Ann. Dom. 52, &c. A. M. 4056, a religion and form of worship, contrary to the laws of the Roman empire. Upon &c. or 5463. this slight occasion, the magistrates ordered them (though unconvicted) to be scourged; and having committed them to close prison, gave the jailor strict charge to keep them safe; who thereupon thrust them into the inner dungeon, and made their feet fast in the stocks. But in vain was all his contrivance. While the apostles at midnight were singing hymns and praises to God, an earthquake suddenly shook the foundations of the prison; the doors flew open, and their chains fell off. The jailor, awakened at the noise, and supposing that the prisoners had made their escape, drew his sword † with an intent to kill himself; but being assured by St Paul to the contrary, he came trembling in; and, having taken the two apostles home to his own house, he washed their wounds, entertained them courteously, and gave such evident proof of his faith and repentance, as not only to be baptized himself, but to make his whole family likewise become proselytes to this persecuted religion. The magistrates, next morning, reflecting upon what they had done, would have dismissed the apostles privately; but the apostles refused to accept of their discharge, alleging, "That they were not only innocent persons, but denizens +2 of Rome; that, as they had been illegally scourged and committed, their delivery should be as public as was the injury, and attended with a solemn retraction of what they had done." The magistrates, when they heard that they insisted on their privileges, were not a little afraid, and therefore repairing to the prison with all submission, desired them to leave the city; which the apostles, after some conference with the converts in Lydia's house, were not averse to do. From Philippi, Paul and his companions passing through Amphipolis +3 and Apollonia +4, came to Thessalonica †, the metropolis of Macedonia, where he disputed in the the Romans, which required them to worship the gods of their own country only, Tully de Leg. lib. ii. and yet Christianity dissuaded them from this, "For we preach unto you, says St Paul, that ye should turn from these vanities to the living God, who made heaven and earth," Acts xiv. 15. Calmet's Commentary, and Whitby's Annotations. + Among the Greeks and Romans both, self-murder was so common a thing, allowed by their philosophers, and practised by most of them, that we need not wonder to find the jailor, for fear of some severer punishment, in a ready disposition to commit it upon himself. Whitby's Annotations. +Silas might likewise be a Roman citizen; but as St Paul was undoubtedly one, this was enough to justify the language which he uses. The only dis pute is, how he came by this privilege? And to this some reply, that the city where he was born, for its faithful adherence to Julius Cæsar, was by him made a Roman colony, and all its inhabitants admitted to the usual rights and immunities of Romans. Others contend, that though Tarsus might, at that time, be made a free town, yet it was never a Roman colony, until the reign either of Caracalla or Heliogabalus; and that therefore the right of a Roman citizen was not common to all the people of the place, but only to some particular persons who might purchase it as a title of honour, for them and their heirs for ever; of whom they suppose St Paul's father to be one, and that upon this foundation, his son might very properly say, that he was born free. However this be, it is certain, that the quality of a Roman citizen was highly esteemed, especially in all Roman colonies, whereof Philippi was one. Every injury offered to such a one was looked upon as an affront against the majesty of the whole people of Rome: To bind him was a violation of the law, and much more to have him beaten; but to be scourged and bound, without being first legally heard and tried, was not only a gainst the Roman, but against the laws of all nations; and the more public any such injury is, the greater is its aggravation, and the more solemn should its reparation be. Beau obre's Annotations, Calmer's Commentary, and Cave's Lives of the Apostles. +3 This is a city of Macedonia, lying on the confines of Thrace, and so called because it is encompassed by the river Strymon, the old boundary be tween these two provinces. Wells's Geography of the New Testament. This is another city of Macedonia, lying between Amphipolis and Thessalonica. Whitby's Alphabetical Table. + This was the metropolis or chief city of Macedonia, whose ancient name was Thesma, from whence the sea it stands upon took its name. Some are of opinion, that, being improved and beautified by Philip, king of Macedon, it was called Thessalonica, în memory of the victory which he obtained over the Thessalians; but Strabo, and some others, rather think that it took its name from Thessalonica, the wife of Cassander, and daughter of Philip. At present it is called Salonichi, and is thought to retain something of its ancient wealth and greatness, having still a safe harbour for the benefit of commerce, and being still an Archbishop's See of the Grecian Church. Calmet's Dictionary, and Wells's Geography of the New Testament. synagogues of the Jews three Sabbath-days successively, proving, from the predictions of From Acts i, the Old Testament, that the Messiah was to suffer, and to rise again, and that the bles- 10. to the end. sed Jesus was this Messiah. Great numbers, especially of religious proselytes, and several women of the better rank and quality, were converted at his preaching; but the unbelieving Jews raised a tumult in the city, and went to the house of Jason where St Paul lodged; but not finding him there, they seized Jason, and carried him before the magistrates, where they accused him of harbouring in his