processes of dialectic argument, unknown to eastern composition, were eminently suited to a religion whose hearers were to prove all things, in order to hold fast that which is good. And it was now no new thing to have sacred truth propounded in these dialectic forms. We have thus been gradually led to the second great element in the social system at the Christian era-the intellectual culture of Greece. If Humanity is to be gained for the highest purposes, the reason of man must be satisfied, and his intellect ennobled ; nor can that be the religion under which man's highest state is to be realized, which is not prepared to enlist and consecrate every lawful use of his powers and faculties; to work in the lump until the whole is leavened. At the same time, let it be granted that this is to be done, not by unaided human power, but by a revelation from above-and it is manifest that a very important part of the preparation for receiving such a gift would be, the demonstration of the insufficiency of man himself to attain to this ennoblement of his powers. And this is the work which, in the designs of Providence, was accomplished by that wonderful development of the human intellect witnessed in ancient Greece. That a height of intellectual excellence should there have been reached which has never since been attained-that in philosophy, in art, and in poesy, the patterns for the world should there have been set once for all, will surprise only those who do not bear this purpose in mind. But while the failure of Greek philosophy to regenerate mankind was thus in progress of demonstration, these highest exercises of man's intellect were but preparing the way for Him who was to come. The language of the Greeks is itself a wonderful monument of the culminating intellectual period of our race. In no other tongue under heaven can the minutest shiftings and distinctions of the mental feelings be expressed with so much precision. In no other are there so many varieties of construction and arrangement, by each of which some minute distinction of meaning or emphasis is given. In no other language have we so many apparently insignificant particles, by which the exact reference of secondary clauses to the main subject, and to one another, can be marked off and determined. In that language, every term relating to things human or divine had already been discussed, and its meaning labored out with marvellous patience and accuracy. Nor was Providence, which was thus preparing a garb for Christianity, wanting in making it generally known and used. The dispersion of Greeks is hardly less wonderful than that of Jews. In early times, their colonies had spread along the coasts of Italy and Sicily, of Africa and Asia Minor. Their hostile intercourse or intrigues with Persia had gradually carried them further East; till finally the conquests of Alexander distributed the Greek tongue and influence over the whole of his vast but fleeting empire. Amidst the struggles and confusion incident on his death, this one effect alone of his conquests remained undisturbed and increasing. All the dynasties which sprang from his grave were Greek, and tended to consolidate the Grecian element which his victories had first introduced. Greek letters and arts became everywhere cultivated; the language usurped the place of the indigenous tongues in all polite intercourse. Nor was Judæa exempt from this influence. Lying between the contending kingdoms, and ever involved in their quarrels, it too received, although slowly and reluctantly, the unhallowed boon of Grecian culture. There yet wanted a political power which might adjust to equilibrium these disturbing forces. Had the world been seething in tumult, as it was under the successors of Alexander, the propagation of Christianity would have been, humanly speaking, impossible. And we must here express our opinion, that there are few things more instructive in history, than the relation of the Roman Empire to the spread of Christianity. Whether we regard it in its rise, at its height, or in its decline, we see in it a vast instrument to subserve the purposes of Providence with regard to the religion of Christ. In its rise, with which we are here more immediately concerned, by a rapid succession of conquests and annexations, it reduced to political unity and security the various conflicting powers whose struggles had hitherto distracted the world. Crushing and afflicting as was the character of its rule over its provinces, it was every where the government of order, and the friend of commercial intercourse. Ainong its works conducive to safe transit by sea and land, we may reckon, for the first, the extinction of piracy in the Mediterranean; for the second, the admirable roads with which every part of its vast territory was intersected. It was through these seas, and along these roads, that "the noble army of martyrs," as well as the armies of Rome, advanced to the conquest of the world. In times of restricted intercourse, and unsafe transit, these missionary journeys would have been impracticable. The Roman policy with regard to religion was entirely consistent with the other parts of the system. Every existing religion of nation or tribe was sanctioned by law; but no countenance was given to the introduction of new tenets or modes of worship. Thus Christianity, for many years after its promulgation, grew up undistinguished from Judaism, and under the shelter of this religio