The church in the Roman empire before A.D. 170

Front matter

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^T. BASIL'S SOriULASTICATF

No.

Preface

TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

'nnHE first part of this book was intended originally to be a single chapter, giving some slight account of the questions that were agitating the eastern Roman provinces when St. Paul brought the new religion before the populations of Antioch, Iconium, Derbe, and Lystra. The writer had the belief that the action of the earliest missionaries stood in the most intimate relation to the life and the tendencies of that society; that the outward character of early Christianity, as shown in the first converts, was determined to a considerable extent by the facts of their situation ; and that a true conception of " the Church in the Empire about 50-70 A.D." could not be attained, unless this relation were constantly borne in mind, and the student kept his eye continually on the state of society and politics in the eastern provinces.

The writer had no theory as to the composition or the date of Acfs. He sought only for external and objective grounds on which to rest a rational criticism of the trustworthiness of the historical statements in the book.

viii Preface to the Fotirth Edition.

He had, indeed, acquired a general idea that these statements had been to some degree affected and coloured by the prejudices of a later generation ; and perhaps this idea may have occasionally shown itself in the form of words employed in the early chapters. In working out the proposed introductory chapter, he found that, out of the facts which led him to set a low value on the evidence of the book, several were founded on erroneous views. Especially the fundamental error with regard to the "Galatian Clnirchcs," an error which was almost universally accepted, was found to be responsible for many apparent discrepancies between Acts and facts. In the attempt to attain and to justify an answer to the fundamental questions determining the historical authenticity of Acts as a picture of Roman society in the eastern provinces, the proposed single chapter grew into eight.

Any \alue that this part of the following work has is involved in its character as an unprejudiced attempt to find out what are the facts, and what verdict the dispassionate historical critic must pass in this case ; and in the changes that have been introduced in this edition that character is left undisturbed. It is hoped that the language used throughout remains such as to involve no theory as to the composition of Acts. Any reader who has arrived, or may hereafter arrive, at a definite view on that subject will find it necessary to make certain modifications in

Preface to the Fourth Edition. ix the language, even where he may accept, in a general way, the reasoning.

In the first edition a note was appended, in view of Spitta's recently published theory, pointing out that, if that at first view striking and alluring theory were proved, certain details would have to be modified. Since that note was written, the writer has acquired a definite opinion, which excludes Spitta's theory ; but he has not introduced into the text any change suggested by his opinion, except in the paragraphs where Spitta is mentioned. Various changes have been made in Part I. (especially on pages 46, 58 note, 68, T^, 75-7, 81, 90, 94-6, 107-9,* i59-6o, 166-68), but the point of view is unaltered, and the solution of every difficulty in Acts remains essentially as before. Criticisms and suggestions by Mr. F. C. Conybeare, Dr. Sanday, Rev. F. Kendall, Rev. F. W. Lewis, Mr. R. S. Miller, Prof Findlay, Mr. Hollis, Mr. A. Souter, Mr. A. F. Findlay, and others, have been utilised in the improvements.

Chapter VI. is far from adequate to its subject ; but the general arguments in favour of the South-Galatian theory would easily fill a volume, and I therefore could not touch the chapter without lengthening it, which is not permitted.

* The changes in pp. 107-9 had to be compressed into very narrow space ; and these pages are, I fear, hardly inteUigible in their present form except to those who have read Spitta's book and Weise's article (quoted and criticised there).

Preface to the Fourth Edition

In Part II. no change has been made except to improve the expression in three or four sentences and to make some additions to the notes appended at the conclusion of Cliapter XVI. The Armenian Version of the Acta of Paul and Thekla (published by Mr. F. C. Conybeare in his interesting and valuable work, Moniciiicnts of Early Christianity) has been referred to several times (p. 426, note ^ ) : it is founded on the Syriac Version (as it was in an early form), and not on the original Greek.

