The life and epistles of Saint Paul

Preface

TO

THE PEOPLE'S EDITION.

np HOUGH the death of one of the writers of this book has -*- now thrown the sole responsibility of revision on the survivor, the plan of a " People's Edition " was contemplated by both writers from the time when the first edition was published.

The survivor, in doing his best, while his life was yet spared, to prepare for a wider circle of readers a book which has been received with remarkable favor, has found, however, the execution of the plan beset with peculiar difficulties. The simplest course would have been to give the text of the work without the notes ; but it was soon seen that many parts of the narrative would thus have been left destitute of important illustration, and many passages of the Epistles would have embarrassed, rather than helped, the mere English reader. On the assumption, then, that some of the notes must be retained, a question arose as to the selection. The writer of this preface might easily have cut down his own notes to a very narrow compass ; but how was he to deal with the notes of a friend whom he could not consult ? <To have omitted nearly all the former, and to have retained all the latter, would have been to disturb the whole symmetry of the book. Then came the further difficulty, — that, so far as the

VI PREFACE TO THE PEOPLE'S EDITION.

notes were criticisms of passages in the New Testament, they were, in the two former editions, based on the original text. Exclusion or adaptation in all such cases was necessary for the reader who is presumed not to know Greek. But criticisms of this kind are, of course, by far the most frequent in the notes on the Epistles, which were not translated by the present editor : so that some change was most required precisely where, to him, adaptation was most difficult of execution, or where he was naturally most unwilling to assume the responsibility of exclusion.

It is hoped, that, under all these circumstances, general approbation will be secured for the arrangement which has been adopted. Those readers have throughout been kept in view, who, though well educated, would not find it easy to refer to Greek or German books. Some few technical Greek terms are retained ; and here and there there is a reference to classical authors, which has seemed peculiarly important, or which it was hardly worth while to remove : but, on the whole, there are few citations except from books which are easily within reach. The references to Scripture are very frequent ; and it is believed that such references can hardly be too frequent.. It is presumed that the reader has the Authorized Version before him ; at the same time, it is hoped that the notes will continue to be useful to students of the Greek New Testament. Some criticisms must necessarily, however, be taken for granted ; and, in such cases, occasional reference has been made to the two larger editions. 1 In Mr. Conybeare's part of the work, no alteration whatever has been made, except as regards the verbal adjustments requisite for leaving out the Greek. 2 It is impossible to know whether his

1 The first edition, in quarto, and with course of a thorough reperusal : but, besides

very numerous illustrations, was completed in the modifications mentioned above, the notes

1852 : the second, with fewer illustrations, but in the narrative portion are very considerably

after careful revision, was published in 1856. retrenched. Thus each of the three editions

In this edition, the illustrations are still few- has a character of its own. er ; the text is unaltered, with the exception 2 This remark applies to the general bodj

of slight verbal changes, suggested in the of the work. The Appendices, written by Mr

PREFACE TO THE PEOPLE'S EDITION. vn

translation of some phrases and his interpretation of some texts might have been modified if he had taken part in the revision. Wherever it has been thought worth while to express a difference of opinion, this is separately indicated. 1 Such cases are very few. The separate responsibilities of the whole work are clearly stated in the Postscript to the Introduction.

The present writer is far from satisfied with the result of what he has done, in this edition, with considerable labor, and to the best of his judgment and ability ; but this he can say with truth, that, while he feels the imperfection of his own work, this last revision has left in his mind a higher estimate than ever of the parts written by his fellow-laborer and friend.

J. S. He

Conybeare, have been abbreviated in conformity and other retrenchments have been made here

with the principles stated above. Such ques- in accordance with the special aim of this

tions as the verbal peculiarities of the Pastoral edition.

Epistles could hardly be presented with clear- J By notes in square brackets, distinguished

ness to those who have no knowledge of Greek ; by the letter h.

I N T E D U C T I O N. s

THE purpose of this work is to give a living picture of St, Paul himself, and of the circumstances by which he was surrounded.

The biography of the Apostle must be compiled from two sources : first, his own letters ; and, secondly, the narrative in the Acts of the Apostles. The latter, after a slight sketch of his early history, supplies us with fuller details of his middle life ; and his Epistles afford much subsidiary information concerning his missionary labors during the same period. The light concentrated upon this portion of his course makes darker by contrast the obscurity which rests upon the remainder ; for we are left to gain what knowledge we can of his later years from scattered hints in a few short letters of his own, and from a single sentence of his disciple Clement.