house persons disaffected to the Roman government, and who set up one Jesus in opposition to Cæsar. He, however, upon security for his good behaviour, was dismissed; and Paul and Silas (for fear of greater disturbances) were by the brethren conveyed next night to Berea †. Here they found the people in a better disposition to entertain the Christian doctrine, but yet not willing to take it merely upon the apostles word, until they had examined the Scriptures, and found that their preaching agreed very well with the characters therein delivered of the Messiah; and then great numbers both of men and women of distinction were converted: But the Jews of Thessalonica, hearing of their success, came down to Berea, and there raised such disturbances, that the brethren thought proper to send Paul privately away to Athens †2, while Silas and Timothy continued some time in the place to confirm the new believers, but after that had orders to follow him as soon as possible. While Paul waited for his company at Athens, he went about several parts of the city to see the rarities of it, and wherever he came found abundance of superstition + and ignorant zeal even for deities that themselves knew nothing of. This therefore he esteemed no improper place and time for him to apply himself to the discharge of his great work; and accordingly he not only disputed with the Jews and proselytes in the synagogues every Sabbath day, but took all opportunities, wherever he met with a convenient auditory, (and this he seldom missed of in the public forum, where people of all sorts daily resorted to hear and tell news, which was the great business of their lives,) to instruct them in the coming of the Messias, and in the doctrine of a resurrection and a future state. Athens was, at this time, the great academy of the Roman empire, and abounded with philosophers of all sects; but those whom St Paul had chiefly to deal with were the Epicureans and the Stoics, who treated him with a great deal of scorn and con *The Greeks say that he was afterwards made Bishop of Tarsus in Cilicia. + This was likewise another great and populous city of Macedonia, lying to the south of Thessalonica. and almost directly in the way to Athens. Wells's Geography of the New Testament. + This was one of the most renowned cities in the world, situate on the gulph of the Egean Sea, which comes up to the Isthmus of the Peloponese or Morea, in that district of Greece, properly so called, which was named Attica, and was the parent of that dialect which is esteemed the purest and finest Greek. The city itself was the great seat of arts and sciences, and (as Cicero will have it) the fountain whence civility, learning, religion, and laws were derived to all other nations; so universally flocked to by those that had the least kindness for the muses and good manners, that he who had not seen Athens was accounted a block; he, who having seen it, was not in love with it, a dull, stupid ass; and he who, after he had seen it, could be willing to leave it, fit for nothing but to be a pack-horse. Wells's Geography of the New Testament, and Cave's Lives of the Apostles. +3 Several of their own writers have made it their remark, that Athens had greater numbers of deities and idols than all Greece besides; and Strabo, in particular, notes, that the Athenians were not more fond of strangers, than forward to comply with any novelties in religion, and ready to entertain any foreign deities and rites of worship. Cave's Lives of the Apostles. + These two sects were not only contrary to each other in their tenets, but strangely averse to the Christian religion, both in their principles and practices. The Epicureans were so, because they found their pleasures and jovial humour, and their loose and exorbitant course of life (consequent upon their disbelief of a God, a Providence, and a future state) so much checked and controlled by the strict and severe precepts of Christ; and because Christianity so plainly and positively asserted a Divine Providence, the subsistence of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and state of rewards and punishments after death, which they absolutely denied. The Stoics, on the other hand, though pretending to principles of great and uncommon rigour and severity, and such &c. or 5463. Ann. Dom. 52, &c. A. M. 4056, tempt, while others looked upon him as a setter up of new gods, (supposing Jesus and Anastasis, or the resurrection, which he preached, to be two new and unheard-of deities), and therefore brought him before their famous senate at Areopagus †. Here, in a most excellent discourse, he endeavoured to convince them of their present errors and delusions, and to inform them who that true God was, whom they, under false notions, blindly worshipped. "The Deity to whom they had dedicated an altar, under the title of the Unknown God †2,' was no other (he told them) than the as had the nearest affinity to the Christian religion, yet found themselves aggrieved with it. For (besides their doctrine of fate, which they made superior to their Jupiter) that meek and humble temper of mind, that modesty and self-denial, which the Gospel so earnestly recommended, was so directly contrary to the immoderate pride and haughtiness of that sect, who were not ashamed to make their wise man equal, and in some things exceed God himself, that it is no wonder we find them treating a preacher of such doctrines with slight and disdain, What will this babbler say?" Acts xvii. 18. Cave's Lives of the Apostles. 