licita as one of its sects. It was not till the inhabitants of whole districts flocked to baptism amidst the indignation of surrounding Jews and Pagans, that we find systematic persecution enjoined; and by that time Christianity was strong enough in numbers to be aided, rather than crushed, by such hostility. During and for some time after the reigns of the first twelve Cæsars, the citizen of Rome was endowed with considerable privileges. Among these, exemption from corporal punishment, and the power of appealing to the people, were the chief and best known. It is true, that this last had now merged into an appeal to him who wielded, by his concentration of offices, the power of the populus and the plebs alike; but it had not, on that account, lost its value as a means of rescue from arbitrary decisions, and from the warping of justice by the venality of provincial judges.* The foregoing sketch of the state of the world shortly after the Christian era, will enable us to lay down à priori the necessary and desirable qualifications of the man who is to be the main agent in propagating the Christian faith. First. It is absolutely necessary, that he be a JEW. Founded as Christianity is on the ancient covenant and promises, its appeal to the world was mainly through Judaism; addressing itself" to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." It is to the Jews that the preacher must look for his earliest and his most able converts; men who, having been reasoned with out of the law and the prophets, were thereby convinced, and prepared to convince others, that Jesus was the Christ. And none but a Jew would gain access to that exclusive and prejudiced people. The synagogues would be forbidden ground to a Gentile teacher; the ears of the Jews would be absolutely closed against him. For the same reason, the Apostle of the world must be not a Hellenist, but of pure Hebrew descent. It is of the utmost importance that he should be able to speak and cite in the sacred language of the law and prophets. The Hellenists were looked on by the purer Jews with disparagement and contempt. They had their own synagogues, in which the sacred tongue was never heard, and to enter which would have been pollution to the scrupulous and rigid Pharisee. Thus a Hellenist would have acted at a great disadvantage, in leaving the central fortress of Judaism untouched, because to him inaccessible. This last consideration will at once bring before us another requisite. None but the straitest sect of Judaism will furnish the man who shall be sufficient for this work. The pretended mysteries of the Rabbinical teaching must be in his grasp to deal with and set aside. None must be able to say of him, "This man, who knoweth not the law, is cursed." In one point at least his message to the Jews should be without fault: all should be compelled to look up to him as one trained to teach, and thoroughly capable of doing it. If the question, "Whence hath this man letters?" was for other and wise purposes permitted to be asked respecting Him who came to be rejected and suffer and die, it would have been, as far as we can judge, a serious obstacle to the work of one who must be to the Jews as a Jew, in order to persuade and gain them. But yet another reason existed (and this is ably brought out by Schrader* and Neandert) why the great apostle of Christianity should be a Pharisee. Of all the opposition offered to Jesus of Nazareth, that of the Pharisees was the most consistent and entire. They saw in his teaching the abnegation of hierarchical Judaism. If He were a teacher from God, the ceremonial law had passed away, the barrier between Jew and Gentile was broken down, and Judaism became an empty husk henceforward. None thoroughly understood this but the bigoted Pharisee. The lapse of years, and the warning of heavenly visions, had not kept the greatest of the chosen Twelve from vacillating on this vital point; and there is every reason to believe that the Church at Jerusalem remained to the end practically prejudiced against the free admission of the union of mankind in Christ. Amidst all the difficulties and inconsistencies on this matter, he only would be sure never to go wrong, who having during his life of Pharisaic zeal keenly stigmatized as an abomination the anti-exclusive spirit of the religion of Jesus, had thus gained the clearest view of its universality, and in his conversion adopted this view as his own to the full. But Jew and Pharisee as he must be, other elements must be mingled in him, which few who were Jews and Pharisees united in themselves. A Jew born in Palestine, and receiving a purely Jewish education, could have been a missionary for the most part to pure Jews only. It is plainly necessary that he be, though not a Hellenist himself, yet from youth accustomed to the use of the Hellenistic version of the Scriptures, together with the Hebrew original nay more, from youth accustomed to the habits of thought and expression of the more cultivated Greeks The bearings on Christianity of these various Vol. ii. ch. 6. 