Lessons on the Life of St. Paul: Drawn from the Acts and the Epistles

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Preface

As the life of St. Paul is a subject which belongs to the older rather than the younger classes of our Sunday Schools, I have prepared this manual with such classes in view. I trust it will serve as an introduction to Allen's admirable "Outline of Christian History." The number of chapters has been determined by the natural divisions of the subject, which I have preferred to preserve ; but as the material in most of them is more than enough for a single lesson, especially in the brief time allowed for our ordinary Sunday-school sessions, I have broken each into two or three lessons, and recommend that they should be .so used. This will make a course of thirty-one lessons.

The text, as in my previous manual, 1 is intended for the use of the scholars ; the references are to guide the teachers in their further studies of the subject. I trust that most of our Sunday-school libraries contain one or more of the English works referred to. Unfortunately, none of these books can be recommended for the present purpose without qualification ; but of those here given, Farrar's " Life and Work of St. Paul " is by far the best for the use of teachers. The questions are few, and are limited pretty strictly

1 First Lessops on the Bible.

IV PREFACE.

to the historical matter contained in the text; I trust, however, that a larger range will be taken by the teachers, and should be sorry to have it supposed that no questions are to be asked but those here given.

One word as to the chronology here adopted. It should be understood by both teachers and scholars that all New Testament dates are, within certain limits, conjectural. There is no clew in Gospels, Acts, or Epistles, to the exact year of any single event or writing. The only thing to be done, in such a work as this, is to determine, on the best evidence obtainable, some one date, and arrange the entire history in accordance with that. Having adopted A.D. 33 as the year of Christ's crucifixion, and A.D. 34 as that of Paul's conversion, the other dates are determined by these ; not as certainly correct, but as on the whole the most probable.

I hope each class will have a map in its hands through all its lessons. Excellent maps can be found in many of the books referred to in the lists, especially in Renan's " St. Paul," a valuable work for constant reference. There are plenty of cheap hand-maps purporting to give the travels of St. Paul, but I have been unable to find any that are accurate. The best that I have seen is one published by the American Tract Society, 150 Nassau street, New York, costing twenty-five cents, and entitled, "Map showing the Missionary Tours of the Apostle Paul."

E. H. H.

Cambridge, May 16, 1885.

Contents

Chapter Page

I. The Apostles at Jerusalem 7

II. Saul of Tarsus 14

II. Saul Of Tarsus

Among those who took part in the stoning of Stephen, a young man is mentioned who afterwards became the most interesting personage among the followers of Jesus. This was Saul of Tarsus. 1 Tarsus was a city of Cilicia, in the southeast corner of Asia Minor, one of the most unfrequented regions of the Mediterranean coast. The wild mountains just to the west of it had always been a favorite lurking-place for pirates, until they were exterminated, less than a century before this time, 2 by Pompey the Great. Tarsus itself was situated in a rich plain between the mountains and the sea ; and being just at the foot of a steep mountain pass called the " Cilician Gates," over which the highway from central Asia Minor ran, had been long a city of great commercial importance. Its chief industry seems to have been the manufacture of a coarse dark sail-cloth made from the long hair of the Cilician goats, and so known among the Romans as cilicium. It was used very much as duck or canvas is used to-day, for sailors' garments, sails, and tents. The river Cydnus which connected Tarsus with the sea served, like the Hudson and many of our New England rivers, to float great quantities of lumber from the mountains to the sea, while ships from other Mediterranean ports discharged their cargoes at Tarsus, to be carried inland through. the Cilician Gates. Some of the coins of Tarsus, bearing 1 the river Cydnus as a female figure surrounded by bales of merchandise, or Mercury holding a purse in his hand, show how important its commerce was. 8 It was through the Cilician Gates that Alexander marched to his great conquests in Asia, nearly perishing from a bath in the cold waters of the river Cydnus ; and it was at Issus, just east of Tarsus, that the great battle was fought which decided the fate of his campaign.

i Acts vii. 58. 2 B.C. 66 or 67. » Hausrath's Paulus, p. 6.

It was at Tarsus, on a less heroic occasion, where Marc Anthony awaited the coming of Cleopatra, whom Plutarch describes as sailing up the Cydnus in a gilded galley with purple sails and silver oars, in *hich she reclined in the character of Venus, under an embroidered canopy. 1 Just before this time, probably under Augustus, Tarsus had become a free city of the Roman Empire, and so was exempted from imperial taxes and the support of a Roman garrison, and was allowed to have magistrates of its own.