But, in order to present any thing like a living picture of St. Paul's career, much more is necessary than a mere transcript of the scriptural narrative, even where it is fullest. Every step of his course brings us into contact with some new phase of ancient life, unfamiliar to our modern experience, and upon which we must throw light from other sources, if we wish it to form a distinct image in the mind. For example, to comprehend the influences under which he grew to manhood, we must realize the position of a Jewish family in Tarsus ; we must understand the kind of education which the son of such a family would receive as a boy in his Hebrew home, or in the schools of his native city, and in his riper youth " at the feet of Gamaliel " in Jerusalem ; we must be acquainted with the profession for which he was to be prepared by this training, and appreciate the station and duties of an expounder of the Law. And, that we may be fully qualified to do all this, we should have a clear view of the state of the Roman Empire at the time, and especially of its system in the provinces ; we should also understand the political position of the Jews of the " Dispersion ; " we should be (so to speak) hearers in their synagogues ; we should be students of their Rabbinical theology. And in like manner, as we follow the Apostle in the different stages of his varied and adventurous career, we must strive continually to bring out in their true brightness the half-effaced forms and

1 [It has been thought better to leave this Intro- lating to views and illustrations are not strictly duction quite untouched, though the passages re- applicable to the present edition. — H.]

ix

X INTKODUCTKm

coloring of the scene in which he acts ; and while he "becomes all things to all men, that he might by all means save some," we must form to ourselves a living likeness of the things and of the men among which he moved, if we would rightly estimate his work. Thus we must study Christianity rising in the midst of Judaism ; we must realize the position of its early churches with their mixed society, to which Jews, Proselytes, and Heathens had each contributed a characteristic element ; we must qualify ourselves to be umpires (if we may so speak) in their violent internal divisions ; we must listen to the strife of their schismatic parties, when one said, " I am of Paul ; and another, I am of Apollos ; " we must study the true character of those early heresies which even denied the resurrection, and advocated impurity and lawlessness, claiming the right " to sin that grace might abound," a " defiling the mind and conscience " 2 of their followers, and making them " abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate ; " 3 we must trace the extent to which Greek philosophy, Judaizing formalism, and Eastern superstition, blended their tainting influence with the pure fermentation of that new leaven which was at last to leaven the whole mass of civilized society.

Again : to understand St. Paul's personal history as a missionary to the Heathen, we must know the state of the different populations which he visited ; the character of the Greek and Roman civilization at the epoch ; the points of intersection between the political history of the world and the scriptural narrative ; the social organization and gradation of ranks, for which he enjoins respect ; the position of women, to which he specially refers in many of his letters ; the relations between parents and children, slaves and masters, which he not vainly sought to imbue with the loving spirit of the gospel ; the quality and influence, under the early Empire, of the Greek and Roman religions, whose effete corruptness he denounces with such indignant scorn ; the public amusements of the people, whence he draws topics of warning or illustration ; the operation of the Roman law, under which he was so frequently arraigned ; the courts in which he was tried, and the magistrates by whose sentence he suffered; the legionary soldiers who acted as his guards ; the roads by which he travelled, whether through the mountains of Lycaonia or the marshes of Latium ; the course of commerce by which his journeys were so often regulated ; and the character of that imperfect navigation by which his life was so many times 4 endangered.

While thus trying to live in the life of a bygone age, and to call up the figure of the past from its tomb, duly robed in all its former raiment, every help is welcome which enables us to fill up the dim outline in any part of its reality. Especially we delight to look upon the only one of the manifold features of that past existence which still is living. We remember with pleasure that the earth, the sea, and the sky still combine for us in the same landscapes which passed before the eyes of the wayfaring Apostle. The plain of Cilicia ; the snowy distances of Taurus ; the cold and rapid stream of the Cydnus ; the broad Orontes under the shadow of its steep banks, with their thickets of jasmine and

