The cities of St. Paul, their influence on his life and thought. The cities of eastern Asia Minor

Preface

The subject of these lectures has proved much larger than was anticipated in my original plan, and I have been obliged to omit the Pauline Cities of the Aegean coasts, important as they were in St. Paul's career, and to refrain from discussing his words and metaphors, as I had hoped to do in Part VII.

Parts III. — VI. treat the same subject as was handled in Chapters XII. — XV. of the Introduction to the Historical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians ; but, whereas there the aim was to collect all the information that could be gathered about the Galatian cities, here the object is to understand the character of each as an experiment in the amalgamation of Asiatic and European in a social organism, and to appreciate the unity which runs through its history from century to century.

I add a confirmation of the view stated in p. 204 f. as to the veil being the authority of the woman in

252411 vi Preface

Oriental society. In the Hebrew marriage ceremony, as it is celebrated in modern Palestine, I am informed that the husband snatches off the bride's veil and throws it on his own shoulder, as a sign that he has assumed authority over her.

Considerable parts of this book have appeared as articles, especially in the Contemporary Review and the Expositor. With the large tax levied on my time and strength by college duties in winter and exploration in summer, the task of composing a book would be beyond my powers, were I not able in this way to take it in parts, working up each as opportunity offers, but having always the general plan in mind. Several of the articles were written in trains or remote places, but they were composed long before they were written. Most of them have been greatly modified and, I hope, improved in their present form.

W. M. RAMSAY.

PART I PAULINISM IN THE GRiECO-ROMAN WORLD

§ II. The Pauline Philosophy of History

§ III. The Pauline Contrasted with the Modern Method

§ IV. St. Paul and Hellenism ....

§ V. Hellenism and Hebraism . . .

§ VII. Paulinism in the Roman Empire .

§ VIII. Conclusion

PAGB

3 10

PART II Tarsus

§1.

§11.

§111.

Introduction The Situation of Tarsus Tarsus and the Plain of Cilicia § IV. Tarsus, the River and the Sea § V. Tarsus and the Cilician Gates

85 93 98

105 112

Vlll

Contents

PAGE

§VI.

The Ionians in Early Tarsus

Il6

§VII.

Tarsus as an Oriental Town

§ Vlli.

Legends of Early Tarsus

§IX.

The Religion of Tarsus

The Revival of Greek Influence .

§XI.

Tarsus as the Greek Colony Antiocheia

§XII.

The Greeks in Tarsus-Antiocheia

■ 165

§ XIII.

The Jews in Tarsus ....

§XIV.

The Jews settled in Tarsus in 171 B.C.

l8o

§xv.

Tarsus the Hellenistic City

§XVI.

Tarsus as Capital of the Roman Province

Cilicia

I9I

§ XVII.

The Oriental Spirit in Tarsus

§ XVIII.

Romans otherwise Tarsians

§XIX.

The Tarsian Democracy

§xx.

Athenodorus of Tarsus

§xxi.

The Reform of the Tarsian Constitution b)

r

Athenodorus

§XXII.

§ XXIII.

Tarsus under the Empire .

PART III Antioch

§ II. The Jews in Pisidian Antioch

§ III. The Greek Colonists in Early Antioch

§ IV. The Phrygians of Antioch .

*55 259 260

Contents

IX

PAGE

§ V. Antioch a City of Galatia .... 262

§ VI. Character of the Original Hellenic City . 264

§ X. First Appearance of Paul and Barnabas in the

Antiochian Synagogue . . . .296

§ XI. Paul's First Address to a Galatian Audience 299

Part IV

§ II. The Religion of Iconium

§ III. The Territory of Iconium .

§ V. The Constitution of the Hellenic City Iconium

§ VII. Iconium as a Roman City

§ VIII. The Roman Colony of Iconium .

§ IX. St. Paul at Iconium ....

