion took place about the time of one of the great festivals, as he is said, on the occasion, to have "disputed against the Grecians" (Acts ix. 29), who were likely then to have been very numerous in the city. If he arrived now at the time of the same festival, the interval must have been precisely fourteen years.

[82:2] Gal. ii. 1. Some make these fourteen years to include the three years mentioned Gal. i. 18, but this interpretation does violence to the languages of the apostle. The system of chronology here adopted requires no such forced expositions. Paul came to Jerusalem three years after his conversion, that is, in A.D. 37; and fourteen years after, that is, in A.D. 51, he was at this Synod.

[82:3] Acts ix. 26.

[83:1] Acts xxi. 20.

[83:2] Acts xxi. 21.

[83:3] Acts xv. 5.

[83:4] Gal. ii. 4. It is here taken for granted that the visit to Jerusalem, mentioned in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, is the same as that described in the fifteenth of Acts. Paul says that he went up "by revelation" (Gal. ii. 2),—a statement from which it appears that he was divinely instructed to adopt this method of settling the question.

[83:5] Gal. ii. 12.

[83:6] Gal. ii. 2.

[83:7] Acts xvi. 4, xxi. 25.

[84:1] Acts xv. 12.

[84:2] Acts xv. 22.

[84:3] Acts xv. 23.

[84:4] The expression here used—"the multitude" ([Greek: to plethos])—is repeatedly applied in the New Testament to the Sanhedrim, a court consisting of not more than seventy-two members. See Luke xxiii. 1; Acts xxiii. 7. There were probably more individuals present at this meeting.

[84:5] Acts xv. 2.

[84:6] 1 Cor. xii. 28; Eph. iv. 11.

[84:7] In Acts xi. 27, we read of "prophets" who came "from Jerusalem unto Antioch."

[84:8] Acts xv. 23. "The apostles, and elders, and brethren."

[84:9]The context may appear to be favourable to this interpretation, for the two deputies now chosen—"Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas"—who are said to have been "chief men among the brethren" (ver. 22), are likewise described as "prophets also themselves" (ver. 32). In Acts xviii. 27, "the brethren" appear to be distinguished from "the disciples."

[85:1] This reading, which is adopted by Mill in the Prolegomena to his New Testament, as well as by Lachmann, Neander, Alford, and Tregelles, is supported by the authority of the Codex Vaticanus, the Codex Alexandrinus, the Codex Ephraemi, and the Codex Bezae. It is likewise to be found in by far the most valuable cursive MS. yet known. It is confirmed also by the early testimony of Irenaeus, and by the Latin of the Codex Bezae, a version more ancient than the Vulgate, as well as by the Vulgate itself. The reading in the textus receptus may be accounted for by the growth of the doctrine of apostolical succession; as, when the hierarchy was in its glory, transcribers could not understand how the apostles and elders could be fellow presbyters.

[85:2] It is worthy of note that Peter, fourteen or fifteen years afterwards, speaks in the style here indicated. Thus he says—"The elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder" ([Greek: sumpresbuteros]).—(l Pet. v. 1.)

[85:3] Acts xv. 28.

[86:1] Gal. iii. 2.

[86:2] Acts xv. 8-10.

[86:3] Acts xi. 15, 17.

[86:4] This style of speaking was used by councils in after-ages, and often in cases when it was singularly inappropriate.

[87:1] Acts xv. 29.

[87:2] See 1 Cor. x. 23, 31, 32.

[88:1] "Since the eating of such food, as Paul expressly teaches (1 Cor. x. 19, 33), was not sinful in itself, and yet to be avoided out of tenderness to those who thought it so, the abstinence here recommended must be understood in the same manner."—Alexander on the Acts, ii. 84.

[89:1] Gal. ii. 12.

[89:2] Gal. ii. 9.

[89:3] Gal. ii. 13.

[90:1] Acts xvi. 9.

[90:2] Acts xvi. 12.

[91:1] "The Jus Italicum raised provincial land to the same state of immunity from taxation which belonged to land in Italy."—Conybeare and Howson, i. 302, note.

[91:2] Not the Strymon. See Conybeare and Howson, i. 316.

[91:3] Acts xvi. 14.

[91:4] Acts xvi. 14.

[92:1] Acts xvi. 16-18.

[92:2] They may have perceptive powers of which we can form no conception, and may thus discern the approach of particular events as distinctly an we can now calculate the ebb and flow of the tides, or the eclipses of the sun and moon.

[92:3] Matt. viii. 28, 29; Mark i. 24, 25; Luke iv. 34, 35.

[93:1] Acts xvi. 18.

[93:2] Acts xvi. 19.

[93:3] In some parts of the Empire magistrates and men of rank acted gratuitously, but a large portion of the priests subsisted on the emoluments of office.

[94:1] Acts xvi. 24.

[94:2] Acts xvi. 25.

[95:1] Acts xvi. 26.

[95:2] Acts xvi. 28. "By a singular historical coincidence, this very city of Philippi, or its neighbourhood, had been signalised within a hundred years, not only by the great defeat of Brutus and Cassius, but by the suicide of both, and by a sort of wholesale self-destruction on the part of their adherents."—Alexander on the Acts, ii. 122, 123.

[96:1] Acts xvi. 29, 30.

[97:1] Acts xvi. 31.

[98:1] Acts xvi. 33, 34.

[98:2] Acts xvi. 35.

[98:3] Paul says that he was "free born" (Acts xxii. 28). It was unlawful to scourge a Roman citizen, or even, except in extraordinary cases, to imprison him without trial. He had also the privilege of appeal to the Emperor.

[98:4] Acts xvi. 37.

[99:1] Acts xvi. 39.

[99:2] Acts xvi. 40.

[99:3] Phil. iv. 14-16.

[100:1] Acts xvii. 4.

[100:2] Acts xvii. 7.

[100:3] Acts xvii. 8. [Greek: etaraxan—tous politarchas]. It has been remarked that the name here given to the magistrates (politarchs), does not occur in ancient literature; but it is a curious and important fact that a Greek inscription, on an arch still to be seen at this place, demonstrates the accuracy of the sacred historian. This arch supplies evidence that it was erected about the time when the Republic was passing into the Empire, and that it was in existence when Paul now preached there. It appears from it that the magistrates of Thessalonica were called politarchs, and that they were seven in number. What is almost equally striking is that three of the names in the inscription are Sopater, Gaius, and Secundus, the same as those of three of Paul's friends in this district. Conybeare and Howson, i. 360.

[101:1] Acts xvii. 11.

[102:1] Acts xvii. 16.

[102:2] Acts xvii. 17.

[102:3] See Conybeare and Howson, i. 241.

[102:4] See Alford on Acts xiii. 9, and xxiii. 1.

[102:5] 2 Cor. x. 10.

[102:6] 2 Cor. x. 10.

[102:7] Acts xvii. 18.

[103:1] [Greek: Adikei Sokrates—etera de kaina daimonia eispheron.]—Xen. Mem. i. 1.

[103:2] Acts xvii. 19, 20. It is very evident that he was not arraigned before the court of Areopagus as our English translation seems to indicate.

[104:1] Acts xvii. 22, 23. This translation obviously conveys the meaning of the original more distinctly than our English version. See Alford, ii. 178; and Conybeare and Howson, i. 406.

[104:2] It is a curious fact that the impostor Apollonius of Tyana, who was the contemporary of the apostle, speaks of Athens as a place "where altars are raised to the unknown Gods." "Life," by Philostratus, book vi. c. 3. See also Pausanias, Attic, i. 4.

[105:1] See Cudworth's "Intellectual System, with Notes by Mosheim," i. 513, 111. Edition, London, 1845.