I may add that the words used in my first preface, " the faults of execution of which I was and am painfully conscious," are not a mere form. If I had been able to devote five years to the work, I could perhaps have done it better ; but in the situation in life that I hold, responsible during six months of the year for the teaching of Latin to the large classes of a Scottish university, and bound also in honour to carry on and complete a very big scheme of research in Asia Minor, I had no alternative between writing the book as it is and leaving it unwritten. Advisers whom I am ready to follow almost implicitly chose the former for me. But it lies in the plan of the work, and is in considerable degree the cause of any value that the book has, that the chapters are isolated and separate studies, and that no attempt is made to weld them into a systematic discussion of the entire subject. The intention is to discuss and try to understand single points, treating

Preface to the Fou7'th Edition. xi

each by itself and not as part of a system. The full title of the book might be "an attempt to establish some facts in regard to the position of the Church in the Roman Empire during the first two centuries." Chapters XVIII. and XIX. lie outside the limits of the title. The latter was one of the series of lectures at Mansfield College out of which the book grew ; but the theory, more favourable to Herodotus and to the legend, which was originally stated in the lecture, was relinquished as too daring, and hence that chapter appears rather disappointing.

Finally, it ought to be understood that the book is the work of a student of Roman history and of Roman society, who finds in the Church the cause and the explanation of many problems in his subject, and writes from the point of view of general Roman imperial history rather than of specially ecclesiastical history.

A few additional pages of notes on points that have been debated during the last two years (pp. 481 f) have been appended to this edition. But it may here be said plainly that it is a prime necessity, in estimating the authenticity and the meaning of the narrative in Acts, to study as a preliminary the circumstances, the currents of political and social development, the facts of life, that characterised central Asia Minor at that time. Christianity then, as always, was no mere philosophical doctrine, but was actual life ; and, beyond all others, xii Preface to the Fou7'th Edition.

Paul especially plunged into the heart of the life around him ; he drew his illustrations, and pointed his lessons, from the facts of his hearers' life ; he taught them how to live in their own country. In Lightfoot we are struck by the steady purpose with which he aims at this method of study ; he always tries to embrace in his view the whole circumstances of the people whom Paul addresses. But in the fifty-one pages which Dr. Zockler in Theolog. Stud, iind Kritiken, 1895, and the forty pages which Dr. Chase in the Expositor, have devoted to the task of propping up the North-Galatian theory, I find no sentence that shows any recognition of this prime necessity. It is the same with every recent work on Galatians (so far as my reading extends) : Lightfoot tried and found nought ; no one else tries ; and Dr Zockler {op. cit. p. 59) pointedly rejects Lightfoot's Galatian view as a whole, without making any new attempt to set the Galatian Churches in their true environment.

In speaking of the North-Galatian theory, it must be remembered that its adherents differ among each other just as widely as I differ from them. Lightfoot takes the Churches of Galatia as Ancyra, Pessinus, Tavium, and perhaps Juliopolis (ed. of 1892, p. 20); and in describing the situation and the surroundings of the Galatic Churches, he has Ancyra chiefly in his mind. But Zockler throws this idea overboard, declares that Paul

Preface to the Fourth Edition. xiii never was at Ancyra, or Tavium, or Juliopolis, and confines the Churches of Galatia to Pessinus and the wilderness of the Axylon. He does not indeed recognise that his theory means this (if he had recognised it, perhaps he would not have suggested it) ; but that is what it does mean. It is plain that the North-Galatian theorists, except Lightfoot, make no attempt to find order and method in Paul's work ; to them his idea of " an open door " (2 Cor. ii. 12) has only the vaguest sense ; pressing on to the great centres of life (see p. 158 note) was not, in their estimation, his way of work. Those who try to conceive what Asia Minor was in the first century will end by rejecting the North-Galatian view. The material for studying the country has been as yet uncollected and often inaccessible ; but those who desire to study the question minutely will find the best defence that I can give of the South-Galatian theory in the Cities and Bishoprics of Plirygia (vol. i.. Clarendon Press, 1895), where the question is not alluded to, but the state of the country and people, and the relations between classes and religions, are described.

VV. M. RAMSAY.

PREFACE.

THIS work originates from the invitation with which the Council of Mansfield College, Oxford, honoured me in the end of July 1891, to give a course of six lectures there in May-June 1892. The opinion of Dr. Fairbairn, Dr. Sanday, and other friends encouraged mc to hope that faults of execution — of which I was and am painfully conscious— did not wholly obscure a good idea in them ; and it is at their advice that the present book appears. The lectures are almost entirely rewritten (except Chap. IX.), and are enlarged by the addition of Part I, and in other respects, which need not be specified ; but they retain their original character as lectures, intended rather to stimulate interest and research in students than to attain scientific completeness and order of exposition. They exemplify to younger students the method of applying archaeological, topographical, and numismatic evidence to the investigation of early Christian history ; and, as I always urge on my pupils, their aim is to suggest to others how to treat the subject better than I can.

xvi Preface.