353 360

PART V Derbe

Contents

Part VI Page

Lystra . . 407

§11. Character of the Five Cities . . . .418

PART VII St. Paul in the Roman World . . . .423 ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATES

I. Tarsus, the Hill Country behind, and the snowcovered Taurus in the background ... 94 II. Two views of a Triumphal Arch on the Roman Road, twelve miles north of Tarsus : from the south. (A view from the north is given in Pauline and Other Studiesy Plate XIII.) . . 96

III. Jonas Pillar and the Cilician Sea, near Issus. The

slope of Djebel Nur rises on the right . . 98

IV. Falls of the Cydnus (the new River of Justinian)

on the north side of Tarsus . . . .108

V. The Cilician Gates 108

VI. The desolate site of Pisidian Antioch . . . 248 VII. Remains of a Hellenistic building at Antioch . 250

VIII. The Aqueduct of Pisidian Antioch . . .252 IX. Rock-cutting, generally supposed to be the Sanctuary of the God of Pisidian Antioch, perhaps only the site of an Odeon . . . . . 254 X. The Plateau of Pisidian Antioch and the Glen of

the River Anthios, looking from the north-east . 272 xii Illustrations

FACING PAGE

XI. Looking across Konia to the Twin Peaks of St.

Philip and St. Thekla 272

XII. The Sacred Village and Mountain of the Zizimmene

Mother of Iconium 330

XIII. Seat of the Mevlevi Dervishes : the Religious

Centre of Iconium .... Frontispiece

XIV. The Church of St. Amphilochius at Iconium . . 380 XV. Hadji Baba, the Pilgrim Father, the Mountain

Guardian of Derbe 388

XVI. The Site of Derbe 394

XVII. Khatyn Serai and Lystra and the Bridge on the

Southern Road 408

XVIII. Mediaeval Bridge on the north side of Khatyn Serai 410

CUTS IN THE TEXT

PAGE

Fig. 1 . Greek Warrior on Coin of Tarsus : Aramaic

Letters 123

Fig. 2. Greek Nymph on Coin of Tarsus: Aramaic Letters 127

Fig. 3. The Baal of Tarsus and the Persian Satrap of Cilicia 128 Fig. 4. The Baal of Tarsus and the Syrian Gates . .129

Fig. 5. Athena on Coin of Tarsus 130

Fig. 6. Lion and Star on Coin of Tarsus .... 131 Fig. 7. The Goddess, her Lions, and the God, a Lycaonian

Relief 134

Fig. 8. Perseus with the Gorgon's Head on Coin of Tarsus 135

Fig. 9. The Baal of Tarsus 140

Illustrations xiii rAGE

Fig. 9A. The Emblem of Tarsus, Lion killing Stag . . 435 Fig. 10. The Baal of Tarsus with Eagle . . . .141 Fig. n. The Anatolian God of Tarsus .... 144 Fig. 1 1 a. The Hellenic City-Goddess . . . facing 1

Fig. 12. The Anatolian God at Boghaz-Keui . . . 145 Fig. 13. The Anatolian God of Tarsus as he was borne to

the Pyre 148

Fig. 14. Perseus, with the City-Goddess and the People,

adoring Apollo of Tarsus 150

Fig. 15. Perseus supporting Apollo of Tarsus . . .152 Fig. 16. Perseus and the Fisherman of Tarsus . . . 153 Fig. 17. The Persian God Ahura-mazda on Coin of Tarsus 154 Fig. 18. Mithras Sacrificing a Bull on Coin of Tarsus . 155

Fig. 19. The Hellenic City-Goddess of Antioch-Tarsus . 160 Fig. 19A. The Zeus of Antioch-Tarsus . . . facing! Fig. 20. Tarsus with the River Cydnus at her Feet . .188 Fig. 21. The Hellenic City-Goddess and the Anatolian God

of the Tarsians 189

Fig. 22. The two Imperial Temples at Tarsus . . .237 Fig. 23. The Three Provinces Crowning the City-Goddess

of Tarsus 238

Fig. 24. The Crown of the High-priest of the Emperors . 239 Fig. 25. Tarsus between Athena and Nemesis . . . 241 Fig. 26. Ship bringing Egyptian Corn to Tarsus . . . 242 Fig. 27. The River Anthios on Coin of Pisidian Antioch . 316 Fig. 28. The Roman Standards at Antioch . . .274