[105:2] See Mosheim's "Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians before Constantine," by Vidal, i. 42.

[105:3] Acts xvii. 24.

[105:4] See Alford on Acts xvii. 26.

[105:5] Acts xvii. 26.

[105:6] Acts xvii. 25, 26.

[106:1] Acts xvii. 29.

[106:2] Acts xvii. 31.

[106:3] Cudworth, with Notes by Mosheim, ii. 120, and Mosheim's "Commentaries," by Vidal, i. 42.

[106:4] Acts xvii. 32.

[106:5] Acts xvii. 21.

[107:1] Acts xvii. 34.

[107:2] These writings, which made their appearance not earlier than the fourth or fifth century, were held in great reputation, particularly by the Mystics, in the Middle Ages.

[107:3] Burton's "Lectures," i. 183.

[108:1] 1 Cor. ii. 1, 2, 4, 5.

[109:1] Strabo, lib. viii. vol. i., p. 549; Edit. Oxon. 1807.

[109:2] Acts xviii. 6.

[109:3] Acts xviii. 8.

[109:4] 1 Cor. i. 26.

[109:5] Rom. xvi. 23. This epistle was written from Corinth.

[109:6] Acts xviii. 8.

[109:7] 1 Cor. i. 14; Rom. xvi. 23.

[109:8] Acts xviii. 2, 26; Rom. xvi. 3; 1 Cor. xvi. 19; 2 Tim. iv. 19.

[110:1] Acts xviii. 2.

[110:2] "Rabbi Judah saith, 'He that teacheth not his son a trade, doth the same as if he taught him to be a thief;' and Rabban Gamaliel saith, 'He that hath a trade in his hand, to what is he like? He is like a vineyard that is fenced.'"—See Alford on Acts, xviii. 3.

[110:3] Acts xviii. 3.

[111:1] Epiphanius, "Haer.," xxx. 16.

[111:2] Acts xviii. 11.

[112:1] Acts xviii. 9, 10.

[112:2] See 1 Cor. i. 11, and xi. 20, 21; and 2 Cor. xii. 21, and xiii. 2.

[112:3] See 1 Cor. vi. 9-11.

[112:4] Acts xviii. 12.

[112:5] Acts xviii. 13.

[113:1] Acts xviii. 14-16.

[113:2] Acts xviii. 17.

[113:3] 1 Thess. v. 12, 13.

[113:4] 2 Thess. ii. 2.

[113:5] 2 Thess. ii. 3-12.

[113:6] 1 Thess. i. 9.

[114:1] [Greek: Tas paradoseis].

[114:2] 2 Thess. ii. 15. Paul is here speaking, not of what had been handed down from preceding generations, but of what had been established by his own apostolic authority, so that the rendering "traditions" in our English version is a peculiarly unhappy translation.

[115:1] Acts xviii. 18.

[115:2] See Conybeare and Howson, i. 454.

[115:3] Acts xviii. 19.

[116:1] Acts xviii. 24.

[116:2] Acts xviii. 25.

[116:3] Acts xviii. 26.

[116:4] It is worthy of note that she is named before Aquila in Acts xviii. 18; Rom. xvi. 3; and 2 Tim. iv. 19.

[116:5] 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35; 1 Tim. ii. 12.

[117:1] Acts xviii. 24.

[117:2] Acts xviii. 27.

[117:3] Acts xviii. 27, 28.

[117:4] 1 Cor. iii. 4-6.

[118:1] Acts xviii. 22.

[118:2] Acts xviii. 23.

[118:3] Acts xvi. 6.

[118:4] Acts xix. 8.

[118:5] Acts xix. 9.

[119:1] That this epistle was written after the second visit appears from Gal. iv. 13. Mr Ellicott asserts that "the first time" is here the preferable translation of [Greek: to proteron], and yet, rather inconsistently, adds, that "no historical conclusions can safely be drawn from this expression alone." See his "Critical and Grammatical Commentary on Galatians," iv. 13.

[119:2] Gal. i. 6, iii. 1.

[120:1] Gal. ii. 16, iv. 1-4, v. 1.

[120:2] 1 Cor. xvi. 7; 2 Cor. xii. 14, xiii. 1.

[120:3] The Acts take no notice of various parts of his early career as a preacher. Compare Acts ix. 20-26 with Gal. i. 17.

[120:4] 2 Cor. xi. 25.

[120:5] 2 Cor. xi. 26.

[120:6] Titus i. 5.

[120:7] See Titus i. 6-11, ii. 1, 7, 8, 15, iii. 8-11. The reasons assigned in support of a later date for the writing of this epistle do not appear at all satisfactory. Paul directs the evangelist (Titus iii. 12) to come to him to Nicopolis, for he had "determined there to winter." This Nicopolis was in Greece, in the province of Achaia, and we know that Paul wintered there in A.D. 57-58. Acts xx. 2, 3. See Schaff's "Apostolic Church," i. 390.

[120:8] 2 Cor. ii. 13, vii. 6, 13, viii. 6, 16, 23, xii. 18; Gal. ii. 1, 3.

[121:1] Acts xix. 10.

[121:2] See Col. iv. 13, 15, 16. These churches were not, however, founded by Paul. See Col. ii. 1.

[121:3] "This was the largest of the Greek temples. The area of the Parthenon at Athens was not one fourth of that of the temple of Ephesus."—Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, Art. EPHESUS.

[121:4] Conybeare and Howson, ii. 72.

[121:5] Acts xix. 35.

[122:1] Conybeare and Howson, ii. 73. Minucius Felix in his Octavius speaks of Diana as represented "at Ephesus with many distended breasts ranged in tiers."

[122:2] Conybeare and Howson, ii. 13.

[122:3] His Life, written by Philostratus about A.D. 210, is full of lying wonders. His biographer mentions his visit to Ephesus, book iv. 1.

[123:1] Acts xix. 11, 12.

[123:2] Acts xix. 16, 17.

[123:3] The piece of silver here mentioned was worth about tenpence, so that the estimated value of the books burned was about L2000.

[123:4] Acts xix. 19, 20.

[123:5] It was written not long before Paul left Ephesus, and probably about the time of the Passover. 1 Cor. v. 7, xvi. 5-8.

[123:6] 1 Cor. i. 11.

[123:7] 1 Cor. v. 1.

[123:8] 1 Cor. xv. 12. This passage supplies evidence that errorists very soon made their appearance in the Christian Church, and furnishes an answer to those chronologists who date all the Pastoral Epistles after Paul's release from his first imprisonment, on the ground that the Gnostics had no existence at an earlier period.

[124:1] Acts xix. 24.

[124:2] Conybeare and Howson, ii. 74.

[124:3] Acts xix. 25.

[125:1] Acts xix. 25-27.

[125:2] Acts xix. 28.

[125:3] See Conybeare and Howson, ii. 79-81.

[125:4] Acts xix. 29.

[125:5] See Hackett's "Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles," p. 273.

[125:6] Acts xix. 31.

[126:1] Acts xx. 34. The Asiarchs "derived their title from the name of the province, as the corresponding officers in Cyprus, Syria, and Lydia, were called Cypriarchs, Syriarchs, Lydiarchs. Those of Asia are said to have been ten in number.... As the games and sacrifices over which these Asiarchs presided, were provided at their own expense, they were always chosen from the richest class, and may be said to represent the highest rank of the community."—Alexander on the Acts, ii. 210.

[126:2] 2 Tim. iv. 14.

[126:3] Acts xix. 34. It has been observed that, according to the ideas of the heathen, this unintermitted cry was, in itself, an act of worship; and hence we may understand why it was so long continued, but it is surely a notable example of "vain repetitions." See Hackett, p. 275.

[127:1] Acts xix. 40.

[127:2] Acts xix. 32.