All these provincial centres caught something of the Greek culture of the day, and Tarsus, however remote its situation, was no exception to this rule. One of the ancient writers speaks in strong terms of the zeal for philosophy and general intellectual activity which prevailed in Tarsus, so that we must think of it as a city in which the Greek language and literature were familiar among the mercantile and educated classes, while the bulk of the population spoke their native tongue and practised still the old idolatrous rites. 2 The Jewish element, as in all commercial cities, was very large, and showed its zeal for the national faith by maintaining, in connection with other provincials, a synagogue in Jerusalem, 8 possibly the very one in which Stephen carried on the dispute which led to his death.

In this Jewish quarter of a Roman provincial city, Saul spent his earlier years. Of his family we only know that they were Jews of the stricter sort ; * that his father was a Roman citizen, 6 and that Saul himself was taught the local trade of tent-making. 6 This did not prove that his parents belonged to the laboring classes, as all Jewish boys were taught some trade ; but as Saul was afterwards forced to support himself by his craft, 7 we must infer that the family was not rich, and that his father obtained his citizenship, not by purchase, but as the reward of service rendered by himself or some ancestor, perhaps in war. Under such circumstances, Saul's education, like that

i Plutarch's Live9, vol. vii. * Conybeare and Howson, i. 57. 130. « Acts vi. 9. 4 Acts xxiii. 6 ; Phil. iii. 5.

* Acts xxii. 28. • Acts xviii. 3.

of Jewish boys generally, especially among the Pharisees, must have been strictly limited to Hebrew studies, and whatever Greek he learned probably came through intercourse with Greeks, or through study of the Greek translation of the Scriptures, or such familiarity with the schools of philosophy and rhetoric in Tarsus as any youth of inquiring mind would be likely to gain. All his epistles which remain are in Greek, yet he uses that language rather as a foreigner than as a native, and although quoting continually from the Hebrew Scriptures, makes very rare quotations from other writers, and only such as he might easily have caught from popular sayings. 1 In the single instance in the book of Acts where he is represented as making a Greek citation, 2 the passage is from a local poet whose verses were probably current in Tarsus. 8 The fact that he preferred to dictate his epistles rather than write them himself is sometimes thought to mean that he found difficulty in writing Greek ; 4 while in actual speech he was always quick to use the Hebrew tongue (as then spoken) whenever occasion required. 6 But these instances are curious as showing Saul's individual characteristics, rather than important as proving anything for or against his literary skill. Certainly he always had command enough of Greek to express his thoughts in a very intense and forcible, and often eloquent way. 6

When his childhood was past, Saul was sent to Jerusalem, according to a statement in the book of Acts, where he studied under Gamaliel, one of the most noted and broad-minded rabbis of the age, 7 and became well versed in the rabbinical subtleties of Scripture interpretation. 8 Probably he also learned

2 Acts xvii. 28. 8 Aratus, a Cilician.

* Rom. xvi. 22 ; comp. 1 Cor. xvi. 21; Coloss. iv. 18; 2 Thess. iii. 17.

* Acts xxi. 40; xxii. 2.

« Comp. Hausrath, pp. 11-14; Eenan; Les Apotres, 166; Farrar, i. 35-39 ; 619-637.

7 Acts xxii. 3.

8 Comp. Gal. iii. 8-17; iv. 22-31, and many similar passages.

something of the higher philosophical speculations upon religious themes with which the scholarly minds of all races were then becoming familiar. In these respects Saul's training was of course wholly different from that of either of the twelve apostles. How long he remained in Jerusalem we cannot tell. It is possible that he had a married sister there, 1 and many think that he remained with her until the time when he is first mentioned in the Acts. If this were so, he would have known something of Jesus himself, and might have heard him and been present at the crucifixion. As he never alludes to this, however, 2 and nowhere quotes Christ's own language, we feel quite sure that he could not have known him personally, but probably returned to Tarsus when his studies were over. As to Saul's age, we can only judge of it from his being called a " young man " when we first know him,* aud from his relations with the Sanhedrin or Jewish Council, of which he seems at that time to have been a member, — judging from the authority .with which he was invested after Stephen's death. 4 This would make him at least thirty at that time. If a member of the Sanhedrin, he was also, according to the Jewish laws, a married >man ; a fact probable in itself from the great importance always attached to marriage among the Jews, and especially among Pharisees. Saul's own allusions to this point are rather vague, 5 ibut such expressions as " Have we not a right to lead about a sister (believer) as wife, as well as other apostles and Peter? " sound very much as if he had a wife, who for some reason did not accompany him on his travels, while Peter and the other apostles were accompanied by theirs. 6

It is always interesting to know something of the personal traits of great men ; but of Saul we can learn very little. Apparently there was some peculiarity, perhaps hesitancy of speech, against which he had to contend, and which only his great force of character or of eloquence could overcome. 7

1 Acts xxiii. 16.

2 1 Cor. ix. 1, xv. 8, obviously allude to inward visions of Christ.