Fig. 29. Gordian III. sacrificing beside the Roman

Standards at Antioch 275 xiv Illustrations

PAGE

Fig. 30. Imperial Victories at Antioch . . . .276

Fig. 31. Peace hurrying to Antioch 281

Fig. 32. The Genius of Antioch 282

Fig. 33. The God of Antioch supporting Victory . .286

Fig. 34. The Goddess-Mother of Antioch with her Lions . 288

Fig. 35. The Genius of Antioch with Olive-branch . . 289

Fig. 36. The Genius of Antioch with Horn of Plenty . . 290 Fig- 37- Gordian III. supporting the Genius of the City and

greeting Antioch 291

Fig. 38. Antioch as the Lady of the Limnai . . . 292

Fig. 39. The Statue of Perseus at Iconium . . . 328

Fig. 40. Perseus on a Coin of Iconium .... 329

Fig. 41. Athena Polias at Iconium 331

Fig. 42. The Hellenic Zeus of the Iconians . . . 332

Fig. 43. The Hero, a Relief at Iconium . . . • 333

Fig. 44. Heracles at Iconium 354

Fig. 45. The Roman She-Wolf at Iconium . . . 365 Fig. 46. The Good Fortune of Iconium . . . .367 Fig. 47. The Good Fortune of Iconium with River at her

Feet 368

Fig. 48. The Empress Poppaea as the City-Goddess of

Fig. 49. The Tomb of Paul the Martyr at Derbe . . 390

Fig. 50. Heracles at Derbe 400

Fig. 51. Good Fortune at Derbe 401

Fig. 52. Victory Writing on a Shield : a Statue at Derbe . 402 Fig. 53. The Founder of Lystra Ploughing the Limits of

the City 4!3

Illustrations xv

PAGE

Fig. 54. The Good Fortune of Lystra . . . .414 Fig. 55. The Good Fortune of Barata . . . .415

MAPS

I. ClLICIA AND THE ROAD ACROSS TAURUS ... 84

II. From Tarsus and the Coast to the Cilician

Gates 106

III. The Region of Pisidian Antioch .... 246

IV. The Country of Iconium, Derbe and Lystra . 384

Fig. iia.— Head of the Goddess of Tarsus. Obverse of Fig. n, p. 144-

Fig. 19A. — The God of Antioch-on-the-Cydnus (Tarsus). Fig. 19, p. 160.

Reverse of

ERRATA.

Insert references to the above on pp. 144 1. 1. 12. Insert on p. 140 1. 12 reference to p. 435. P. 357, t 5 : delete 33.

P. 360, 1. 7 : delete 34.

Part I. Paulinism In The Gr^co-roman World

y

PAULINISM IN THE GR^CO-ROMAN WORLD.

§ I. Introduction.

My first words must be an apology for the character of my opening paragraph: but the circumstances make an autobiographical introduction the most suitable in this place and in this University, as furnishing an explanation and a justification of the choice of subject in these lectures.

It has always appeared to me the most fortunate factor in the whole course of my education that in the last part of my undergraduate life immediately after spending a year in reading with unusual care the most developed stage of Aristotle's philosophy, I was compelled by the Law of the University — much against my own will — to study the letter of Paul to the Galatians, and to learn in practical experience that the Law is a schoolmaster to prepare one for freedom, " rough, but a good nurse of youths," to use the words of Homer, whereas on the contrary a premature entrance into the life of apparent freedom can only be the beginning of a life-long slavery. Freedom, as Paul taught, must be the culmination of a long preparation under servitude to the Law ; otherwise it can only be injurious, and cannot even be freedom, but only a worse form of servitude. Degeneration is the inevitable result of servitude, whether it be servitude to an external master or to one's own insufficiently educated nature. My subject in the first part of these lectures is mainly to pass under review the form which Paul gave to the ancient theory of the universal degeneration in history, and the cure which alone he judged sufficient to turn degeneration into progressive development.

Reading the most remarkable and the most intensely individual of the Pauline Epistles as the completion of a study of Greek philosophy, I felt that in Paul, for the first time since Aristotle, Greek philosophy made a real step forward. Such was the impression made during my reading for the schools. Now after thirty-one years I have to state to you the issue of that idea, which seized hold of my mind in undergraduate days and has gripped me ever since. I shall not attempt to treat it with philosophic delicacy and subtlety, for that is beyond my power. I state only the broad rough views of one who looks at what men did and how States rose and fell.