[127:3] Our English version "robbers of churches" is obviously incorrect.

[127:4] Acts xix. 37. It is plain from this passage that the apostle, when referring to the Gentile worship, avoided the use of language calculated to give unnecessary offence.

[128:1] 1 Cor. xvi. 8.

[128:2] Acts xx. 1.

[128:3] Rom. xv. 19.

[128:4] See Acts xix. 22.

[128:5] 1 Tim. i. 3.

[128:6] 1 Tim. i. 2.

[129:1] According to the chronology adopted in our English Bible, all the Pastoral Epistles were written after Paul's release from his first imprisonment, and this theory has recently been strenuously advocated by Conybeare and Howson, Alford, and Ellicott; but their reasonings are exceedingly unsatisfactory. For, I. The statement of Conybeare and Howson that "the three epistles were nearly contemporaneous with each other" is a mere assertion resting on no solid foundation; as resemblance in style, especially when all the letters were dictated by the same individual, can be no evidence as to date. II. There is direct evidence that heresies, such as those described in these epistles, existed in the Church long before Paul's first imprisonment. See 1 Cor. iii. 18, 19, xv. 12; 2 Cor. xi. 4, 13, 14, 15, 22, compared with 1 Tim. i. 3, 7. III. The early Churches were very soon organised, as appears from Acts xiv. 23; 1 Thess. v. 12, 13; so that the state of ecclesiastical organisation described in the First Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus is no proof of the late date of these letters. IV. But the grand argument in support of the early date, and one with which the advocates of the later chronology have never fairly grappled, is derived from the fact that Paul never was in Ephesus after the time mentioned in Acts xx. When he wrote to Timothy he intended shortly to return thither. See 1 Tim. i. 3, iii. 14, 15. It is evident that when the apostle addressed the elders of Ephesus (Acts xx. 25) and told them they should "see his face no more," he considered himself as speaking prophetically. It is clear, too, that his words were so understood by his auditors (Acts xx. 38), and that the evangelist, who wrote them down several years afterwards, was still under the same impression. I agree, therefore, with Wieseler, and others, in assigning an early date to the First Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus.

[130:1] 2 Cor. xi. 9, 24-28, 32, 33, xii. 2, 7-9. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians was written late in A.D. 57.

[130:2] 2 Cor. ii. 4.

[130:3] [Greek: eis ten Hellada], i.e., Achaia.

[130:4] Acts xx. 2, 3.

[130:5] Rom. xvi. 1, 2, 23.

[130:6] Rom. i. 8.

[130:7] Rom. xvi. 7, 11.

[130:8] Rom. xvi. 3.

[130:9] Acts xix. 21; Rom. i. 10, 11, xv. 23, 24.

[131:1] Acts xx. 3.

[131:2] Acts xx. 6.

[131:3] Acts xx. 6.

[131:4] Acts xx. 17-35.

[131:5] Acts xx. 36-38.

[131:6] Acts xxi. 8.

[131:7] Acts xx. 23, xxi. 10, 11.

[131:8] [Greek: hepiskeuaramenoi]—the reading adopted by Lachmann and others. The word "carriages" used in the authorised version for baggage, or luggage, is now unintelligible to the English reader. The word "carriage" is also used in our translation in Judges xviii. 21, and 1 Sam. xvii. 22, for something to be carried.

[131:9] Acts xxi. 15.

[132:1] Acts ii. 45.

[132:2] Rom. xv. 26.

[132:3] 1 Cor. xvi. 3; 2 Cor. viii. 19.

[132:4] Acts xx. 4.

[133:1] Prov. xviii. 10.

[133:2] Acts xxi. 17.

[133:3] Acts xxi. 24.

[133:4] "It was customary among the Jews for those who had received deliverance from any great peril, or who from other causes desired publicly to testify their dedication to God, to take upon themselves the vow of a Nazarite.... No rule is laid down (Numb. vi.) as to the time during which this life of ascetic rigour was to continue; but we learn from the Talmud and Josephus that thirty days was at least a customary period. During this time the Nazarite was bound to abstain from wine, and to suffer his hair to grow uncut. At the termination of the period, he was bound to present himself in the temple, with certain offerings, and his hair was then cut off and burnt upon the altar. The offerings required were beyond the means of the very poor, and consequently it was thought an act of piety for a rich man to pay the necessary expenses, and thus enable his poorer countrymen to complete their vow." —Conybeare and Howson, ii. 250, 251.

[133:5] Acts xxi. 26.

[134:1] Acts xxi. 29.

[134:2] Acts xxi. 30.

[134:3] Acts xxi. 30.

[134:4] Acts xxiii. 26.

[134:5] Acts xxi. 32.

[134:6] Acts xxi. 33, 34. There were barracks in the tower of Antonia.

[135:1] Acts xxi. 38. "Assassins is in the original a Greek inflection of the Latin word Sicarii, so called from Sica, a short sword or dagger, and described by Josephus as a kind of robbers who concealed short swords beneath their garments, and infested Judea in the period preceding the destruction of Jerusalem."—Alexander on the Acts, ii. 289.

[135:2] Acts xxii. 2.

[135:3] Acts xxii. 22-24.

[136:1] Acts xxiii. 6.

[136:2] Acts xxiii. 7.

[136:3] Acts xxiii. 10.

[136:4] Acts xxiii. 12, 21.

[136:5] Acts xxiii. 16, 23, 30.

[136:6] "Per omnem saevitiam ac libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit."—Hist. v. 9.

[136:7] Josephus' "Antiq." xx. c. 7. Sec. 1,2.

[137:1] Acts xxiv. 25.

[137:2] Acts xxiv. 27.

[137:3] See some account of him in Josephus' "Antiq," xx. c. 8, Sec.. 9, 10.

[138:1] Acts. xxv. 11.

[138:2] Acts xxv. 12.

[138:3] Acts xxv. 13. Festus appears to have been Procurator from the beginning of the autumn of A.D. 60 to the summer of A.D. 62. Felix was recalled A.D. 60. See Conybeare and Howson, Appendix ii. note (C).

[139:1] Josephus' "Wars," ii. c. 12, Sec. 8; "Antiq." xx. c. 5, Sec. 2.

[139:2] Acts xxv. 23.

[139:3] Acts xxvi. 6.

[140:1] Acts xxvi. 22.

[140:2] Acts xxvi. 24.

[140:3] Acts xxvi. 27.

[140:4] Acts xxvi. 28. Some would translate [Greek: en oligo] "in short," instead of "almost."

[140:5] Acts xxvi. 29.

[141:1] Acts xxvi. 30-32.

[141:2] Eph. vi. 22; Phil. ii. 1, 2; Col. i. 24, iv. 8; Philem. 7, compared with 2 Cor i. 3, 4.

[141:3] Acts ix. 15, 16.

[142:1] Acts xxvii. 20. This part of the history of the apostle has been illustrated with singular ability by James Smith, Esq. of Jordanhill in his "Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul."

[142:2] Acts xxvii. 5, 6.

[142:3] Acts xxviii. 1. That Melita is Malta has been conclusively established by Smith in his "Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul." "Dissertation," ii.

[142:4] Acts xxviii. 11. "With regard to the dimensions of the ships of the ancients, some of them must have been quite equal to the largest merchantman of the present day. The ship of St Paul had, in passengers and crew, 276 persons on board, besides her cargo of wheat, and as they were carried on by another ship of the same class, she must also have been of great size. The ship in which Josephus was wrecked contained 600 people."—Smith's Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul, p. 147.

[143:1] Acts xxviii. 13.

[143:2] Acts xxvii. 17.