The books of the New Testament are treated here simply as authorities for history ; and their credit is estimated on the same principles as that of other historical documents. If I reach conclusions very different from those of the school of criticism whose originators and chief exponents are German, it is not that I differ from their method. I fully accept their principle, that the sense of these documents can be ascertained only by resolute criticism ; but I think that they have often carried out their principle badly, and that their criticism often offends against critical method. True criticism must be sympathetic ; but in investigations into religion, Greek, Roman, and Christian alike, there appears to me, if I may venture to say so, to be in many German scholars (the greatest excepted) a lack of that instinctive sympathy with the life and nature of a people which is essential to the right use of critical processes. For years, with much interest and zeal, but with little knowledge, I followed the critics and accepted their results. In recent years, as I came to understand Roman history better, I have realised that, in the case of almost all the books of the New Testament, it is as gross an outrage on criticism to hold them for second-century forgeries as it would be to class the works of Horace and Virgil as forgeries of the time of Nero.

Some German reviewers have taxed me with unfair depreciation of German authorities. The accusation must

Preface. xvil

seem to my English friends and pupils a retribution for the persistence with which I have urged the necessity of studying German method. None admires and reverences German scholarship more than I do ; but it has not taught me to be blind to faults, or to be afraid to speak out.

I cannot sufficiently acknowledge my debt to various friends, chiefly to Dr. Sanday ; also to Dr. Hort, Dr. Fairbairn, Mr. Armitage Robinson, Mr. A. C. Headlam, etc. From the discriminating criticism of Mr. Vernon Bartlct I have gained much : the pages on i Peter were doubled in meeting his arguments. My old friend of undergraduate days, Mr. Macdonell, formerly of Balliol College, gave me especially great help throughout the first fourteen chapters. In the index I have been aided by my pupil, Mr. A. Souter, now of Caius College.

A special tribute is due to two writers. Lightfoot's Ignatius and Polycarp has been my constant companion ; yet my admiration for his historical perception, his breadth of knowledge and his honesty of statement, and my grateful recollection of much kindly encouragement received from him personally, do not prevent me from stating frankly where I am bound to differ from him. Mommsen's review of Neumann explained certain difficulties that long puzzled me ; and the lectures attempt, however imperfectly, to apply principles learned mamly from his various writings.

xviii Preface.

As the whole work is due to my explorations in Asia Minor, I hope it may stimulate the progress of discovery in that land, which at present conceals within it the answer to many pressing problems of history ; and, perhaps, may even prevent my researches from coming to an end. Next to further exploration and excavation, the greatest desideratum is a society to study and edit the acta of the Eastern Saints.

Aberdeen,

Jayiuary 2-i^rd, 1893.

Chapter I. General

1. Plan of the work 3 : 2. The Travel-Document 6 : 3. The Churches of Galatia 8 : 4. Social Condition of Asia Minor, a.d. 50-60, 11 : Note 13.

CHAPTER n.

1. Painphylia 16 : 2. Pisidia and Ayo Paulo 18 : 3. Pisidian Antioch 25 : 4. r^oute from Antioch to Iconium 27 : 5. Iconium 36 : 6. Lystra 47 : 7. Derbe 54 : 8. Character of Lycaonia in the First Century 56.

CHAPTER HI.

THE FIRST JOURNEY AS A NARRATIVE OF TRAVEL

CHAPTER IV.

THE SECOND JOURNEY 74

XX Co7itents.

CHAPTER V.

PACE

THE THIRD JOURNEY ........ 90

CHAPTER VI.

THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS . . » , . » 97

1. Arguments founded on the Epistle 97 : 2. St. Paul's feelings towards the Galatian Churches : 3. Arguments for the North-Gaiatian theory 105 : 4. Analogy of i Peter no : 5. Change in the meaning of the name Galatia in.