Ouce he speaks mysteriously of a " thorn in the flesh," which he regarded as a " messenger of Satan to buffet him," and which seems to have tortured him through the later years of his life. 1 What this was, we can only guess, — whether some physical deformity, or epilepsy, 2 or ophthalmia, 8 or severe nervous prostration following upon the states of trance or ecstasy into which he sometimes fell. 4 The most ancient account of his appearance that has survived is found in the writing called the " Acts of Paul and Thecla," one of the apocryphal New Testament books. Though not written probably before the second or third century, 6 the passage is worth quoting as showing what the earliest traditions were among those who held the Apostle in highest reverence. As Paul was visiting Iconium, a town of Asia Minor, according to this account, one Onesiphorus with his wife and sons went out to meet him and invite him to his house. Never having seen Paul, they recognized him at once through the description which Titus had given them. " At length they saw a man (namely Paul) coming, of a low stature, bald (or shaved) on the head, crooked thighs, handsome legs, hollow-eyed; a crooked nose ; full of grace ; for sometimes he appeared as a man, sometimes he had the countenance of an angel." 6

However trustworthy this account may be, it is clear that Saul was one of those who accomplished great ends, not through outward gifts or advantages of birth or person, but purely through the native force of mind and soul.

i 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8. 2 Bunsen (Bibelwerk), on 2 Cor. xii. 7.

6 It is quoted by Tertullian, about A.D. 200. « Acts of Paul and Thecla, i. 7.

REFERENCES.

Hau8rath'8 Apostel Paulus ; Farrar's St. Paul, vol. i., vol. it 628 ; Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St. Paul, vol. i. ; Kenan's lies Apotres, chap. x. ; Apocryphal New Testament ; Hanson's The Apostle Paul and the Preaching of Christianity in the Primitive Church ; Paul of Tarsus, by a Graduate ; Holsten's Zum Evangelium des Paulus und des Petrus ; Hausrath's New Testament Times, vol. i. (Sanhedrin) ; Carpenter's Life in Palestine when Jesus lived, chap, iii. ; Passages from St. Paul (London Sunday-school Association).

QUESTIONS.

1. Where was Tarsus ? 2. What gave it commercial importance 1 3. What trades were pursued there ? 4. What interesting historical events are associated with it ? 5. What can you tell about its population or its culture ? 6. What language or languages were used there, and by what classes ? 7. Who was Saul, and what can you tell of his family ? 8. What education did he receive in Tarsus ?

9. What acquaintance had he with Greek language or literature?

10. Give instances of his quotations from Greek or Latin writers.

11. Where else did Saul study, and with whom ? 12. What education did he receive in Jerusalem ? 13. What difference was there between Saul's education and that of the other apostles ? 14. How long did Saul probably live in Jerusalem? 15. What reason is there to think that he had relatives there ? 16. Does it seem to you probable that he ever saw Jesus, or knew about him during Jesus' life 1 17. How old was Saul when first mentioned in the Acts ? 18. Was he married ? 19. What allusions are there in the Epistles to Saul's personal peculiarities'? 20. What early account is there of his personal appearance? 21. What idea do we get from these sources of Saul's outward advantages ?

III. Conversion Of Saul

A.D. 34. Acts viii., ix.

The death of Stephen was an important epoch in the history of the little community at Jerusalem. " That same day," we are told, " there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem ; and they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. " 1 Why the apostles escaped the persecution we cannot tell : perhaps because of their strong feeling that Jerusalem was to be the centre of the new Messianic kingdom ; perhaps because it was against the sympathizers with Stephen that the. wrath of the Jews was especially aimed. In any case, the quiet days of waiting together for the coming of the Lord were rudely ended, and the gospel, which had thus far been heard only in Jerusalem, was spread far abroad, and began a much wider mission.