[143:3] Acts xxvii. 29. "The ancient vessels did not carry, in general, so large anchors as those which we employ; and hence they had often a greater number of them. Athenaeus mentions a ship which had eight iron anchors." Hackett, p. 372.

[143:4] Acts xxvii. 27.

[143:5] "When the Lively, frigate, unexpectedly fell in with this very point, the quarter-master on the look-out, who first observed it, states, in his evidence at the court-martial, that, at the distance of a quarter of a mile the land could not be seen."—Smith's Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul, pp. 89, 90.

[144:1] Hackett, p. 371.

[144:2] Acts xxvii. 28.

[144:3] Conybeare and Howson, ii. 351.

[144:4] Acts xxvii. 39.

[144:5] Acts xxvii 41.

[144:6] Smith's "Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul," p. 102.

[144:7] Smith's "Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul," p. 92.

[144:8] Acts xxvii. 41.

[145:1] Smith's "Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul," p. 104.

[145:2] Conybeare and Howson make the population more than 2,000,000 (ii. 376). Merivale reduces it to something less than 700,000 (iv. 520). In Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography" it is stated as upwards of 2,000,000. Greswell makes it about 1,000,000 ("Dissertations," iv. 46). Dean Milman reckons it from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 ("History of Latin Christianity," i. 23).

[145:3] Merivale, iv. 391.

[145:4] Rev. xvii. 1.

[146:1] Merivale, iv. 412.

[146:2] Merivale, iv. 414-420.

[146:3] Rev. xviii. 11.

[146:4] Acts xxviii. 14.

[147:1] Acts xxviii. 14.

[147:2] Acts xxviii. 15.

[147:3] Acts xxviii. 15.

[147:4] Called in our English version "the captain of the guard." The celebrated Burrus was at this time (A.D. 61) the Praetorian Prefect. Wieseler, p. 393. See also Greswell's "Dissertations," iv. p. 199.

[147:5] Acts xxviii. 16.

[148:1] Acts xxviii. 17.

[148:2] Acts xxviii. 23.

[148:3] Acts xxviii. 24.

[148:4] Acts xxviii. 31.

[148:5] Conybeare and Howson, ii. 296.

[149:1] Philem. 9.

[149:2] 2 Cor. x. 10.

[149:3] See Conybeare and Howson, ii. 428.

[149:4] Phil. ii. 25; Philem. 2.

[149:5] Eph. vi. 13, 14, 16, 17.

[149:6] Phil. iv. 3. When speaking of a "true yoke-fellow," he may here refer to the way in which he was himself unequally yoked.

[149:7] See Acts xxvi. 1, 29.

[149:8] Eph. iv. 1.

[150:1] [Greek: en olo to praitorio]—"We never find the word employed for the Imperial house at Rome; and we believe the truer view to be—that it denotes here, not the palace itself, but the quarters of that part of the Imperial guards which was in immediate attendance on the Emperor."-Conybeare and Howson, ii. 428.

[150:2] Phil. i. 12-14.

[150:3] Philem. 18, 19.

[150:4] Col. iv. 7.

[150:5] Col. ii. 8, 16, 18, 23.

[150:6] Eph. vi. 21, 22.

[151:1] Eph. i. 1.

[151:2] Col. iv. 16.

[151:3] Phil. i. 3-7.

[152:1] Phil. ii. 24; Philem. 22.

[152:2] Phil. i. 23-25.

[152:3] Rom. xv. 24, 28.

[153:1] [Greek: epi to terma tes duseos]—Epist. to the Corinthians v. Clement in the same place mentions that Paul was seven times in bonds. See also Greswell, "Dissertations," vol. iv. p. 225-228.

[153:2] See Cave's "Fathers," i. 147. Oxford, 1840.

[153:3] [Greek: ton phelonen]. Some think that he wished for the cloak to protect him against the cold of winter. See 2 Tim. iv. 21.

[153:4] In the "Life of St Columba" by Adamnan (Dublin, 1857), the learned editor, Dr Reeves, has given an interesting account of an ancient leather book-case in his own possession. See "Life of St Columba," p. 115. If Paul referred to a case, it was probably to one of a larger description.

[153:5] 2 Tim. iv. 13. It is probable that, in the anticipation of his death, he wished to give the documents as a legacy to some of his friends. Among them may have been Scripture autographs.

[153:6] 2 Tim. iv. 20. [Greek: apelipon]. The translation "they left," instead of "I left," is given up even by Dr Davidson, though he rejects the idea of a second imprisonment. See his "Introduction to the New Testament," iii. 53.

[153:7] Miletum, or Miletus, in Crete, is mentioned by Homer. "Iliad," ii. 647.

[154:1] Acts xii. 6-9.

[154:2] Heb. xiii. 23, 24. In this epistle he apparently refers to his late imprisonment. Heb. x. 34, but the reading of the textus receptus is here rejected by many of our highest critical authorities, such as Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Scholz. Respecting the second imprisonment, see also Eusebius, ii. c. 22.

[155:1] 2 Tim. iv. 20.

[155:2] Phil. ii. 24.

[155:3] 2 Tim. iv. 13.

[155:4] Philem. 22.

[155:5] Heb. xiii. 23.

[155:6] 2 Tim. iv. 20.

[155:7] 2 Tim. iv. 16, ii. 9.

[155:8] This may refer to some powerful defence of Christianity which he had made before the Gentile tribunal of Nero.

[155:9] 2 Tim. iv. 16, 17.

[156:1] 2 Tim. iv. 6-8.

[156:2] "Euseb. Hist." ii. 25.

[156:3] Euseb. ii. 25. See the Note of Valesius on the words [Greek: katha ton auton kairon]. See also Davidson's "Introduction to the New Testament," iii. 361.

[156:4] 2 Tim. iv. 11.

[156:5] Tertullian "De Praescrip," c. 36. Euseb. ii. 25. See also Lactantius, or the work ascribed to him, "De Mort. Persecutorum," c. 2.

[156:6] According to Gregory Nazianzen, Judea was the sphere of Peter. "Oratio." 25, tom. i. 438. If so, Paul when visiting Jerusalem was likely to meet with him.

[157:1] 1 Pet. v. 13.

[157:2] Rev. xvii. 5, xviii. 2, 10, 21.

[157:3] Euseb. ii. 15.

[157:4] 1 Pet. iv. 12.

[157:5] 2 Tim. iv. 11.

[157:6] 1 Pet. v. 13.

[157:7] 1 Pet. v. 12.

[157:8] Acts xv. 40, xvi. 19, 25, xvii. 4, 10, xviii. 5; 1 Thess. i. 1; 2 Thess. i. 1.

[158:1] 1 Pet. v. 12.

[158:2] The Jews at this time were wont to call Rome by the name of Babylon. It was not, therefore, strange that Peter, being a Jew, used this phraseology. See Wordsworth's "Lectures on the Apocalypse," p. 345, and the authorities there quoted.

[158:3] 2 Pet. i. 12, iii. 1.

[158:4] These words apparently suggest that the preceding letter was written not long before.

[159:1] 2 Pet. i. 13. 14.

[159:2] Gal. iv. 17, 21, vi. 12; Col. ii. 16-18.

[159:3] 1 Pet. i. 1.

[159:4] 2 Pet. iii. 16.

[159:5] As Heb. vi. 4-6, vii. 1-3, ix. 17.

[160:1] 2 Pet. iii. 16.

[160:2] Euseb. iii. 1.

[160:3] Euseb. iii. 1.

[160:4] Prudentius, "Peristeph. in Pass. Petr. et Paul." Hymn xii. Augustine, serm. 28. "De Sanctis." The testimony of earlier witnesses represents them as dying "about the same time." See Euseb. ii. c. 25.

[161:1] Phil. iv. 22.