66 Bildung des Apostels Paulus characteristics of the time are admirably treated in in der Schule der Pharisäer." the first chapter of Conybeare and Howson's work. † P. 133. selves. That the person so required was foundthat so many and unusual attributes were combined in one individual — is known to us all. But it seems to have been reserved for our own age of biography and minute research, fully to trace all the qualifications of Saul of Tarsus for his great mission, and to point out their examples in his extraordinary career. stranger to the literature and rhetorical usage | the sketch à posteriori, from the facts themof that language which had been prepared for the work which Christianity had to do. The advantage of a boyhood spent in the haunts of Greek literary culture would be great, even if he himself did not frequent the schools for instruction. A certain pride in the place of his birth would lead a youth of genius to some acquaintance at least with the Greek writers who had sprung from it, or were connected with the studies there pursued; and the first remembrance of his early days would be bound up with his taste, however brief, of the sweets of profane literature. All this would eminently fit him to address a Grecian audience; to know the peculiar stumblingblocks which the hearers must be taught cautiously to approach, and gently to step over; and skilfully to avoid incurring those charges, which might exaggerate in the Greek mind the repulsiveness of himself and his message. At the same time, no extraneous culture could educate a Pharisee. In the Holy City alone, and in the schools of the Jerusalem rabbis, was the fountain head of Judaism to be drawn from, Thus we have arrived at the complicated, and we may conceive, not often united requirements, of pure Judaic extraction, with birth and early education among Hellenists and Grecians, and subsequent training in the rabbinical schools of Jerusalem. If, however, we rested here, one important advantage would be wanting. The great apostle is sure to incur the deadliest hatred of the Pharisaic party, which he has deserted to pass over to Christianity. That hatred will be unrelenting, and will pursue him wherever his message is delivered. No calumny will be spared, no attempt withheld, to make him odious to the local magistracies. Should he be found in Judea itself, the jealousy of the Roman procurators, ever ready to awake against turbulence and sedition, will be aroused to effect his ruin. One safeguard, and one only, humanly speaking, would obviate the danger of his career being cut short by conspiracy on the part of his enemies, or the tyranny of an unprincipled governor. If he possessed the privileges of a Roman citizen, his person would be safe from punishment at the hands of the officers of Rome; and an escape would be always open to him from conspiracy or apprehended injustice, in an appeal to the supreme power in the great metropolis. There is no work extant in which this is more laboriously and completely done than in Conybeare and Howson's" Life and Epistles of St. Paul." The names of the authors are vouchers for their ability to perform their task; and no one will consult their book without being convinced of the diligent research and careful accuracy with which it has been accomplished. No pains have been spared to gather information on every point of the apostle's life and the abundance and excellence of maps, and illustrations by landscapes and coins, make the book a complete manual of all that relates to the subject. The authorities referred to are given at length in the foot-notes, which greatly increases the value of the work to the scholar. On the whole, we doubt if any modern literature possesses a treatise more complete or satisfactory in its design and execution. Perhaps there is a little too much of imaginative minuteness in some of the descriptions of the journeys of the Apostle; and we confess an objection to the frequent and sometimes bewildering illustration by reference to modern state relations or local circumstances. These, however, to which might be added an occasional want of condensation, and exuberance of style, are but slight faults, compared with the essential service which these authors have rendered to English biblical literature by their elaborate researches, and to English society by the pleasing and attractive garb in which they have clothed the results. Into the important portion of the work which Mr. Conybeare has contributed - the translation of the Epistles-it is not our intention to enter critically. In such a wide field of controversy, philological and doctrinal, there will be much for every scholar to question. At the same time we have found much to approve; and we hail every independent scholar-like attempt to render the sacred text in our language, in hopes that it may lead at some time to the judicious removal of some of the acknowledged blots on our otherwise excellent authorized version. We have said nothing of personal characteristics. That the apostle of the world should be full of earnestness and self-forgetting zeal, is too obvious to be insisted on. That a great Mr. Lewin's work, though published since persuader should, besides convincing men's the first volume of Conybeare and Howson, minds, be able to win and keep their hearts is an original contribution to the same sub-that he who wishes others to weep must ject, from a candid and diligent layman. weep himself has long ago passed into an While there is much in it that is really val axion. But we prefer filling in this part of uable, it is to be regretted that Mr. Lewin has not enriched and in some places rectified | ferred to his pages the interesting speculahis book by the admirable and copious treat- tions of this author. We might think that ises which have of late years been published some