1 Rom. vi. 1. 4 " Thrice have I suffered shipwreck," 2 Cor. xi.

2 Tit. i. 15. 25 ; and this was before he was wrecked upon 8 Tit. i. 16. Melita.

INTRODUCTION. XI

(Meander ; the hills which " stand about Jerusalem," l the " arched fountains cold " in the ravines below, and those " flowery brooks beneath that wash their hallowed feet ; " the capes and islands of the Grecian Sea ; the craggy summit of Areopagus ; the land-locked harbor of Syracuse ; the towering cone of iEtna ; the voluptuous loveliness of the Campanian shore, — all these remain to us, the imperishable handiwork of Nature. We can still look upon the same trees and flowers which he saw clothing the mountains, giving color to the plains, or reflected in the rivers ; we may think of him among the palms of Syria, the cedars of Lebanon, the olives of Attica, the green Isthmian pines of Corinth, whose leaves wove those " fading garlands " which he contrasts 2 with the " incorruptible crown," the prize for which he fought. Nay, we can even still look upon some of the works of man which filled him with wonder, or moved him to indignation. The " temples made with hands " 3 which rose before him — the very apotheosis of idolatry — on the Acropolis, still stand in almost undiminished majesty and beauty. The mole on which he landed at Puteoli still stretches its ruins into the blue waters of the bay. The remains of the*Baian villas, whose marble porticoes he then beheld glittering in the sunset, — his first specimen of Italian luxury, — still are seen along the shore. We may still enter Rome as he did by the same Appian Road, through the same Capenian Gate, and wander among the ruins of " Caesar's palace " 4 on the Palatine, while our eye rests upon the same aqueducts radiating over the Campagna to the unchanging hills. Those who have visited these spots must often have felt a thrill of recollection as they trod in the footsteps of the Apostle ; they must have been conscious how much the identity of the outward scene brought them into communion with him, while they tried to image to themselves the feelings with which he must have looked upon the objects before them. They who have experienced this will feel how imperfect a biography of St. Paul must be without faithful representations of the places which he visited. It is hoped that the views 5 which are contained in the present work (which have been diligently collected from various sources) will supply this desideratum. And it is evident, that, for the purposes of such a biography, nothing but true and faithful representations of the real scenes will be valuable ; these are what is wanted, and not ideal representations, even though copied from the works of the greatest masters : for as it has been well said, " Nature and reality painted at the time, and on the spot, a nobler cartoon of St. Paul's preaching at Athens than the immortal Rafaelle afterwards has done." 6

For a similar reason, maps have been given (in addition to careful geographical descriptions), exhibiting with as much accuracy as can at present be attained the physical features of the countries visited, and some of the ancient routes through them, together with plans of the most important cities, and maritime charts of the coasts and harbors where they were required.

i "The hills stand about Jerusalem :" even so sentence in the text applies in strictness only to the

" standeth the Lord round about his people." Ps. quarto edition. In the intermediate edition, it was

exxv. 2. remarked in a note, that, even there, " most of the

2 1 Cor. ix. 25. larger engravings were necessarily omitted, on

3 Acts xvii. 24. * Phil. i. 13. account of their size." — h.]

f8ee note on p. ix, and the Preface. The 6 Wordsworth's Athens and Attica, p. 76.

XII INTEODUCTION.

While thus endeavoring to represent faithfully the natural objects and architectural remains connected with the narrative, it has likewise been attempted to give such illus trations as were needful of the minor productions of human art as they existed in the firsi century. For this purpose, engravings of coins have been given in all cases where they seemed to throw light on the circumstances mentioned in the history ; and recourse has been had to the stores of Pompeii and Herculaneum, to the columns of Trajan and Antoninus, and to the collections of the Vatican, the Louvre, and especially of the British Museum.

But, after all this is done, — after we have endeavored, with every help we can command, to reproduce the picture of St. Paul's deeds and times, — how small would our knowledge of himself remain if we had no other record of him left us but the story of his adventures ! If his letters had never come down to us, we should have known indeed what he did and suffered ; but we should have had very little idea of what he was. 1 Even if we could perfectly succeed in restoring the image of the scenes and circumstances in which he moved ; even if we could, as in a magic mirror, behold him speaking in the school of Tyrannus, with his Ephesian hearers in their national costume around him, — we should still see very little of Paul of Tarsus. We must listen to his words, if we would learn to know him. If Fancy did her utmost, she could give us only his outward, not his inward life. " His bodily presence " (so his enemies declared) " was weak and contemptible ; " but " his letters " (even they allowed) " were weighty and powerful." 2 Moreover, an effort of imagination and memory is needed to recall the past ; but, in his Epistles, St. Paul is present with us. " His words are not dead words ; they are living creatures with hands and feet,*" 3 touching in a thousand hearts at this very hour the same chord of feeling which vibrated to their first utterance. We, the Christians of the nineteenth century, can bear witness now, as fully as could a Byzantine audience fourteen hundred years ago, to the saying of Chrysostom, that " Paul by his letters still lives in the mouths of men throughout the whole world : by them not only his own converts, but all the faithful even unto this day, yea, and all the saints who are yet to be born until Christ's coming again, both have been and shall be blessed." His Epistles are to his inward life what the mountains and rivers of Asia and Greece and Italy are to his outward life, — the imperishable part which still remains to us when all that time can ruin has passed away.