[161:2] Caius, a Roman presbyter who flourished about the beginning of the third century, refers to the Vatican and the Ostian Way as the places where they suffered. Routh's "Reliquiae," ii. p. 127.

[162:1] Hab. ii. 3.

[163:1] John i. 11.

[163:2] John xix. 15.

[163:3] Acts iv. 3, v. 18.

[164:1] Acts xii. 2, 3.

[164:2] See Acts xvii. 5, xviii. 12.

[165:1] Acts xviii. 2. Suetonius in Claud. (c. 25), says—"Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit." The words Christus and Chrestus seem to have been often confounded, and it has been thought that the historian here refers to some riotous proceedings among the Jews in Rome arising out of discussions relative to Christianity. These disturbances took place about A.D. 53. It is remarkable that even in the beginning of the third century the Christians were sometimes called Chrestiani. Hence Tertullian says—"Sed et cum perperam Chrestianus pronunciatur a vobis, nam nec nominis certa est notitia penes vos, de suavitate vel benignitate compositum est." "Apol." c. iii. See also "Ad Nationes," lib. i. c. 3.

[165:2] See Greswell's "Dissertations," iv. p. 233.

[165:3] Eusebius, ii. 23.

[166:1] "Certi enim esse debemus, si quos latet per ignorantiam literature secularis, etiam ostiorum deos apud Romanos, Cardeam a cardinibus appellatam, et Forculum a foribus, et Limentinum a limine, et ipsum Janum a janua." Tertullian, "De Idololatria," c. 15. See also the same writer "Ad Nationes," ii. c. 10, 15; and "De Corona," 13.

[166:2] 2 Tim. iii. 12. Cyprian touches upon the same subject in his Treatise on the "Vanity of Idols," c. 2.

[167:1] The Christians were familiar with the idea of the conflagration of the world, and there is much plausibility in the conjecture that, as they gazed on the burning city, they may have given utterance to expressions which were misunderstood, and which awakened suspicion. "Some," says Dean Milman, "in the first instance, apprehended and examined, may have made acknowledgments before a passionate and astonished tribunal, which would lead to the conclusion that, in the hour of general destruction, they had some trust, some security, denied to the rest of mankind; and this exemption from common misery, if it would not mark them out in some dark manner, as the authors of the conflagration, at all events would convict them of that hatred of the human race so often advanced against the Jews."—Milman's History of Christianity, ii. 37, 38.

[167:2] Tacitus, "Annal." xv. 44.

[167:3] Heb. xii. 4.

[167:4] Heb. x. 25.

[168:1] 1 Pet. iv. 12.

[168:2] 1 Pet. iv. 17.

[168:3] Tertullian, "Ad Nationes," i. 7.

[168:4] See "De Mortibus Persecutorum," c. 2, and Sulpitius Severus, lib. ii. p. 139; Edit. Leyden, 1635.

[168:5] Dan. ix. 27.

[169:1] Matt. xxiv. 2, 15, 16, 34; Mark xiii. 2, 14, 30; Luke xxi. 6, 20, 21, 24, 32.

[169:2] See Euseb. iii. 31.

[169:3] Acts xvii. 7.

[169:4] Euseb. iii. 20.

[169:5] Matt. xiii. 55. See Greswell's "Dissertations," ii. 114, 121, 122.

[170:1] Matt, xxvii. 57; Mark xv. 43.

[170:2] Acts xiii. 7.

[170:3] Phil. iv. 22.

[170:4] Dio Cassius, lxvii. 14.

[170:5] Euseb. iii. 18.

[171:1] Rev. i. 9.

[171:2] Tertullian, "De Praescrip. Haeret." c. 36.

[171:3] See Mosheim, Cent. i. part i. ch. 5.

[171:4] According to Baronius ("Annal." ad. an. 92, 98) John was six years in Patmos, or from A.D. 92 to A.D. 98. Other writers think that he was set at liberty some time before the death of Domitian, or about A.D. 95. According to this reckoning, had he been six years in exile, he must have been banished A.D. 89. This conclusion derives some countenance from the "Chronicon" of Eusebius, which represents the tyrant in the eighth and ninth years of his reign, or about A.D. 89, as proscribing and putting to death very many of his subjects. If the visions of the Apocalypse were vouchsafed to John in A.D. 89, the interval between their revelation and the establishment of the Pope as a temporal prince is found to be 755-89, or exactly 666 years. See Rev. xiii. 18. There is another very curious coincidence in this case; for the interval between the fall of the Western Empire, and the establishment of the Bishop of Rome as a temporal prince, is 755-476=279 complete, or 280 current years, that is, 40 prophetic weeks. But it so happens that the period of human gestation is 40 weeks, and this would lead to the inference that the Man of Sin was conceived as soon as the Western Empire fell. See 2 Thess. ii. 7, 8. I am not aware that these remarkable coincidences have yet been noticed, and I therefore submit them to the consideration of the students of prophecy.

[172:1] See Burton's "Lectures," i. 361.

[172:2] 2 John 1; 3 John 1.

[172:3] 1 Pet. v. 1; Philem. 1.

[172:4] Acts xx. 28.

[172:5] Mark iii. 17.

[172:6] Jerome, "Comment. on Galatians," vi. 10.

[172:7] See Vitringa, "Observationes Sacrae," lib. iv. c. 7, 8.

[173:1] Rev. iii. 16.

[173:2] Rev. iii. 2.

[173:3] Rev. ii. 5.

[173:4] Claudia, the wife of Pudens, supposed to be mentioned 2 Tim. iv. 21, is said to have been a Briton by birth. See Fuller's "Church History of Britain," vol. i. p. 11; Edit. London, 1837.

[173:5] Euseb. ii. 16.

[173:6] Acts ii. 10.

[174:1] Acts ii. 9, 11.

[174:2] See in Cave's "Fathers," Bartholomew, Matthew, and Thomas.

[175:1] 1 Cor. vi. 9-11.

[175:2] Prov. xviii. 24.

[177:1] John xiv. 26.

[177:2] John xvi. 13.

[177:3] See Irenaeus, "Adv. Haeres.," iii. 1; and Euseb. vi. 14.

[177:4] It is probable that these three Gospels were written nearly at the same time. When Luke wrote, he does not seem to have been aware of the existence of any other Gospel. See Luke i. 4.

[177:5] Origen, "Dial, de Recta in Deum Fide," sec. i. tom. i. p. 806; Edit. Delarue. Paris, 1733. See Whitby's "Preface to Luke." There is good reason to believe that the "young man" mentioned Mark xiv. 51, 52, was no other than Mark himself (Davidson's "Introduction to the New Testament," i. 139); and if so, we have thus additional evidence that the evangelist had enjoyed the advantages of our Lord's ministry. He has always been reputed the founder of the Church of Alexandria, and the testimony of Origen to the fact that he was one of the Seventy is therefore of special value; as the Alexandrian presbyter was, no doubt, well acquainted with the traditions of the Church of the Egyptian metropolis.

[178:1] Acts i. 21.

[178:2] Luke i. 2.

[178:3] Matt. ix. 9, x. 3.

[178:4] Mark xiv. 71.

[178:5] Luke xxiv. 25.

[178:6] John xxi. 23.

[178:7] Matt. xxviii. 19.

[179:1] Mark ix. 15.

[179:2] Luke x. 1.

[179:3] John xiv., xv., xvi., xvii.

[179:4] See Horne's "Introduction," ii. 173. Sixth Edition.

[180:1] See Baumgarten on Acts, vii., viii., ix., xiii.

[180:2] Period i. sec. i. chap. 7, 8, 9.

[180:3] Horne, iv. 359.

[181:1] See Wordsworth "On the Canon," Lectures viii. ix.

[181:2] Prov. xxx. 5.