pruning of graphic description would in Germany, and of which the authors of the have been more than compensated by giving former work have largely and most properly us the substance of some of Schrader's valuataken advantage. This fact tends to place ble chapters in his second volume on the perMr. Lewin's book altogether on lower ground sonal character and training of the Apostle. than it should have occupied; while the unfortunate inaccuracy of its printing is continually confusing the reader. At the same time, Mr. Lewin's useful historical memoirs, his plans of the principal towns, with geographical authorities cited at length, and the justice and good feeling which he shows in his remarks, will prevent his work from being laid aside, and cause it to be retained as accessory to, or a cheaper substitute for, the more important and costly volumes of Conybeare and Howson.‡ We have placed two well-known German works on our list, because our neighbors have in this, as in most of the departments of biblical literature and research, the credit of having led the way, and suggested to our selves the reproduction or expansion of their labors; and because there is something so well fitted in the German mind for treating subjects of this kind, that, after all acknowledged defects are allowed for, and evident excrescences pared away, we always have left, in the work of an intelligent German, abundant suggestive matter that is truly valuable, and nowhere else to be found. At the same time, there is one part of Schrader's work which disfigures it in common with many of the best German treatises on matters connected with historical Christianity. We mean its perfectly gratuitous rationalism. If Saul was in reality, as Schrader and we are sorry to say Neander also would have us believe, merely struck with lightning on the way to Damascus - not only were the solemn words then related to have been spoken to him, and on which he distinctly grounds his apostleship, the offspring of his excited imagination-but he must himself be charged with deliberate falsehood and imposture; for in neither of the narratives of his conversion which we possess from his own lips, is there the slightest intimation of a storm having overtaken the party, but an evident intention to imply that, in the brightness of the noonday sun, a light brighter still was shed around him, and a supernatural voice plainly heard, answered, and heard again, the speaker being all the while distinctly seen.* Neander's work is well known in this country by translations, as one of the most valuaSchrader's treatise spread its publication ble contributions to an intelligent appreciaover the years 1830-1836; and considering tion of the mind and mission of the various the time, we cannot help ranking it as the great Apostles, and the conflicts and characmost remarkable work on the subject. Its ter of the first Christian age. Tinged strongly plan is that of a biography, with the chro- with the peculiarities of the German school, nology and doctrine treated of in separate vol- it yet exhibits so thorough an understanding umes, and followed by a translation of the of the position, wants, and divisions of the Epistles, with a commentary. For really nascent Church, and so admirable a spirit of sound research into the necessities and inner Christian faith and charity, as to have beproprieties of St. Paul's preparation for his * If, to take another instance (and here we must work, we know of no book which approaches include Mr. Lewin in our reprehension, and even Schrader's in value. We might perhaps be complain somewhat of the guarded and ambiguous disposed to find a little fault with Mr. How-language of Mr. Howson), the pythoness at Philippi son for not having more abundantly trans The Greek is printed without accents, a practice against which every scholar should protest, and about as rational as it would be to print an English work without crossing the t's or dotting the i's. The punctuation of the text is in some places in utter confusion. Take an example: but, at night he escaped from his guard, and got on board, and reached, Alexandria." (P. 84.) Such abound throughout. His geographical notices are not always accurate e. g., where, in speaking of Myra, he makes it the metropolis of Lycia in the apostolic times, on the authority of the Synecdemus of Hierocles, a work of the sixth century; and in the same notice makes the distinct rivers Limyrus and Andriaki into one. Mr. L. gives the Epistles in the authorized version, with a few departures, and those not always for the better. was not really possessed by a spirit, but only (wo quote Mr. Lewin) subject to ravings, and at the present day would merely be committed to the charge of a keeper"-how on the one hand can we account for those ravings taking daily the form of vehement recognition of the divine mission of the Apostle, and how on the other can we give any consistent account of her cure, which both these authors believe to have followed on St. Paul's words? Far better and deeper in this instance Neander, who, though he supposes the case need not imply possession by a personal evil spirit, yet distinctly recognizes the agency of the chief spirit of evil, and the maiden's liberation from it by the Apostle. See the whole matter very satisfactorily treated in the recent work of Baumgarten, "Die Apostel-geschichte, oder der Entwickelungsgang der Kirche von Jerusalem bis Rom," vol. ii. § 26. There is a sensible and able refutation of the ra tionalistic views of Saul's conversion in Hemsen's "Apostel Paulus," p. 12, ff. come an indispensable element in the study of the apostolic history. We shall proceed now, with the aid of the works which we have characterized, in some measure to fill in à posteriori the outlines given above. To do this continuously would be out of the question. We must necessarily select a few salient points of the history as examples of the rest. The destined Apostle of the Gentiles was born of pure Jewish descent," a Hebrew of Hebrews," at Tarsus, the capital of the province of Cilicia, a few years probably after our era. With his birth he inherited the citizenship of Rome.