CHAPTER Vn,

ST. PAUL AT EPHESUS , , ,112

1. Demetrius the Neopoios 113 : 2. Acts xix. 23-41, 114 : 3. Demetrius the Neopoios and Demetrius the Silversmith 118 : 4. Action of the Priests of Artemis 120 : 5. Shrines of Artemis 123 : 6. Attitude of the Ephesian officials towards Paul 129 : 7. Fate of the silver shrines 134 : 8. Great Artemis 135: 9. Text of Acts xix. 23-41, 139: 10. Historical character of the narrative Acts xix. 23-41, 143.

CHAPTER VI H.

THE ORIGINAL AUTHORITY FOR ST. PAUL'S JOURNEYS :

VALUE AND TEXT 14b

1. Rapid spread of Christianity in Asia Minor 147 : 2. Distinction of Autliorship 148 : 3. Text of Codex Bezce : Asia Minor 151 : 4. Text of Codex BezcB : Europe 156 : 5. Codex Dezcs founded on a Catholic Recension 161 : 6, Postscript : Spitta's Apostelgeschichte 166.

Contents xx i

BEING LECTURES AT MANSFIELD COLLEGE, OXFORD, MAY AND JUNE, 1892.

CHAPTER IX.

PAGE

SUBJECT AND IIETHOD 171

1. Aspect of history here treated 172 : 2. Connexion between Church history and the life of the period 173 : 3. The authorities : date 177 : 4. The authorities : trustworthiness 182 : 5. Results of separating Church history from Imperial history 185 : 6. The point of view 190.

CHAPTER X.

PLINY'S REPORT AND TRAJAN'S RESCRIPT . . . . I96

1. PreUminary considerations 196 : 2. The religious question in Bithynia-Pontus 198 : 3. First and second stage of the trials 201 : 4. Pliny's attitude towards the Christians 205 : 6. The case was administrative, not legal 207 : 6. Pliny's questions and Trajan's reply 211 : 7. The Christians were not punished as a Sodalitas 213 : 8. Procedure 215 : 9. Additional Details 219 : 10. Recapitulation 222 : 11. Topography.

CHAPTER XT.

THE ACTION OF NERO TOWARDS THE CHRISTIANS . .226

1. Tacitus Annals xv. 44, 227 : 2. The evidence of Suetonius 229 : 3. First stage in Nero's action 232 : 4. Second stage : charge of hostility to society 234 : 5. Crime which the Christians confessed 238 : 6. Character, duration, and extent of the Xeronian persecution 240 : 7. Principle of Nero's action 242 : 8. Evidence of Christian documents 245.

xxii Contcfits.

CHAPTER XII.

THE FLAVIAN POLICY TOWARDS THE CHURCH . . .252

1. Tacitus' conception of the Flavian policy 253 : 2. Confirmation of Nero's policy by Vespasian 256 ; 3. The Persecution of Domitian 259 : 4. Bias of Dion Cassius 263 : 6. Difference of policy towards Jews and Christians 264 : 6. The executions of a.d. 95 an incident of the general policy 268 : 7. The evidence of Suetonius about the executions of A.D. 95, 271 : 8. The Flavian action was political in character 274.

CHAPTER XIH.

CHRISTIAN AUTHORITIES FOR THE FLAVIAN PERIOD . . 279

1. The first Epistle of Peter 279 : 2. Later Date assigned to i Peter 288 : 3. Official action implied in i Peter 290 : 4. The evidence of the Apocalypse 295 : 5. The first Epistle of John 302 : 6. Hebrews and Barnabas 306 : 7. The Epistle of Clement 309 : 8. The letters of Ignatius 311.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE POLICY OF HADRIAN, PIUS, AND HIARCUS . , . 32O

1. Hadrian 320 ; 2. Pius 331 : 3. Marcus Aurelius 334 : 4, The Apologists 340.

CHAPTER XV.

CAUSE AND EXTENT OF PERSECUTION 346

1. Popular hatred o the Christians 346 : 2. Real cause of State persecution 354 : 3. Organisation oi the Church 361 : Note 374.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE ACTA OF PAUL AND THEKLA ......

1. The Acta in their extant form 375 : 2. Queen Tryphaena 3S2 3. Localities of the tale of Thekla 390 : 4. The trials at Iconium 391 : 5. The trial of Thekla at Antioch 395 : 6. Punishment and escape of Thekla 401 : 7. The original tale of Thekla 409 : 8. Revision of the tale of Thekla, A.D. 130-50,416 : 9, The Iconian legend of Thekla 423: Notes 426,

Contents.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE CHURCH FROM I20 TO I70 A.D. .