It is in these letters, then, that we must study the true life of St. Paul, from its inmost depths and springs of action, which were " hidden with Christ in God," down to its most minute developments and peculiar individual manifestations. In them we learn (to use the language of Gregory Nazianzene) " what is told of Paul by Paul himself." Their most sacred contents, indeed, rise above all that is peculiar to the individual writer ; for they are the communications of God to man concerning the faith and life of Christians, which St. Paul declared (as he often asserts) by the immediate revelation of Christ hini-

i For his speeches recorded in the Acts, charac- "by his Epistles, they become an important part of

teristic as they are, would by themselves have heen his personal biography. 2 2 Cor. x. 10.

too few and too short to add much to our knowl- 3 Luther, as quoted in Archdeacon Hare's Mis-

edge of St. Paul; hut, illustrated as they now are sion of the Comforter, p. 449.

INTRODUCTION. xill

self. But his manner of teaching these eternal truths is colored by his human character, and peculiar to himself. And such individual features are naturally impressed much more upon epistles than upon any other kind of composition : for here Ave have not treatises or sermons, which may dwell in the general and abstract, but genuine letters, written to meet the actual wants of living men ; giving immediate answers to real questions, and warnings against pressing dangers ; full of the interests of the passing hour. And this, which must be more or less the case with all epistles addressed to particular churches, is especially so with those of St. Paul. In his case, it is not too much to say that his letters are himself, — a portrait painted by his own hand, of which every feature may be " known and read of all men."

. It is not merely that in them we see the proof of his powerful intellect, his insight into the foundations of natural theology x and of moral philosophy ; 2 for in such points, though the philosophical expression might belong to himself, the truths expressed were taught him of God. It is not only that we tliei*e find models of the sublimest eloquence when he is kindled by the vision of the glories to come, the perfect triumph of good over evil, the manifestation of the sons of God, and their transformation into God's likeness, when they shall see him no longer 3 " in a glass darkly, but face to face," — for in such strains as these it was not so much he that spake as the Spirit of God speaking in him, 4 — but in his letters, besides all this which is divine, we trace every shade, even to the faintest, of his human character also. Here we see that fearless independence with which he " withstood Peter to the face ; " 5 that impetuosity which breaks out in his apostrophe to the " foolish Galatians ; " 6 that earnest indignation which bids his converts " beware of dogs, beware of the concision," 7 and pours itself forth in the emphatic " God forbid " 8 which meets every Antinomian suggestion ; that fervid patriotism which makes him " wish that he were himself accursed from Christ for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites ; " 9 that generosity which looked for no other reward than " to preach the Glad- Tidings of Christ without charge," 10 and made him feel that he would rather " die than that any man should make this glorying void ; " that dread of officious interference which led him to shrink from " building on another man's foundation ; " u that delicacy which shows itself in his appeal to Philemon, whom he might have commanded, " yet for love's sake rather beseeching him, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ," 12 and which is even more striking in some of his farewell greetings, as (for instance) when he bids the Romans " salute Rufus, and his mother, who is also mine ; " u that scrupulous fear of evil appearand which " would not eat any man's bread for nought, but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that he might not be chargeable to any of them ; " 14 that refined courtesy which cannot bring itself to blame till it has

1 Rom. i. 20. express the force of the original by any other Eng-

2 Rom. ii. 14, 15. lish phrase.

3 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 9 Rom. ix. 3.

* Matt. x. 20. io 1 Cor. ix. 15 and 18. 6 Gal. ii. 11. ii Rom. xv. 20.

* Gal. iii. 1. 12 Philemon 0.

* Phil. iii. 2. « Rom. xvi. 13. , ' Rom. vi. 2; 1 Cor. vi. 15, &c. It is difficult to "1 Thess. ii. 9.