While it is impossible to discuss Paul's views on philosophy or on history without touching on his religious opinions, our subject is primarily historical, and our aim is for the moment to set aside, as far as may be, the religious aspect of Paul's ideas, and to regard him as a force and a leader in history.

The main point and issue is this : Ancient civilisation perished almost utterly ; comparatively few specimens of its literature survived ; far the larger part of its institutions and methods in the organisation of society disappeared entirely from practical life, and can barely be guessed at now, as some saner ideas of the ancient world are being recovered. When one looks at the terrible suffering that accompanied the inroads of the worst tribes of destroying barbarians, from the Huns to the Mongols, when one remembers the wanton and reckless destruction of almost everything that

Introduction the ancient civilisation had constructed, the utter loss of so much that was useful and beautiful, so much in social life that had to be slowly recovered, and has as yet been by no means all recovered, in order to make life good and healthy and sound, it seems as if history were the game of a wanton child playing with its toys and wasting or throwing them away as it tired of them. What can explain, and what can repair the week-long sack of the greatest city of the Middle Ages by the Mongols, the annihilation by ignorant savages of the biggest collection of the remains of the ancient world, and all that this total wreck means to the civilised world ? Is there reason in this, or mere blind chance and foolish caprice ?

To Paul it seemed that there was reason in it. He, like the great Hebrew prophets, foresaw it, denounced its causes, recognised its purpose, and announced the remedy. The sack of Bagdad was but part of the last act in a long course of degeneration. The degeneration had been in process before the time of Paul. It was not the attacks of savages from without that destroyed the ancient civilisation and almost all the many great benefits it had wrought out for mankind ; it was the inherent and innate faults of that civilisation. A new foundation was needed on which to build up civilised life. Paul showed what the foundation must be. He taught how the transformation of the old system and the improvement of the foundation could be gradually effected. For some centuries it seemed possible that the transformation and regeneration might be effected peacefully. But, as he declared, and as the result showed, there was no alternative except either regeneration or death. He appreciated well, and declared emphatically that the old system had an element of good (§ 2) ; but without fundamental reform it could not be preserved. It was rotten to the heart. So said Paul ; and so must every one feel who studies the innermost character of ancient society ; so most emphatically said the ancients themselves. The Hellenistic kingdoms of the East struck out many admirable devices in society and in administration, or else borrowed them from the older Oriental States and improved them as they took them; the Roman Empire appropriated many of these devices and wrought them into its own vast system of government ; but neither in Hellenistic nor in Roman times did these admirable devices rest on a broad enough and safe enough basis.

In the philosophy of Paul, the Eastern mind and the Hellenic have been intermingled in the closest union, like two elements which have undergone a chemical mixture. In every sentence, in every thought, you can feel the Oriental element, if you are sensitive to it, and you are also aware of the Western, if you are perceptive of Hellenism ; but you become aware only of that which you are qualified by nature, by training, and above all by inclination, to perceive. Hence the extraordinarily opposite opinions held by modern scholars about the writings of Paul. The great majority of scholars are sentient only of the Judaic element. They feel the Jew in him. They feel that every paragraph and every idea in his writings is such as only a Jew could have conceived and composed. And so far they are perfectly right. From first to last throughout the whole fabric of his being Paul was Hebrew. But they err in thinking that this is the whole matter, and that they have understood Paul completely when they have been aware of the Hebrew.

They have not approached the problem with a wide enough nature. They have come to Paul with their mind dipped in Hebraism and Orientalism, thinking only of this, sensitive only to this side of his character. They seem never to have sufficiently familiarised themselves with the Grseco-Roman world as it was in the first century of our era. They have been educated in the old Hellenism of free Greece, and in the civilisation of Rome. But I rarely find in them any sympathy with, or understanding of, hardly any thought about, the Hellenism that overran the world of Western Asia, adapted itself to Asia, widened itself to the wider sphere, and changed its character profoundly in the adaptation. Nor do they convey the impression that they have thought much about the subtle tinge or flavour that Rome had imparted to the Graeco-Oriental civilisation. Rome had not Romanised or sought to Romanise the Eastern Provinces. Rome was content to organise and to govern them, to preserve peace in an orderly population and make it contribute to the strength of the Empire as a whole. But in doing this it had perceptibly influenced the tone of the Eastern Provinces. Romans were the aristocracy of the Eastern world.