* His native place, characterized by himself as "no mean city,' was one of the most celebrated seats of Greek learning. Two eminent Stoics, Athenodorus the tutor of Augustus, and Nestor of Tiberius, were taken from the school of Tarsus. Strabo gives it the preference over Athens and Alexandria, and every other academy of the time. No city could be imagined more fitting for the birthplace of an apostle of the Gentiles. Free from the warping influences which would have beset a childhood in Athens, Alexandria, or Rome, the Hebrew youth might here stray without danger into the pleasant paths of Grecian literature. We know that his main education was Jewish. In all probability, both the Hebrew text of the Scriptures and the Septuagint version were familiar to him from childhood. The former would be sure to be known and read in a pure Hebrew family; and the familiarity with which he cites the latter from memory, can hardly be accounted for except by early habitude. Mr. Howson traces, with that graphic minuteness which, while it is sometimes his temptation, is undoubtedly also his excellence, the illustrious recollections connected with the tribe of Benjamin, and with his own royal name, which would stir the spirit of the eager Hebrew boy - and the fine emotions with which one capable of the feelings which we find expressed in his writings, would wander by the clear cold stream of the Cydnus, and gaze on the snowy heights of Taurus. But other and more exciting scenes soon rose upon his view. We can hardly conceive the burst of enthusiasm with which such a * This fact is as certain as its explanation is obscure. It was formerly assumed (by Tillemont and Cave, see C. and H. vol. i. p. 49) that the privilege belonged to natives of Tarsus; but more acourate knowledge has precluded this. The probable account is that which Mr. Howson has adopted, that Saul's father had gained the citizenship as the reward of services rendered during the civil wars to some influential Roman. t We find him quoting Aratus (a Cilician poet), Epimenides, and Euripides, or Menander. Where did he read these authors, if not in his early youth at Tarsus? Jewish youth, educated in exile, first beheld the spot where Jehovah had placed His name. We may well conceive that from the time of the youthful Saul entering the Holy City, his previous intercourse with Hellenism was dropped, and he devoted himself zealously to the study of the law and traditions of his fathers. He himself appeals to the fact many years after: "My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee." (Acts xxvi. 4, 5.) 66 Having a foundation of excellent natural talents gifted with creative profundity, and a rare clearness and energy of thought, he made his own the whole cycle of Rabbinical Scripture-lore, its jurisprudence and its theology, the different exegeses of the Bible, its allegory, typology, and tradition, as his Epistles sufficiently show. By this theoretical education, he was enabled, in after times, so powerfully and convincingly to refute Pharisaical errors, and to unfold the most profoundly and amply of all the Apostles the intrinsic doctrines of Christianity. By nature an ardent and decided character, armed with the choleric and melancholic temperament found among reformers, he embraced whatever he once held to be right with all his soul, and was thus inclined to a rude straightforwardness and action in extremes. Thus he became a Pharisee of the strongest kind, and a blind zealot for the law of his fathers (Phil. iii. 6., Gal. i. 13, 14)." Saul was never a hypocrite. He hated the name and followers of Jesus from his innermost soul. In this he nobly differed from many of his elders and compeers, who in hypocrisy carried on an opposition to a teaching which in their hearts they approved, but saw to be the certain ruin of their worldly hopes. Schrader (ii. 47, ff.) brings out well this difference, and speculates on its probable effects. It was no small thing for Pharisaism to possess a partisan of an earnest and thorough spirit one too, who was not, like the Palestine Jews, confined to a narrow Judaistio circle of experience, but had from childhood known Gentile persons and practices. Is it not certain that they who compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, would be carefully Schaf, Geschichte der Christlichen Kirche von ihrer Grundung bis auf die Gegenwart, vol. i. p. 163. This work, of which the first volume was last year published in America (Mercersburg, Pa.), promises to be one of the best compendiums extant of Church history. Its spirit is thoroughly Christian, its arrangement clear, its style lively and attractive; and it contains notices of the most recent German and other opinions on every question as it arises. |