66 + This was a place in Athens where the senate usually assembled, and took its name (as some think) from gas, which is the same as Mars, the god of war, who was the first person that was judged here for having killed Apollo's son: But as agns does sometimes signify fighting, murder, or violence of any kind, and ways is properly a rock, or rising hill, it therefore seems to denote a court, situated upon an eminence, (as the Areopagus was) where causes of murder, &c. were tried. This court, at present, is out of the city, but in former times it stood almost in the middle of it. Its foundations, which are still standing, are built with square stones of a prodigious size, in the form of a semicircle, and support a terras or platform, of about an hundred and forty paces, which was the court where this senate was held. In the midst of it there was a tribunal cut in a rock, and all about were seats, cut likewise in stone, where the senate heard causes in the open air, without any covering, and (as some say) in the night-time, that they might not be moved to compassion at the sight of any criminal that was brought before them. For this judicature was so famous for its uprightness, and held by all in such esteem and veneration, that when the Romans had conquered Greece, and sent their proconsuls to rule there, it was no uncommon thing for them to refer difficult causes to the judgment of the Areopagites. After the loss of their liberty, how. ever, the authority of this senate (which used before to determine in all causes, both civil and religious) declined apace, so that, in our apostle's time, the A reopagus was not so much a court of judicature as a common rendezvous, where all curious and inquisitive persons, who spent their time in nothing else but either in heating or telling some new thing," were accustomed to meet, Acts xvii. 21. But though their power, in other matters, was greatly impaired, yet they seem still to have retained the privilege of canonizing all gods that were allowed public worship; and therefore St Paul was brought before them as an asserter and preacher of such a Deity as they had not yet admitted among them. It does not appear, however, that he was brought before them as a criminal, but merely as a man who had a new worship to propose to a people religious above all others, but who took care that no strange worship should be received on the footing of a tolerated religion, till it had the approbation of the court appointed to judge of such matters. The address of the court to him" May we know what this doctrine is whereof thou speakest?"-implies rather a request to a teacher, than an interrogatory to a criminal; and accordingly his reply hath not the least air of an apology suiting a person accused, but is one continued information of important truths, such as it became a teach. er or benefactor, rather than a person arraigned for a crime, to give. He was therefore neither acquitted nor condemned, but dismissed as a man coram non judice. We are indeed told, that when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter, putting off the audience to an indefinite time; so that nothing was left him but to depart, and according to his Master's direction "shake the dust from off his feet."] Calmet's Commentary; Beausobre's and Hammond's Annotations, and Warburton's Div. Leg. That the Athenians, in their public places, had altars without any names on them, and others inscribed to unknown gods, or demons, is evident from the testimony of Laërtius, who informs us, that when a great plague raged at Athens, and several means had been attempted for the removal of it, they were advised by Epimenides the philosopher to build an altar and dedicate it rohov, to the proper and peculiar God, to whom sacrifices were due. In Vità Epimen. lib. xi. And the Athenians (as St Chrysostom supposes), not knowing by what name to call him, erected an altar with this inscription, ΘΕΟΙΣ ΑΣΙΑΣ, ΚΑΙ ΕΥΡΩΠΗΣ, ΚΑΙ ΛΙΒΥΗΣ, ΘΕΩ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΩ ΚΙΑ ΞΕΝΩ: “ To the gods of Asia, Europe, and Africa; to the strange and unknown God;" whereby (as some imagine) the Athenians intended the God of the Jews, who had given such wonderful deliverances to his own people. Nor is this conjecture unreasonable, considering, that the writings of Plato, Pythagoras, and many others, are a plain proof, that the Scriptures had been read by their philosophers, though not being able to comprehend his Divine nature and attributes, they might call him "the unknown God," in conformity perhaps to the Hebrews themselves, who had the name of their God in great secrecy and veneration, and, from the mouth of the prophet, had received it as one of his Great God, the Creator of all things, the Supreme Governor and Ruler of the world; From Acts i. that as he was infinite in all perfections, it was not to be supposed that he could be 10. to the end. confined within any temple or human fabric; that any image could be made to represent him, or that he could stand in need of their gifts or sacrifices, who is the sole fountain of all the blessings they enjoyed; that it was entirely from him that they had either life, motion, or existence, as one of their own poets †, by calling them his offspring, acknowledged; and therefore incongruous it was to think that their Creator could be the work of their hands, as every image of gold, silver, or stone was; that though his Divine patience had, for a long time, borne with mens blind idolatries, yet now he expected a general repentance and reformation from the world, especially since, by the publication of the Gospel, he had fully evidenced a future judgment, had appointed the holy Jesus to administer that judgment, and given us sufficient assurance of such his appointment by having raised him from the dead." But no sooner had he mentioned the resurrection, than some of the philosophers †2 mocked and derided him, whilst others 3 expressed their desire to hear him upon the same subject another time: And the good effect of his discourse was, that it converted several of the best rank and quality, among whom was