For example, glance at two pictures, which Luke passes before us in the Acts, of events which occurred within his own knowledge and in part before his own eyes. Here you have photographs, as it were, taken from real life as it was lived in the Roman Provinces of the first century after Christ. Nothing more vivid and more informing has been preserved to us in the records of the period. Not to recognise this life-like character is to write oneself down as unfit to appreciate and to understand the living world of that age. When two wanderers, unknown and assumed to be of the poorest class, were imprisoned in a Roman colonial city, the chains fell off them at the words " we are Romans ". A Roman Tribune heard that an Egyptian brigand was being torn in pieces by an infuriated mob in Jerusalem ; he rescued the vagabond in order to exercise Roman justice on him, and as a first step was proceeding to have him flogged, when the prisoner mentioned that he was a Roman by birth; the officer at once became his apologetic protector and friend. No further questions were put in either case ; no proofs were required ; the mere claim was enough, and constraint and ill-treatment were ended. Incidentally the question suggests itself : Was there not something in the very manner and tone of the claim which carried conviction in spite of unfavourable external appearances ? Was there not something Roman about the Roman ? At any rate, this privilege and authority made the rank not merely honourable, but also practically advantageous, and hence rose the keen desire to obtain it which is shown in the Acts xxii. 28. Now in any society the aristocratic class exercises a certain vague, yet very real, influence on the tone of every other class ; and especially must this be the case in a society like that of the Roman provinces, where every person of good position might look forward to the attainment of the coveted rank as a possibility in his career. The Romans at this period gave the tone of society ; it was different two centuries later, when the national and the Oriental spirit had revived and grown powerful.

All these varied influences were at work in the Graeco- Asiatic cities of the Empire ; and they produced a type of man and of thought which hardly seems to be dreamed of by those interpreters of Paul, who appreciate the Hebrew element in him and discern nothing else. But, if we first familiarise ourselves with the society in which Paul grew up, in which he spent most of his life, and for which he in his mature years felt that he was specially suited, and if we approach him from that side, we shall feel everywhere in his work the spirit of the Tarsian Hellene. So Canon Hicks, who knows the Hellenic cities of Asia as few scholars do, feels the Hellenic training and experience apparent throughout the Pauline letters. So the late Ernst Curtius, the historian of Greece, felt in the letters the Hellenic tone.1

The testimony which struck me most of all was the opinion expressed by two of the most learned Jews of modern time, with whom I happened to be talking more than ten years ago in the house of one of them. The conversation chanced to turn on Paul and on the letters attributed to him. They were both perfectly certain that none of the Pauline letters could be genuine, because there is much in them which no Jew could write. These were scholars whose opinion on any matter connected with Judaism in the early Christian centuries stands very high in the estimation of the whole world. They know old Jewish feeling from the inside with an intimacy which no Western scholar can ever attain to. They appreciated the non-Jewish element intermingled in the writings of Paul. They rightly recognised that no mere Jew could write like that ; but instead of inferring that Paul was more than a mere Jew in education and mind, they argued that he, being (as is commonly assumed and maintained by modern scholars) a pure and narrow Jew, could not have written those letters.

The plan of the first part of these lectures is, first to state the fundamental principles of Paul's historical survey ; next to contrast his view with the modern method ; thirdly, to point out that his view in some degree may be regarded as a development of Hellenic thought ; fourthly, to show the relation in which his thought and the cure which he proposed for the degeneration of society stood to the Roman world of his own and of succeeding time.

io I. Paulinism in the Gtcbco- Roman World

§ II. The Pauline Philosophy of History.

I should, in the first place, ask you to glance at the Philosophy of History, as Paul declares it. To him the Philosophy of History was the History of religion, for in his view there is nothing real except God, things are permanent and firm only as they partake of the Divine. All else is evanescent, mere illusion and error and uncertainty.

It is in his letter to the Romans that Paul gives clearest expression to the view which he took of human history ; but the same view underlies all his thought, and springs inevitably from his attitude towards God and human nature, expressing itself in his perception, gained through Greek philosophy, of the never-ceasing flux and change in all things and of the one law that gives reality and permanence amidst this mutability. His view, as set forth in Romans i. 19 ff., is that there existed in the world from the beginning a certain amount of real perception of and true knowledge about God and His nature and His relation to mankind. By observing, studying, and gradually understanding the facts and processes of the external world, men became aware of the power and divinity of God, which were manifested therein.