[181:3] This designation is not found in the most ancient manuscripts. Thus, in the very ancient "Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac," recently edited by Dr Cureton, we have simply—"Gospel of Mark"—"Gospel of John," &c. See p. 6, Preface. See also any ordinary edition of the Greek Testament.

[181:4] Horne, ii. 174.

[182:1] Titus iii. 12.

[182:2] Some, however, assign to it a much earlier date. See Davidson's "Introduction to the New Testament," iii. 320.

[182:3] See Period i. sec. i. chap. 10, p. 158.

[182:4] See Wordsworth "On the Canon," p. 273.

[182:5] See Davidson's "Introduction," iii. 464, 491.

[182:6] Irenaeus, v. 30. Euseb. iii. 18.

[182:7] See Wordsworth "On the Canon," p. 157, 160, 249.

[182:8] Justin Martyr, ap. i. 67.

[182:9] 2 Pet. iii. 16

[183:1] Wordsworth "On the Canon," p. 205.

[183:2] "The allusions to the Epistle to the Hebrews are so numerous that it is not too much to say that it was wholly transfused into Clement's mind."—Westcott on the Canon, p. 32. See also Euseb. iii. 38.

[183:3] Wordsworth "On the Canon," p. 249.

[183:4] "The word ([Greek: graphe]) translated Scripture, which properly means simply a writing, occurs fifty times in the New Testament; and in all these fifty places, it is applied to the writings of the Old and New Testament, and to no other."—Wordsworth, p. 185, 186.

[183:5] Wordsworth, p. 249, 250.

[184:1] See Davidson's "Introduction," iii. 540-550.

[184:2] See Horne's "Introduction," ii. 168. The author of the present division into chapters is said to have been Hugo de Sancto Caro, a learned writer who flourished about the middle of the thirteenth century. The New Testament was first divided into verses by Robert Stephens in 1551. The Geneva Bible was the first English version of the Scriptures into which these divisions of Stephens were introduced.

[184:3] Horne, ii. 169.

[185:1] John v. 39; 2 Tim. iii. 15.

[185:2] Rev. i. 3. See also 2 Peter i. 19.

[185:3] Paul's epistles were often written with the hand of another. See Rom. xvi. 22; 2 Thess. iii. 17.

[186:1] Ps. xii. 6.

[186:2] The epistle to Diognetus may have been written in the first century, but it is commonly referred to a later date.

[186:3] He speaks of the Church of Corinth at the time as "most ancient" (Sec. 47), and refers apparently to the Domitian persecution. See Euseb. iii. 15, 16.

[186:4] Tertullian also illustrates the resurrection by the story of the phoenix, "De Resurrec. Carn." c. 13.

[187:1] Clement's "Epistle to the Corinthians," Sec. 25. The fragment of the second epistle is not generally considered genuine.

[189:1] Matt. v. 17.

[189:2] 2 Tim. i. 10.

[189:3] Matt. xvi. 16; John i. 41.

[189:4] Luke xxiv. 19, 21; John i. 49.

[189:5] Matt. xvi. 21, 22; John xii. 34.

[189:6] Mark xv. 43; Luke ii. 38.

[189:7] John iv. 20-25.

[189:8] John xix. 12.

[189:9] Matt. ii. 2, 3, xx. 21; John vi. 15.

[190:1] Acts i. 6.

[190:2] Luke xxiv. 45.

[190:3] Luke xxiv. 44.

[190:4] Acts x. 34, 35.

[190:5] Acts xi. 3, 17.

[190:6] Heb. x. 1, 14, 18.

[190:7] Period i. sec. ii. chap. 1.

[191:1] Mark vii. 7-9.

[191:2] Matt. iv. 1-10, xii. 3, 5, 7; Mark xii. 26.

[191:3] John v. 39.

[191:4] Acts ii. 14-36.

[191:5] 2 Tim. iii. 15.

[191:6] 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.

[191:7] Matt. xxii. 43, 45; Gal. iii. 16; Heb. ii. 8, 11.

[191:8] John x. 34, 35; Heb. viii. 13.

[191:9] Acts xxviii. 25; Heb. iii. 7.

[191:10] Heb. i. 1, 2; Matt. i. 22, ii. 15.

[192:1] 1 Cor. ii. 13.

[192:2] 2 Tim. iii. 16.

[192:3] Gen. iii. 15; Ps. cxxx. 7, 8; Dan. ix. 24.

[192:4] Ps. xcviii. 1-4; Isa. ix. 6.

[192:5] Rom. iii. 19.

[192:6] Eph. ii. 1.

[192:7] John v. 24.

[192:8] Rev. iii. 20.

[192:9] Heb. xi. 27.

[193:1] Heb. xii. 2.

[193:2] Heb. vi. 18.

[193:3] 1 Pet. ii. 3.

[193:4] Rom. v. 1.

[193:5] Acts xv. 9.

[193:6] 1 John v. 4.

[193:7] Rom. v. 2.

[193:8] Heb. xi. 1.

[193:9] John xx. 31.

[193:10] John i. 29.

[193:11] Rom. x. 4.

[194:1] Eph. v. 23.

[194:2] Rev. xvii. 14.

[194:3] Col. i. 27.

[194:4] Ps. cxlvi. 8, compared with John ix. 32, 33.

[194:5] Job ix. 8, compared with Matt. xiv. 25.

[194:6] Ps. cvii. 29, compared with Luke viii. 24.

[194:7] Amos iv. 13, compared with Matt. xii. 25, and John ii. 24, 25.

[194:8] Tit. ii. 14.

[194:9] Mark ii. 5-10.

[194:10] Eph. v. 26.

[194:11] Acts xvi. 14; Luke xxiv. 45.

[194:12] Rev. ii. 23.

[194:13] Mal. iii. i.

[194:14] Isa. xl. 3, and vi. 1, compared with John xii. 38-41.

[194:15] Isa. xl. 3, 9; Ps. xlv. 6.

[194:16] Ps. ii. 12.

[194:17] Ps. lxxii. 15.

[194:18] Ps. ii. 12, compared with Ps. cxlvi. 3, 5, and Isa. xxvi. 4.

[194:19] John i. 49; Matt. xvi. 16, 17.

[194:20] Such as John xx. 28, xxi. 17.

[195:1] Luke xxiv. 27.

[195:2] 1 Cor. xii. 3.

[195:3] Rom. ix. 5.

[195:4] Eph. i. 12, 13; Matt. xii. 21.

[195:5] Col. iii. 24.

[195:6] Acts ix. 14; 1 Cor. i. 2.

[195:7] Rev. v. 11-13. Though modern criticism has shaken the credit of some passages usually quoted in support of the Deity of Christ, such as 1 Tim. iii. 16, it is remarkable that it has discovered others equally strong not now in the received text. See Lachmann's text of Col. ii. 2, and 1 Pet. iii. 15.

[196:1] Heb. ii. 14.

[196:2] Matt. xvi. 22.

[196:3] Luke xxiv. 46.

[196:4] Rom. iii. 26.

[197:1] Heb. ix. 12.

[197:2] 1 Cor. i. 24.

[197:3] Phil. ii. 13.

[197:4] Eph. i. 4-6.

[197:5] Matt, xxviii. 19; John x. 30, xv. 26.

[198:1] Eph. iv. 5.

[198:2] See Bingham, iii. 323-327.

[198:3] Acts viii. 37; 1 Pet. iii. 21.

[198:4] Matt. i. 21.

[199:1] Prov. viii. 11.

[199:2] Phil. iv. 11-14.

[200:1] "[Greek: Hairesis] autem Graece, ab electione dicitur: quod scilicet eam sibi unusquisque eligat disciplinam, quam putat esse meliorem."—Hieronymus in Epist. ad Galat. c. 5. See also Tertullian, "De Praescrip." c. 6.

