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was of Sacerdotal descent, and brought up in the strict profession of the Pharisaic opinions, should have felt an interest in the welfare of St. Paul, who was a Pharisee, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and who might be called a priest, as he assumed the character of a preacher of righteousness. What Josephus says of Felix having, as procurator of Judea, sent the persons spoken of to Rome may be inaccurately stated, or may relate to some order first given by Felix to this effect, but the execution of which was delayed by the change of governor. This would accord with the account of St. Luke, and would not be inconsistent with what is further stated by him, that St. Paul was detained two years in confinement, and that Festus, not long after his arrival to take possession of the government, examined Paul at Cæsarea, and after having again heard his defence in presence of Agrippa, directed him to be conveyed to Rome. Josephus then, speaking of the imprisonment and sending of St. Paul to Rome, ascribes both the measures to their first author, whose unpopular government was the subject of very general complaint, and whose proceedings were most likely to be traversed at Rome.

The piety and resignation which the histo

rian ascribes to his companions, accord well with the character of St. Paul; and the circumstance of their supporting themselves by figs and nuts, may help to explain what is stated in the Acts, that the passengers fasted fourteen days *; that is, had no regular food. It might have been by means of the interest of Aliturus, that St. Paul was allowed the liberty of residing at his own house at Rome.

The other difficulties which occur are not so easily removed, and present a fair subject for discussion. It is stated by Josephus, that there were six hundred persons in the ship in which he sailed, though, in the vessel in which St. Paul was wrecked, there were but two hundred and seventy-six.

The number, however, mentioned by Josephus is so great as to lead us to suspect some mistake, since it is not by any means credible, that trading vessels at that time were accustomed to contain, or capable of accommodating so great a number of persons.

With respect to the difference between the accounts in the Acts, and that of Josephus, as to the circumstances of the escape, it is to be considered whether Josephus, and

* Or fasted on the fourteenth day; see observations on the xiith Book of Pope's translation of Homer's Odyssey, 1. 532.

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the seventy-nine with him, might not have been separated from those, who swam to shore at Melita, and have been taken up in the ship of Cyrene, being the persons who "first cast "themselves into the sea;" as is related in the Acts; and whether the remainder of the crew, whom Josephus states, were swimming with him all the night, and of whose subsequent fate he says nothing, might not have reached the land together with St. Paul. Why, when Josephus afterwards, upon this supposition, must have received the account of St. Paul's escape with the rest, he should omit to record it, can be explained only from a reluctance which he might feel, to confirm or report the miraculous circumstances which demonstrated the Divine countenance to St. Paul's mission, which if he had admitted he must have been a convert to Christianity. He certainly speaks inaccurately in one instance, representing himself and his companions to have swam all the night, which, without a miracle at least, could not have been literally effected; another difficulty, and perhaps the greatest, is, that St. Paul expressly says, that they escaped all safe to land, and that when they escaped they knew that the island was called Melita, which seems to imply, that they all reached the same

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island. It is possible, however, that the Apostle, by the word "all," refers to the immediate antecedent in the verse, speaking distinctly of those who followed the first division.

The integrity of the miracle and the declarations of St. Paul, that there should be no loss of any man's life, and that not an hair should fall from the head of any of them, are equally established, whether the whole crew reached the land, or some only, while others were taken up into a ship. If Josephus was one of the brethren whom the Apostle found. at Puteoli, he might have been delayed on his voyage from Melita, or detained at Puteoli, by Aliturus, till St. Paul arrived there: if these circumstances should not be thought to be satisfactorily reconciled, there are still so many concurrences, that the accounts must at least be allowed to bear a very remarkable resemblance to each other, if not to refer to the same event; for let it be considered that in both accounts the prisoners are represented to have been put into bonds, by Felix, upon a trifling occasion, and in both, to have appealed to Cæsar. In both relations, men of extraordinary piety and excellence are exposed to shipwreck in the Adriatic in the same year; and in both they wonderfully escape by a remarkable Providence. In both

histories they arrive at Puteoli, and in both instances the prisoners are, by an unexpected indulgence in some degree, set at liberty, in consequence it should seem of interest made with the emperor.

It is probable, from some circumstances which are alluded to in the Epistle of St. Paul, that he appeared once if not twice formally before Nero, soon after his arrival at Rome. In his Epistle to the Philippians, he observes, that "the things which had happened, had fallen out rather to the fur"therance of the Gospel, so that his bonds "in Christ were manifest in all the palace*, "and in all other palaces;" and he seems to allude to his examination in his Epistle to Timothy, stating, that "in his first answer no

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man stood with him, but all men forsook "him, notwithstanding," continues he, "the "Lord stood with me and strengthened me, "that by me the preaching might be fully "known, and that all the Gentiles might “hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth " of the lion+;" thus employing a term to describe the emperor which is often applied, by other writers, to tyrannical princes +.

Philip. i. 12, 13.

+ 2 Tim. iv. 16, 17; see also Acts xxv. 9, 10. 12. zzvi. 31, 32. xxv. 26.

↑ Ezek. xix. 1—9.

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