But the deliberate action of man vitiated this fair beginning. The reason lay in idolatry. This cause obscures the first true and good ideas of men as to the nature of God ; and thus the Divine Being is assimilated to and represented by images in the shape of man who is mortal, and birds and quadrupeds and reptiles. In idolatrous worship a necessary and invariable accompaniment was immorality ; you can never have one without the other. This grows from bad to worse in physical passions, and corrupts the whole nature and character of man.

ii. The Pauline Philosophy of History 1 1

In the following parts I shall try to give a picture of the character of the Eastern Hellenic cities by which Paul was most affected.

We must clearly understand at the outset, both the intensity of Paul's hatred for idolatry, and the reason and nature of that hatred. His view, as we have stated it on his own authority and approximately in his own sentences modernised, is not a mere expression of religiosity, as it is apt to appear to the superficial reader. Nor is it a mere abstract philosophic dictum respecting the great ontological problem of the nature of God. It is, indeed, a necessary consequence of his fundamental view. Since the only reality in the world 'is God, any serious error about the nature of God, t.e., any idolatry, must distort our conception of the world and of external nature. That is, however, in itself a mere abstract philosophic opinion, and might remain so. Paul abhorred idolatry as the enemy of mankind, because he perceived the law of growth in human nature. This error of idolatry must work itself to its issue in the character and life of the man. As Paul looked over the heathen world, which he knew since his birth practically, both from the inside as a Roman and a Tarsian Hellene, and from the outside as a Hebrew, he saw how it acted in the society where he was born. He saw that it must necessarily, and that it did actually, work itself out in a distortion of the whole life of society and of the individual, falsifying the political situation, frustrating all preparation for the future, making the whole fabric of the State unhealthy, rendering the life and thought of the individual diseased and decadent. If you examine the history of any nation, you can see how the State becomes unhealthy, how its right development is stopped, how it is prevented from getting rid of evils and dangers in its constitution, by error as to the nature of God and the true relation of man to God. Such is Paul's view.

Accordingly, to the first Pauline principle : The Divine alone is real : all else is error : we can now add Paul's second principle :

A Society ', or a Nation, is progressive in so far as it hears the Divine voice : all else is degeneration. This second principle throws us into the midst of history, the growth and change of politics, the struggle of man with man and nation against nation. It is the province of the historian to trace the steps and facts of life through which the degeneration or the progress works itself out and makes itself manifest.

Progress, i.e., the perception of truth, is, according to the Pauline view, open to all men. Men are never so utterly corrupt that a return to truth is impossible. If they only wish it, they can choose the good and refuse the evil. The Gentiles are ignorant of the Law as it was revealed to the Jews, but some of them, through their better nature, act of themselves according to the Law, and are a law unto themselves : the practical effect of the Law is seen in their life, because it has been written by nature in their hearts, and they have a natural sense of the distinction between right and wrong, between good and evil ; and their conscience works in harmony with this natural Law in their hearts, prompting them to choose the right action, and making them conscious of wrong-doing if they choose the wrong course (Rom. ii. 14 f.). This beginning of right never fails utterly in human nature, but it is made faint and obscure by wrong-doing, when men deliberately choose the evil and will not listen to the voice of God in their hearts.

ii. The Pauline Philosophy of History 13

Yet even at the worst there remains in the most corrupted man a sense that out of this evil good will come. The remarkable and difficult passage, Romans viii. 19-22, states this emphatically. We all are in some degree aware that evil is wrong, because it is painful, and the pain is the preparation for the birth of better things. The eager watching expectancy of the universe (as of a runner with his eye fixed on the goal, or of a wrestler about to come to grips with his adversary) waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of man who subjected it, and in this subjection there arises a hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption so as to attain unto the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation in all its parts is groaning in the birth-pangs from which shall emerge a better condition, and we also who are Christians and have already within ourselves the first practical effects of the Spirit's action, are still in the pain and hope of the nascent redemption.