NOTES

XXlll

CHAPTER XVIII.

GLYCERIUS THE DEACON

CHAPTER XIX.

THE MIRACLE AT KHONAI

NOTES

NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS . . . , . . 51O

VIEW OF THE SITE OF LYSTRA facing p. 47

VIEW OF THE SITE OF DERBE facing p. 55

EARLY CHRISTIAN MONUMENT FROM PRYMNESSOS . facitlg p. 441

MAP OF ASIA MINOR ABOUT A.D. 50-7O

MAP OF THE LYCUS VALLEY in pocket at end facing p. 472

CORRIGENDA.

Page 15, line 4, for 8860 read 8660.

Page 76, line 3, for "southern frontier of Mysia'' read " valley of the Rhyndacus."

THE CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

PART I. — EARLIEST STAGE : ST. PAUL IN ASIA MINOR.

ERRATUM.

Pag:e 482, line 11. Dr. Clemen's article appeared in Zeitschr. /»,

CHAPTER 1.

GENERAL.

I. Plan of the Work.

IN view of the important part played by the churches of Asia in the development of Christianity during the period 70-170 A.D.,* the proper preliminary to the subject which is treated in this book would be a study of the social and political condition of Asia Minor about the middle of the first century of our era. Such a task is too great for the narrow limits of present knowledge. In place of such a preliminary study, it appeared a more prudent course to describe the travels of St. Paul in the country, as affording a series of pictures of single scenes, each simple and slight in character, and each showing some special feature of the general life of society.!

But while chronological considerations require that these chapters be placed as a preliminary part, they are, alike in conception and in execution, later than the body of the book. The writer, while composing the opening chapters, had the rest of the work already clear in his mind; and there has been unconsciously a tendency to write as if the views

* See below, p. 171.

t Perhaps at some later date, when the investigations, studies, and travel necessary for a projected historical work are completed, it may be possible to paint a general picture of the state of society in the first century.

S^. Paul in Asia Minor.

stated in the main body of the work were familiar to the reader. In the prehminary part it is important to observe any faint signs of the later idea that Christianity was the religion of the Empire. We trace the rise of this idea from the time when Paul went from Perga into the province Galatia "to the work " (Acts xiii. 14, xv. 38.)

The discussion which is here given of the missionary journeys of St. Paul in Asia Minor is not intended to be complete. It is unnecessary to repeat what has already been well stated by others. The writer presupposes throughout the discussion a general familiarity with the previous descriptions of the journeys. His intention has been to avoid saying again what has been rightly said in the works of Conybeare and Howson, of Lewin, of Farrar, etc. ; and merely to bring together the ideas which have been suggested to him by long familiarity with the localities, and which seemed to correct, or to advance beyond, the views stated in the modern biographies of St. Paul, and in the Commentaries on the Acts and the Epistles.*

The notes which follow may perhaps seem to be unnecessarily minute ; but the reason for their existence lies in the fact that it is important to weigh accurately and minutely minute details. Fidelity to the character and circumstances of the country and people is an important criterion in estimating the narrative of St. Paul's journeys ; and such fidelity is most apparent in slight details, many of which have, so far as I can discover, hitherto escaped notice. The writer's subject is restricted to the country with which he has had the opportunity of acquiring unusual familiarity,

* Considerable parts of Chapters I., II., III. appeared in the Ex;posifor, Janu:.i), September, October, and November, 1892.

and about which many false opinions have become part of the stock of knowledge handed down through a succession of commentators. Even that most accurate of writers, the late Bishop Lightfoot, had not in his earlier works succeeded in emancipating himself from the traditional misconceptions ; we observe in his successive writings a continuous progress towards the accurate knowledge of Asia Minor which is conspicuous in his work on Ignatius and Polycarp. But in his early work, the edition of the Epistle to the Galatians, there is shown, so far as Asia Minor is concerned, little or no superiority to the settled erroneousness of view and of statement which still characterises the recent commentaries of Wendt and Lipsius ; * and only a few signs appear of his later fixed habit of recurring to original authorities about the country, and setting the words of St. Paul in their local and historical surroundings, a habit which contrasts strongly with the satisfied acquiescence of Lipsius and Wendt in the hereditary circle of knowledge or error. The present writer is under great obligations to both of them, and desires to acknowledge his debt fully ; but the vice of many modern German discussions of the early history of Christianity — viz., falseness to the facts