Even more important for Christianity was the effect of Stephen's death upon Saul, who was present and took part in it. 2 At first it simply stirred his Jewish zeal to new intensity. ** He made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison." 8 Nor did he confine his rage to Jerusalem; he obtained a commission from the Sanhedrin to follow the fugitives to the most distant point to which they fled. " Breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, he . . . desired letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way ... he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." 4

But on this journey to Damascus a startling incident occurred. As he came near to the city, " suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven ; and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou

l Acts viii. 1. a Acts vii. 58. « Acts viii. 3. * Acts ix. 1, 2.

me? " * The voice seemed to him the voice of Jesus himself ; and after being led into Damascus, blinded by the light and overcome by the strange experience, he was visited by a disciple named Ananias, at whose hands he was baptized, and so became from that time a disciple of the cause which he had come to overthrow. 2

Nothing could be more interesting than to understand exactly the nature of so momentous an occurrence as this. But such profound spiritual crises can never be fully explained, even by the soul that passes through them ; and this, like all others of the kind, must always remain an enigma. Probably he could never remember himself precisely what had occurred ; at any rate he was only able, as we have seen, to describe it to others as a " light from heaven, shining round about him," 8 or as " a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me." 4 This would, of course, apply to many heavenly phenomena ; and accordingly some suppose that Saul and his followers " were overtaken by a violent storm, when the lightning struck Saul, and he fell senseless to the ground ;" 6 others understand simply "the glare of the mid-day sun in the East;" 6 others, " some overwhelmingly sudden burst of thunder ; some inexpressibly vivid gleam of electric flame; some blinding, suffocating, maddening breath of the sirocco;" 7 others still, "a severe sun-stroke, such as often befalls travellers under a mid-day sun, or simply a trance, produced by the fatigues and heat of the journey, acting upon a highly excited mind." 8 As Saul himself afterwards referred to visions or trances as something which he more than once experienced, 9 there is reason to suppose that this incident, whatever its outward character, was of that nature, and that the essential element in it was a purely spiritual process. In fact, it must be remembered that the

l Acts ix. 3, 4. * Acts ix. 5-18.

* Acts ix. 8. * Acts xxvi. 13.

* Neander's Planting and Training, i. 84; Renan's Les Apdtres, p. 181.

* Conybeare and Howson, i. 109. 7 Farrar, i. 191.

* Hausrath, p. 126. ° Acts xxii. 17; 2 Cor. xii. 1-4.

Apostle never alludes, in his own writings, to any unusual event as accompanying his conversion, hut speaks of it, in the only case where he refers to it at all, as an inward revelation. 1 " When it pleased God ... to reveal his Son in me," this is the sole allusion in the Epistles to the event which takes so prominent a place in the book of Acts. 2

In the book of Acts we have three different accounts of Saul's conversion, — one in the regular course of the narrative, 8 and two others in speeches attributed to Saul himself, and given many years later. 4 The differences in these accounts, although no greater than we commonly find in descriptions of such exciting scenes, are still very noticeable, and show how impossible it was, when that book was written, to obtain any exact account of the event. According to one statement, Saul's companions heard a voice, but saw no man ; 6 according to another, they " saw the light, but heard not the voice." 6 According to the first and second accounts, Saul did not receive the heavenly message until he had come to Damascus, when it was given him by Ananias ; 7 according to the third account, purporting to come from Saul himself, the entire revelation was made to him directly, as part of his vision, and we are even told that it was spoken in the Hebrew tongue. 8

On every ground, therefore, we are led to conclude that the real importance of this event lies, not in the outward occurrence (which we cannot, in any case, accurately recover), but in the inward change which it produced. Nor does it lessen in the least the dignity of the conversion to suppose it the culmination in Saul's mind of feelings and beliefs to which he had previously been tending. Such great spiritual revulsions are never the work of a moment ; least of all in natures so earnest

1 The two passages, 1 Cor. ix. 1 and xv. 8, may, of course, refer to this event, but there is nothing whatever to prove it.

6 Acts ix. 7. 6 Acts xxii. 9.

and thoughtful as Saul's. To suppose that all which he had gone through before his journey to Damascus had had no effect whatever upon his mind or heart, would be to assume that Saul was of much less than ordinary intelligence. We must remember that the incidents of Stephen's heroic death were still fresh in his mind. Before that time, indeed, he must have seen much of the Nazarenes in Jerusalem, noticed the ardor of their faith and beauty of their lives, and heard the name of Jesus the Messiah often upon their lips. Perhaps he was himself one of those who had "disputed with Stephen" in the " synagogue of them of Cilicia" 1 and had felt the force of his Scripture arguments or his burning pleas for Jesus of Nazareth, even when trying to confute them. It must be remembered, too, that he, as well as the disciples, had his mind full of a coming Messiah, a Son of Man, or Second Adam, whom his rabbinical studies had taught him to expect. In the midst of his persecutions of the little band, he must have seen much which appealed to his feelings and his thought. To one in this mood, -the long, six or eight days' journey to Damascus (136 miles) must have given ample occasion for reflection, and we can easily imagine that it needed only some inward vision, or some storm or lightning-flash or sudden physical prostration, to hasten the approaching crisis, and turn him from a persecutor into a believer. The Jesus whom he had despised and whose followers he had pursued, seemed to appear to him as the very Christ.