[200:2] "Life," Section 2; "Antiq." xiii. 5, 9.

[200:3] Acts xxvi. 5.

[200:4] Acts xxiv. 5.

[200:5] Gal. v. 20.

[201:1] Eph. iv. 17, 18; Col. i. 13.

[201:2] John iii. 18, 19.

[201:3] Mosheim has overlooked this fact, and has, in consequence, been betrayed into some false criticism when treating on this subject.

[201:4] Titus iii. 10.

[201:5] 2 Pet. ii. 1.

[202:1] Every one acquainted with the works of Philo Judaeus must be aware that Jewish literature was now largely impregnated with pagan philosophy.

[202:2] Col. ii. 8.

[202:3] 1 Tim. vi. 20.

[202:4] See Burton's "Inquiry into the Heresies of the Apostolic Age," pp. 314, 315. Also Mosheim's "Dissertation" appended to Cudworth, iii. 171.

[203:1] Col. i. 16, 17.

[204:1] From [Greek: dokeo], I appear.

[204:2] John i. 14.

[204:3] 1 John iv. 3.

[204:4] 1 John i. 1-3.

[204:5] 2 John 7.

[204:6] 1 Cor. xv. 12.

[204:7] 2 Tim. ii. 16-18.

[205:1] Acts viii. 9.

[205:2] Irenaeus, i. 23; Eusebius, ii. 13.

[205:3] Acts viii. 20-23.

[205:4] Acts viii. 9.

[205:5] Justin Martyr, "Apol." ii. 69. Edit. Paris, 1615.

[205:6] 1 Tim. i. 20; 2 Tim. i. 15, ii. 17, iv. 14.

[206:1] Irenaeus, i. 25, 26; Tertullian, "De Praescrip. Haeret." 33; Epiphanius, "Haer." xxx. 2, lxix. 23.

[206:2] Irenaeus, iii. 3, 4.

[206:3] Irenaeus, iii. 11.

[206:4] Rev. ii. 6, 15.

[206:5] Acts vi. 5. Others conceive, however, that the name Nicolaitanes is merely equivalent to Balaamites (as Balaam in Hebrew is nearly equivalent to Nicolas in Greek, each word signifying Ruler, or Conqueror of the people), and that the apostle does not here refer to any party already known by this designation, but to all who, like Balaam, were seducers of God's people. See Neander, "General History," ii. 159. Edinburgh edition, 1847.

[207:1] Rev. ii. 6, 15.

[207:2] Acts xxiii. 1, 6.

[207:3] 1 John ii. 19.

[207:4] Compare Jude 19, and Heb. x. 25.

[208:1] 1 Tim. i. 20.

[208:2] Rev. ii. 15.

[208:3] Hegesippus in Euseb., iv. 22.

[208:4] Eusebius, iv. 22.

[208:5] 1 Cor. xi. 19.

[209:1] James iii. 17.

[210:1] Luke xxiv. 21.

[210:2] Luke xxiv. 17, 22, 23.

[211:1] Acts xx. 7.

[211:2] Rev. i. 10, [Greek: he kurtake hemera]. The day was ever afterwards distinguished by this designation. See a letter from Dionysius of Corinth in Eusebius, iv. 23. See also Kaye's "Clement of Alexandria," p. 418. The first day of the week is called "the Christian Sabbath" in the Ethiopic version of the "Apostolical Constitutions." See Platt's "Didascalia," p. 99. But these Constitutions are of comparatively late origin.

[211:3] Matt. v. 17-19.

[211:4] Matt. iii. 15.

[211:5] Matt. xii. 3-5; Mark ii. 25, 26.

[211:6] Matt. xii. 7.

[211:7] Gen. ii. 3.

[212:1] Exod. xx. 1-17.

[212:2] Mark ii. 27.

[212:3] Matt. xxiv. 20.

[212:4] See Heb. xiii. 10, 15, 16; Ps. li. 17.

[212:5] Isa. lvi. 6, 7. Compare with Isa. ii. 2.

[212:6] Mark ii. 28.

[212:7] John xx. 19, 26. According to the current style of speaking," after eight days" means the eighth day after. See Matt, xxvii. 63.

[213:1] Acts ii. 1. That the day of Pentecost was the first day of the week appears from Lev. xxiii. 11, 15. The same inference may be drawn from John xviii. 28, and xix. 31, compared with Lev. xxiii. 5, 6. See also Schaff's "History of the Apostolic Church," i. p. 230, note, and the authorities there quoted.

[213:2] In the same way the Eucharist is called the Lord's Supper: [Greek: Kuriakon deipnon] (1 Cor. xi. 20). Thus also we speak of the Lord's house, and the Lord's people.

[213:3] Heb. x. 25.

[213:4] 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2.

[213:5] Isa. lxv. 17, 18.

[213:6] [Greek: Sabbatiamos]. See Owen "On the Hebrews," iv. 9.

[213:7] Heb. iv. 9, 10.

[213:8] Rom. xiv. 5.

[214:1] Col. ii. 16, 17.

[214:2] The ordinary temple service could scarcely be called congregational. It was almost exclusively ceremonial and typical, consisting of sacrificing, burning incense, and offering various oblations. The worshippers generally prayed apart. See Luke i. 10, xviii. 10, 11.

[215:1] See these eighteen prayers in Prideaux's "Connexions," i. 375, and note. Bingham admits (Orig. iv. 194), that these are their "most ancient" forms of devotion; and, of course, if they were written after the fall of Jerusalem, it follows that the Jews had no liturgy in the days of our Lord. Had they then been limited to fixed forms, He would scarcely have upbraided the Scribes and Pharisees for hypocritically "making long prayer" Matt, xxiii. 14.

[215:2] See Palmer's "Origines Liturgicae," i. pp. 44-92; and Clarkson's "Discourse concerning Liturgies;" "Select Works," p. 342.

[215:3] Matt. vi. 9-13.

[215:4] 1 Thess. v. 18.

[215:5] Eph. vi. 18.

[215:6] Eph. vi. 18.

[215:7] Acts i. 24, 25, iv. 24-30.

[216:1] See Lightfoot's "Temple Service," ch. vii. sec. 2; "Works," ix. 56.

[216:2] Lightfoot's "Prospect of the Temple," ch. xxxiii.; "Works," ix. 384.

[216:3] The multitudes who assembled at the great festivals in the temple could not well unite in one service. The wall of the building was more than half a mile in circumference. See Lightfoot, ix. 217. There were various courts and divisions in the building.

[216:4] Heb. ix. 9-12, x. 1; John ii. 19-21; 1 Pet. ii. 5.

[216:5] Vitringa, "De Synagoga," p. 203.

[216:6] Eph. v. 19. According to some, the Psalms were divided into these three classes.

[216:7] Heb. xiii. 15.

[217:1] Bingham, ii. 482-484.

[217:2] Luke iv. 16, 17.

[217:3] Col. iv. 16; 1 Thess. v. 27.

[217:4] 1 Cor. xiv. 29. It would appear from this that only two or three persons were permitted to speak at a meeting. By him that "sitteth by" (verse 30), a doctor or teacher is meant. See Vitringa, "De Synagoga," p. 600, and Matt. v. 1.

[217:5] 1 Cor. xiv. 27. The gift of "interpretation of tongues" (1 Cor. xii. 10) was quite as wonderful as the gift of "divers kinds of tongues" (1 Cor. xii. 10).

[218:1] Censers were introduced into the Church about the fourth or fifth century. Bingham, ii. 454, 455.

[218:2] 1 Cor. xvi. 19; Col. iv. 15; Philem. 2.

[218:3] Matt. iii. 4.