Dionysius, †4 one of the senators of the Areopagus, and Damaris, whom the ancients, not improbably, account his wife. From Athens St Paul departed to Corinth, † where he found a certain Jew, named distinguished titles, "Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour," Isa. xlv. 15. Hammond's Annotations, and Cave's Lives of the Apostles. The poet whom St Paul means was Aratus, born in Cilicia, and consequently his countryman; and what he attributes to Jupiter, the apostle applies to the true God: "We are his offspring." This indeed was no argument to the Epicurean auditors, who held the poets in great contempt, because on all occasions they introduced the gods, and taught the separate existence of human souls; but it was of great weight to the common people, who paid a mighty veneration to the poets, from whose works some of the greatest philosophers then living were wont to borrow citations, thereby to confirm and adorn their discourses. To the honour of human learning therefore, we may observe, that in the New Testament, the Holy Ghost is pleased three several times to make mention of the heathen poets; of Aratus here, Acts xvii. 2. 8. of Menander, 1 Cor. xv. 33. and of Epimenides. Beausobre's and Burkitt's Annotations, and Bentley's Sermons at Boyle's Lectures. + These were the Epicureans, who believed no resurrection, no immortality of the soul, nor any future judgment, which St Paul here asserts. Whitby's Annotations. +3 These were the Stoics, who maintained a conflagration and reviviscence of the world; held that souls might live long, though not always, in another state; and allowed something of future recompences, though with great fluctuation. Whitby's Annotations. + He is said in his youth to have been bred at Athens, in all the learned arts and sciences, and at the years of five and twenty, to have travelled into Egypt, there to perfect himself in the study of astronomy, for which that nation had the renown. When our Saviour died, he was at Heliopolis, where, ob serving the miraculous darkness that attended his +5 Corinth, which was anciently called Epyrus, Here Ann. Dom. 52. &c. A. M. 4056, Aquila, † lately come from Italy, with Priscilla his wife, because the emperor Claudius, &c. or 5463. towards the latter end of his reign, had made an edict † to banish all the Jews from Rome; and, having instructed them in the Christian faith, he took up his lodgings, and wrought with them, (for they by profession were tent-makers +3 as well as himself), and every Sabbath-day he preached in the synagogues, labouring to convince both Jews and Greeks that Jesus was the true Messias. Before Paul departed from Athens, Timothy, according to his request, came to him from Beræa, and brought him an account, (a) that the new Christians at Thessalonica had been under great persecution ever since he left them. This obliged Paul to send him back again into Macedonia, in order to establish and comfort the brethren under their afflictions; which when Timothy had done, he took Silas along with him, and returned from Thessalonica with the joyful news of the stedfast adherence to the truth which that church had shewn in all its distresses. This was a matter of no small consolation to the apostle, who thereupon wrote his first epistle to the Thessalonians: (b) "Wherein he highly applauds their courage and zeal in the belief of the Christian religion, and exhorts them to a noble constancy and perseverance amidst their afflictions: Wherein he commends their charity to the believers of Macedonia, and gives them many instructions concerning a good life and conversation: Wherein he exhorts them to the practice of all purity and holiness, especially in the use of the marriage-bed; to avoid idleness; to be diligent in their callings, and not immoderate in their grief for the dead; and wherein he instructs them in the doctrine of the resurrection, the manner of Christ's coming to judgment, and the obligation all were under to make a timely preparation for it." Upon the accession of Timothy and Silas, St Paul preached the doctrine of Christ with fresh ardour to the Jews; but when he perceived, that instead of attending to it, they only opposed it with blasphemous and opprobrious language, he openly declared flagration, so many statues of different metals were Aquila was a native of Pontus, in Asia Minor, is supposed that they continued at Ephesus until the time of their death, which, according to the Roman martyrologies, is set down on the eighth of July. Calmet's Commentary and Dictionary. + Suetonius, in his life of Claudius, makes the occasion of this decree to have been the tumults which the Jews (or Christians, who went under the notion of Jews) were perpetually fomenting in Rome: but as we find nothing of this in any other historian, it is rather supposed, that this severity proceeded from the behaviour of some thieves in Judea, who had assaulted a servant of the emperor's, named Stephen, taken from him the imperial baggage, and killed the Roman troops, that were appointed to guard it; as both Tacitus, in his annals, lib. xii. and Josephus, in his History of the Jewish wars, lib. ii. have informed us. Whitby's Annotations. +3 It was a received custom among the Jews, for every man, of what rank or quality soever, to learn some handicraft; for one of their proverbial expressions is, that "whoever teaches not his son a trade, teaches him to a be thief:" And in those hot countries, where tents (which were commonly made of skins, or leather, sewed together, to keep out the violence of the weather) were used, not only by soldiers, but by travellers, and others, whose business required them to be abroad, a tent-maker was no mean or unprofitable employment. Stanhope on the Epistles and Gospels, and Pool's Annotations. (a) 1 Thess. iii. 1, &c. (b) Ibid. passim. |