This view of Saul's conversion, as a gradual process culminating in some one startling incident, is fully confirmed by the events which came after it. As a period of inward meditation and struggle preceded the change, so a long period of quiet study or thought followed it. Whatever the experience on the -way to Damascus may have been, it evidently had not prepared him to take his new position or enter upon the new work at once. There were many questions to be met, many doubts to be answered, many misgivings, perhaps, to be silenced, before he was ready to teach the new doctrine which he had so suddenly accepted.

i Acts vi. 9.

The book of Acts, which passes very lightly over many of the important epochs of Saul's history, gives no hint of this whatever. It tells us that he remained " certain days " at Damascus, preaching Christ at once in the synagogues, and then, a little while later, went to Jerusalem to " join himself to the disciples." 1 In one of his Epistles, however, he gives us himself a very different account. " When it pleased God," he says, " to reveal his Son in me, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem, to them which were apostles before me ; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. After three years I went up to Jerusalem." *

For three years, then, Saul remained in Arabia and Damascus. Arabia is a vague term, covering the entire peninsula south of Damascus to the sea ; and in what,exact region this long interval was spent, we can only conjecture. Some have supposed that Saul joined some band of pilgrims and journeyed with them as far as Mt. Sinai, the holy spot where Moses had received the Law from the hands of Jehovah. 8 It seems more probable, however, that Saul used the term Arabia merely to denote the unfrequented regions around Damascus, where, in the excitement of his feeling, he sought retirement and quiet, to compose his thoughts, and perhaps study more deliberately the new belief to which he had committed himself. Neither in the book of Acts nor in the Epistles do we hear of any churches founded in these regions, or any results of a three years' ministry. We are left to infer, therefore, that it was not three years of preaching or working, but three years of seclusion. It was one thing for Saul to accept Jesus as the Messiah ; it was quite another, it seems, to feel himself prepared to proclaim this truth to the world.

Saul's conversion took place probably about A.D. 34.

i Acts ix. 19-26. a Gal. i. 15-18. % 3 Conybeare and Howson, i. 119 ; Hausrath, p. 140.

REFERENCES.

Farrar's Paul, vol. i. ; Kenan's Les Apotres, chap, x.; Lewin's Life and Epistles of St. Paul, vol. i. ; Holsten's Zum Evangelium des Paulus und des Petrus ; National Review, October, 1856 (article by Martineau) ; Martinean's Studies of Christianity, pp. 414-465 ; Rawlinson's St. Paul in Damascus (Series on "Heathen World and St Paul") ; Revue des deux Mondes, 15 Aout, 1869 (AuW).

QUESTIONS.

1. What consequences followed the death of Stephen ? 2. What change did this bring about in the life at Jerusalem ? 3. What part did Saul take in the persecution ? 4. With what purpose did he go to Damascus ? 5. Describe what happened on the way, as given in Acts iz. 6. What are some of the explanations of this phenomenon ? 7. Which seems to you the most probable? 8. Where does Saul allude to this event in his own writings, and in what way ? 9. Does he seem to you to refer to an outward event or an inward one ? 10. Putting his words and the narrative in the Acts together, what conclusion do you draw ?

11. How many accounts are given of Saul's conversion in Acts, and where ? 12. Do you notice any contradictions between them ? if so, what? 13. How do these differences seem to you to affect the narrative ? 14. Is it more natural to suppose such a conversion instantaneous or gradual ? 15. How much is Saul likely to have known of Jesus and his followers before going to Damascus ? 16. Where did Saul spend the three years after his conversion, and in what way? 17. How do you explain his not beginning to preach or joining the disciples at once ? 18. What different accounts of this period are given in the Acts and in the Epistle to Galatians ? 19. Which is more likely to be right, and why ? 20. What was the probable date of Saul's conversion ?

IV. Saul Joins The Christians

We have already seen that Saul did not begin at once to preach or teach the new doctrines. On the contrary, it was many years after his conversion before he entered actively upon the work. This long period of waiting is a part of Saul's life to which little attention is ever paid, and of which the records are unfortunately very scanty; yet it is impossible to understand Saul or his true relation to early Christianity, without taking it into account.

For three years, as he himself tells us, 1 he remained in Arabia and Damascus, being finally driven from Damascus, according to the account in Acts, by the anger of his fellow Jews towards him as an apostate. This event in his life evidently made a strong impression on him; as he retained a vivid recollection, many years after, of the window in a friend's house opening upon the city wall, through which he was let down in a basket to escape the enemies who were lying in wait to stone him, or send him back, as a prisoner, to the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem. 2