The History of Christianity by John S. C. Abbott (free children's ebooks pdf .TXT) 📖

The malignant Jews in Thessalonica, hearing of Paul’s success in Berea, sent some of their number to rouse the mob there against him. Paul, aware that he could hope to accomplish but little amidst scenes of popular clamor and violence, quietly withdrew. He, however, left Silas and Timothy behind: they, being less prominent, would not so much attract the attention of the populace.

Aided by the brethren of Berea, Paul repaired to the sea-coast, where he embarked for the city of Athens. Coasting along the western shore of the Island of Eubœa, a distance of ninety miles, they came to Cape Colonna, the southern extremity of Attica. Here, on Sunium’s high promontory, stood the temple of Minerva, a landmark to the Greek sailors. The eminence is still crowned with the ruins of its white columns.

Rounding this cape, the navigator soon came in sight of the splendid city of Athens, “built nobly on the Ægean shore, the eye of Greece, the mother of arts and eloquence.”138 Idolatrous shrines crowned every height, and gorgeous temples for the worship of false gods were found in all the streets. Athens was probably by far the most renowned city Paul had yet entered; and it embraced a large class of poets, philosophers, and men of literary leisure. “All the Athenians, and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.”

The statues to the gods were so numerous, that Petronius, a Roman satirist, declared that it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens. The spirit of Paul was roused as never before in seeing this great city so entirely surrendered to idolatry. In the synagogue of the Jews, and daily in the market-place, and from house to house, as he could find persons to listen to him, he proclaimed the religion of Jesus. His earnestness, and the power of his eloquent words, soon arrested general attention. Some of the proud philosophers turned contemptuously from him, calling him a “babbler:” others had their curiosity excited, and wished to hear more, saying, “He seemeth to be a setter-forth of strange gods, because,” adds Luke, “he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.”139

There was at Athens a renowned eminence, called Mars’ Hill, upon whose summit was reared one of the most majestic buildings of ancient or modern days, called the Acropolis. Here the court of the Areopagus, the most solemn of the Grecian courts, held its sessions. Here Paul was taken by the Athenians to expound to them his doctrine. Never had he addressed such an audience before. Apparently never before, since he became a disciple of Jesus, had he encountered an hour to be fraught with more momentous consequences. The sacred historian has given us his address, or an abstract of it, upon this occasion. In its appropriateness to the circumstances of the case, it is universally regarded as unsurpassed in the records of human eloquence:—

“Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious;140 for as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.

“For in him we live and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch, then, as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”141

The results of this address upon the minds of those who listened were various. Some of the philosophers, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, “mocked.” Many of the Jews were probably irritated at the suggestion that Jews and Gentiles were to be placed on an equality. Others, more respectful, withdrew, simply saying, “We will hear thee again of this matter.” This was probably merely a polite expression of indifference. Paul did not feel sufficiently encouraged to prolong his labors among auditors so unpromising. In the synagogue, and in the streets, Paul had been preaching to the Athenians “Jesus and the resurrection.” It was to this same theme, the burden of all his teachings, that upon Mars’ Hill he so skilfully drew the attention of his hearers.

Paul did not encounter any tumult or violence in Athens. How long he remained there cannot now be known. As to the results of his labors, we are informed that Dionysius, a member of the court of Areopagus, and a woman by the name of Damaris, with some others, became converts to Christianity.

From Athens Paul proceeded to Corinth, the commercial metropolis of Greece, and a city renowned for its wealth, its luxury, and its wickedness. Corinth was about sixty miles from Athens, in a direction very nearly west. Two of the exiled Jews, Aquila and his wife Priscilla, whom a decree of the Emperor Claudius had expelled from Rome, had taken refuge in Corinth. They cordially received Paul, and he abode with them. They were tent-makers by occupation; making tents, then in great demand, of cloth woven from goat’s-hair. Paul, who was unwilling to be burdensome to any one, met his expenses by his daily or rather nightly toil at this trade, which he had learned in his early youth. After preaching the gospel all day, we can see him in the evening diligently aiding Aquila and Priscilla in their manual labor.

Soon Silas and Timothy, coming from Thessalonica, joined Paul in Corinth. As he witnessed the great wickedness of the city, his spirit was stirred within him to an unusual degree. Earnestly he testified to the degenerate Jews that Jesus is the Christ. But the Jews would not receive Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah. They reviled the preacher and his gospel. Luke writes,—

“And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads: I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.”

He thus abandoned the synagogue; and it seems that it was necessary for him to leave the residence of his Jewish hosts, and to take up his abode with a Gentile by the name of Justus. This man lived near the synagogue, and, though a Greek, had renounced idolatry, and was a worshipper of the true God. Paul’s labors among the Jews had not been entirely in vain: for “Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord, with all his house;” and Paul in person baptized him.142

Among the Gentiles Paul’s success was very great, and converts were rapidly multiplied. The rage of the Jews was such, that it was feared that Paul would encounter personal violence; but the Lord appeared to Paul in the night in a vision, and said to him,—

“Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city.”

For a year and six months Paul continued in Corinth, preaching the gospel. It was from that city that he wrote his two impressive and affectionate letters to the converts in Thessalonica. An easy, good-natured man, by the name of Gallio, was at that time governor of the province of Achaia, which included the whole of Southern Greece. Probably the conversion and baptism of Crispus exasperated the Jews to the highest degree. They stirred up an insurrection in the streets; seized Paul, and with clamor and tumult dragged him before the judgment-seat of Gallio. But the charges which they brought against Paul were so frivolous, that Gallio drove them from his presence, declaring that he would be no judge of such matters.

The Greeks hated the Jews. And here, for the first time, we have the remarkable exhibition of the populace proceeding to acts of violence against the enemies of Paul. According to the narrative in the Acts of the Apostles, the Greek populace rushed upon Sosthenes, the ruler of the Jewish synagogue, and severely beat him. It was far more important to Gallio that he should be popular among the Greeks than among the Jews: he therefore, with characteristic indifference, left Sosthenes to his fate. After this, the Jews no longer attempted to molest Paul.

He remained in Corinth “yet a good while;” but we have no record of the amount or success of his labors. He then bade farewell to the numerous converts whom he had gathered in Corinth, and, accompanied by Aquila and Priscilla, embarked at Cenchrea, and, leaving the shores of Greece behind him, crossed the Ægean Sea, a distance of about two hundred miles, and landed at the renowned city of Ephesus, in Asia Minor. In the record of this event it is written,—

“He then took leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.”143

The structure of the sentence does not determine whether it was Paul or Aquila who had a vow; neither are we informed why the vow was taken. Paul apparently entered the synagogue at Ephesus but once, when he reasoned with the Jews, endeavoring to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah; and, though entreated to tarry longer with them, he declined, saying, “I must by all means keep this feast144 that cometh in Jerusalem; but I will return again unto you.”

Sailing from Ephesus, leaving Aquila and Priscilla behind him, he landed at Cæsarea in Syria, and immediately hastened up to Jerusalem to report to the church there his adventures in the long and momentous excursion he had made,—an excursion which occupied a little over two years. He then returned to Antioch.