XIT INTRODUCTION.

first praised, 1 and which makes him deem it needful almost to apologize for the freedom of giving advice to those who were not personally known to him ; 2 that self-denying love which " will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest he make his brother to offend ; " ■ that impatience of exclusive formalism with which he overwhelms the Judaizers of Galatia, joined with a forbearance so gentle for the innocent weakness of scrupulous consciences ; * that grief for the sins of others, which moved him to tears when he spoke of the enemies of the cross of Christ, " of whom I tell you even weeping ; " 5 that noble freedom from jealousy with which he speaks of t*xose, who, out of rivalry to himself, preach Christ even of envy and strife, supposing to add affliction to his bonds, — " What then ? notwithstanding every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached ; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice ; " 6 that tender friendship which watches over the health of Timothy even with a mother's care ; 7 that intense sympathy in the joys and sorrows of his converts whi^h could say even to the rebellious Corinthians, " Ye are in our hearts, to die and live with you ; " 8 that longing desire for the intercourse of affection, and that sense of loneliness when it was withheld, which perhaps is the most touching feature of all, because it approaches most nearlv to a weakness, — " When I had come to Troas to preach the Glad-Tidings of Christ, and a door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother ; but I parted from them, and came from thence into Macedonia." And, " when I was come into Macedonia, my flesh had no rest, but I was troubled on every side : without were fightings, within were fears. But God, who comforts them that are cast down, comforted me by the coming of Titus." 9 " Do thy utmost to come to me speedily : for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed to Thessalonica ; Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia ; only Luke is with me." 10

Nor is it only in the substance, but even in the style, of these writings, that we recognize the man Paul of Tarsus. In the parenthetical constructions and broken sentences, we see the rapidity with which the thoughts crowded upon him, almost too fast for utterance ; we see him animated rather than weighed down by "the crowd that presses on him daily, and the care of all the churches," u as he pours forth his warnings or his arguments in a stream of eager and impetuous dictation, with which the pen of the faithful Tertius can hardly keep pace. 12 And, above all, we trace his presence in the postscript to every letter, which he adds as an authentication, in his own characteristic handwriting, 13 " which is a token in every epistle : thus I write." 14 Sometimes, as he takes up the pen, he is anoved with indignation when he thinks of the false brethren among those whom he addresses : " The salutation of me Paul with my own hand : if any man love not the

1 Compare the laudatory expressions in 1 Cor. ? 1 Tim. v. 23. ;i. 5-7, and 2 Cor. i. 6, 7, with the heavy and almost » 2 Cor. vii. 3. mnmingled censure conveyed in the whole suhse- 9 2 Cor. ii. 13, and vii. 5.

.quent part of these Epistles. 10 2 Tim. iv. 9. " 2 Cor. xi. 28.

2 Rom. xv. 14, 15. 12 Rom. xvi. 22. " I Tertius, who wrote this

3 1 Cor. viii. 13. Epistle, salute you in the Lord."

* 1 Cor. viii. 12, and Rom. xiv. 21. 13 Gal. vi. 11. " See the size of the characters in

8 Phil. iii. 18. . which I write to you with my own hand."

e Phil. i. 15. ** 2 Thess. iii. 17.

INTRODUCTION. XV

Lord Jesus Christ, let Mm be accursed." l Sometimes, as he raises his hand to write, he feels it cramped by the fetters which bind him to the soldier who guards him : 2 "I Paul salute you with my own hand : remember my chains." Yet he always ends with the same blessing, — " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you ; " to which he sometimes adds still further a few last words of affectionate remembrance, — " My love be with you all in Christ Jesus." 3

But, although the letters of St. Paul are so essential a part of his personal biography, it is a difficult question to decide upon the form in which they should be given in a work like this. The object to be sought is, that they may really represent in English what they were to their Greek readers when first written. Now, this object would not be attained if the Authorized Version were adhered to ; and yet a departure from that whereof so much is interwoven with the memory and deepest feelings of every religious mind should be grounded on strong and sufficient cause. It is hoped that the following reasons may be held such : —

1st, The Authorized Version was meant to be a standard of authority and ultimate appeal in controversy : hence it could not venture to depart, as an ordinary translation would do, from the exact words of the original, even where some amplification was absolutely required to complete the sense. It was to be the version unanimously accepted by all parties, and therefore must simply represent the Greek text word for word. This it does m' »st faithfully, so far as the critical knowledge of the sixteenth 4 century permitted. But the result of this method is sometimes to produce a translation unintelligible to the English reader. 5 Also, if the text admit of two interpretations, our version endeavors, if possil le, to preserve the same ambiguity, and effects this often with admirable skill ; but such indecision, although a merit in an authoritative version, would be a fault in a translation which had a different object.