* Wendt' s sixth (seventh) edition of Meyer's Handbuch fiber die Apostelgeschichte, Gottingen, 1888 ; Lipsius' edition of Epistle to the Galatians in Holtzmann's Handcommentar zum N.T., ii. 2, Freiburg-, 1891. These works are referred to throughout the eight opening chapters simply as Wendt and Lipsius. I am sorry to speak unfavourably of Lipsius so soon after his lamented death ; but my criticism refers only to his statements about the antiquities of Asia Minor. The obscurity of this subject does not justify wrong statements, and inferences founded on them. Harnack's excellent edition of Acta Carpi shows how a judicious reticence may be observed in cases where certainty is unattainable, of contemporary life and the general history of the period — is becoming stereotyped and intensified by long repetition in the most recent commentators, and some criticism and protest against their treatment of the subject are required.* I regret to be compelled in these earlier chapters to disagree so much with Lightfoot's views as stated in his edition of Galatians : perhaps therefore I may be allowed to say that the study of that work, sixteen years ago, marks an epoch in my thoughts and the beginning of my admiration for St. Paul and for him.f

2. The " Travel-Document."

In order to put the reader on his guard, it is only fair to state at the outset that the writer has a definite aim — viz., by minutely examining the journeys in Asia Minor to show that the account given in Acts of St. Paul's journeys is founded on, or perhaps actually incorporates, an account written down under the immediate influence of Paul him-

* It is hardly necessary to say that my criticism is directed against one single aspect of modern German work in early Christian history. Of the value, suggestiveness, and originality of that work no one can have a higher opinion than I ; but I cannot agree with certain widely accepted views as to the relation of the early Christians to the society and the government of Asia Minor and of the Empire generally.

t The Epistle to the Galatians formed part of the Pass Divinity Examination in the Final Schools at Oxford. It is only fair to acknowledge how much I gained from an examination which I submitted to with great reluctance. Immersed as I was at the time in Greek Philosophy, it appeared to me that Paul was the first true successor of Aristotle, and his work a great relief after the unendurable dreariness of the Greek Stoics and the dulness of the Epicureans, self. This original account was characterised by a system of nomenclature different from that which is employed by the author of some of the earlier chapters of Acts : it used territorial names in the Roman sense, like Paul's Epistles, whereas the author of chap, ii., vcr. 9, uses them in the popular Greek sense ; and it showed a degree of accuracy which the latter was not able to attain.* In carrying out this aim, it will be necessary to differ in some passages of Acts from the usual interpretation, and the reasons for this divergence caii be appreciated only by careful attention to rather minute details. For the sake of brevity, I shall, so far as regard for clearness permits, venture to refer for some details to a larger work,t whose results are here applied to the special purpose of illustrating this part of the Acts ; but I hope to make the exposition and arguments complete in themselves.

As this idea, that the narrative of St. Paul's journeys, or at least parts of it, had an independent existence before it was utilised or incorporated in Acts, must be frequently referred to in the following pages, the supposed original document will be alluded to as the " Travel Document." The exact relation of this document to the form which appears in Acts is difficult to determine. It may have been modified or enlarged ; but I cannot enter on this subject. My aim is only to investigate the traces of

* The general agreement of this view with that stated by Wendt, pp. 21 and 278, is obvious ; and certain differences also are not difficult to detect. He dates the composition of Acts between 75 and 100 A.D., and holds that the original document alone was the work of Luke.

t Historical Geography of Asia Minor, where I have discussed the points more fully

St. Pattl in Asia Minor minute fidelity to the actual facts of contemporary society and life, which stamp this part of Acts as, in part or in whole, a trustworthy historical authority, dating from 62-64, A.D.

I hope to show that, when once we place ourselves at the proper point of view, the interpretation of the " Travel- Document " as a simple, straightforward, historical testimony offers itself with perfect ease, and that it confirms and completes our knowledge of the country acquired from other sources in a way which proves its ultimate origin from a person acquainted with the actual circumstances. If this attempt be successful, it follows that the original document was composed under St. Paul's own influence,* for only he was present on all the occasions which are described with conspicuous vividness.