[218:4] The rite of confirmation, as now practised, has no sanction in the New Testament. The "baptisms" and "laying on of hands," mentioned Heb. vi. 2, are obviously the "divers washings" of the Jews, and the imposition of hands on the heads of victims. The laying on of the apostles' hands conferred miraculous gifts. Had the apostle referred to Christian baptism in Heb. vi. 2, he would have used the singular number.

[218:5] Lightfoot affirms that the use of baptism among the Israelites was as ancient as the days of Jacob. He appeals in support of this view to Gen. xxxv. 2. "Works," iv. 278.

[219:1] Lightfoot's "Works," iv. 409, 410. Edit. London, 1822.

[219:2] Acts x. 2, 44-48, xvi. 15, 33, xviii. 8; 1 Cor. i. 16.

[219:3] Acts viii. 37.

[219:4] Mark xvi. 16; John iii. 18.

[219:5] Matt. xix. 14; Luke xviii. 15. In the New Testament children are described as uniting with their Christian parents in prayer (Acts xxi. 5). Were not these children baptized? They were no doubt brought up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. vi. 4).

[220:1] Col. ii. 11, 12, 13.

[220:2] Col. i. 2, iii. 20; Eph. vi. 1, 4.

[220:3] 1 John ii. 12.

[220:4] Acts ii. 38, 39.

[220:5] 1 Cor. vii. 14. The absurdity of the interpretation according to which holy is here made to signify legitimate, is well exposed by Dr Wilson in his treatise on "Infant Baptism," p. 513. London, 1848.

[220:6] This would, indeed, have been almost, if not altogether, impossible. They would probably act somewhat differently at the river Jordan and in such a place as the jail at Philippi.

[220:7] [Greek: Baptizo].

[221:1] Dr Wilson has demonstrated the incorrectness of Dr Carson's statements on this subject. See his "Infant Baptism," p. 96.

[221:2] Wilson's "Infant Baptism," p. 157. In Titus iii. 5, 6, there is something like a reference to this mode of baptism: "The washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed (or poured out) on us abundantly." [Greek: Ou execheen eph' hemas plousios].

[221:3] In some cases, as at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, they do not seem to have had the means of immersing their converts. See also Acts x. 47. The text John iii. 23, indicates the difficulty of baptizing by dipping.

[221:4] Isa. lii. 15; Ezek. xxxvi. 25; I Pet. i. 2; Heb. ix. 10; Rev. i. 5.

[221:5] 1 Cor. v. 7, 8.

[221:6] Acts xx. 7.

[221:7] Acts xx. 7; 1 Cor. x. 16.

[222:1] It was in use before the end of the second century. See Kaye's "Tertullian," p. 431, 451.

[222:2] 1 Cor. x. 17.

[222:3] 1 Cor. v. 11.

[222:4] See Lightfoot's "Works," iii. 242, and xi. 179. Vitringa "De Synagoga," p. 550.

[222:5] Acts xx. 28.

[223:1] Heb. xiii. 17.

[223:2] Heb. xxi. 17.

[223:3] 1 Tim. iii. 5.

[223:4] 1 Tim. v. 19, 20.

[223:5] Heb. xiii. 17.

[223:6] 1 Cor. v. 1,13.

[223:7] 2 Cor. ii. 6.

[224:1] See Period I. section i. chap. v. p. 88.

[224:2] 1 Cor. v. 2, 6.

[224:3] 1 Cor. V. 3-5.

[224:4] 1 John v. 19, [Greek: en to ponero].

[225:1] In the above passage respecting delivering unto Satan there may be a reference to Job ii. 6, 7, and it may be that some bodily affliction rested on the offender. In that case there would be here an exercise of supernatural power on the part of Paul. According to Tertullian, to deliver to Satan was simply to excommunicate. "De ceteris dixit qui illis traditis Satanae, id est, extra ecclesiam projectis, erudiri haberent blasphemandum non esse."—"De Pudicitia," c. xiii.

[225:2] 1 Cor. i. 11,12.

[225:3] That the Church of Corinth at this time was organized in the same way as other Christian communities is evident from various allusions in the first epistle. See 1 Cor. iv. 15, vi. 5, xii. 27, 28. Crispus, mentioned Acts xviii. 8, was, no doubt, one of the eldership. There is a reference to the elders in 1 Cor. xiv. 30. See Vitringa, "De Synagoga," p. 600.

[225:4] In the apostolic age, censures were pronounced in presence of the whole church. See 1 Tim. v. 20. It is to be noted that Paul himself does not excommunicate the offender. He merely delivers his apostolic judgment that the thing should be done, and calls upon the Corinthians to do it; but he expects them to proceed in due order, the rulers and the people performing their respective parts.

[227:1] 2 Cor. ii. 7, 8. The mode of proceeding here indicated is illustrated by what took place in the Church of Rome about the middle of the third century. There certain penitents first appeared before the presbytery to express their contrition, and then it was arranged that "this whole proceeding should be communicated to the people, that they might see those established in the Church, whom they had so long seen and mourned wandering and straying."—Cyprian, Epist. xlvi. p. 136. Edit. Baluzius, Venice, 1728.

[228:1] That "the church" here signifies the eldership, see Vitringa, "De Synagoga," p. 724.

[228:2] Matt, xviii. 15, 17.

[228:3] In our English version the original word [Greek:(paradosin)] is improperly rendered tradition.

[228:4] Thess. iii. 6.

[228:5] Matt. v. 45.

[229:1] 2 Thess. iii. 14, 15.

[229:2] For an account of the excommunication of the Druids, see Caesar, "De Bello Gallico," vi. 13. Many things in the Latin excommunication are doubtless borrowed from paganism.

[229:3] As an example of this, see an old form of excommunication in Collier's "Ecclesiastical History," ii. 273. Edit. London, 1840.

[230:1] Eph. iv. 11, 12.

[230:2] 1 Cor. xii. 28.

[230:3] 2 Tim. iv. 5.

[230:4] Acts xxi. 8, viii. 5.

[230:5] 1 Tim. i 3, v. 1, 7, 17; Tit. i. 5.

[231:1] Acts viii. 13; 2 Tim. i. 6. This latter text is often quoted, though erroneously, as if it referred to the ordination of Timothy. The ordainer usually laid on only his right hand. See "Con. Carthag." iv. can. iii. iv. In conferring extraordinary endowments both hands were imposed. See Acts xix. 6.

[231:2] John xiv. 26, xvi. 13, xx. 22.

[231:3] Matt. x. 1, xxviii. 18, 19.

[231:4] John xx. 26, xxi. 1; Acts i. 3; 1 Cor. ix. 1.

[231:5] Such is the opinion of Chrysostom and others. See Alford on this passage.

[231:6] Acts vi. 2-4.

[231:7] In the Peshito version helps and governments are translated helpers and governors.

[232:1] It is remarkable that the lay council of the modern synagogue are called Parnasim or Pastors. See Vitringa, "De Synagoga," pp. 578, 635.

[232:2] Mr Alford observes that in 1 Cor. xii. 28, "we must not seek for a classified arrangement"—the arrangement being "rather suggestive than logical." Hence "helps" are mentioned before "governments." In the same way in Eph. iv. 11, "pastors" precede "teachers."

[232:3] Acts xx. 28; 1 Pet. v. 2.

[232:4] Acts xx. 17, 28; Titus i. 5, 7; 1 Pet. v. 1, 2.

[232:5] 1 Tim. iii. 1, 2, 5.

[232:6] 1 Pet. v. 1, 2, 4 The identity of elders and pastors is more distinctly exhibited in the original here, and in Acts xx. 17, 28, as the word translated feed signifies literally to act as a shepherd or pastor.