II. BOOK Countrymen, yet he is now more frequently extending, as it were, his aggressive operations into the dominions of Heathenism. If he found hospitality, no doubt he encountered either violent or secret hostility from his brethren. Few circumstances however occur which belong more especially to the conflict between Judaism and Christianity. Paul and Barnabas set out together on this more extensive journey, but on some dispute as to the companions who were to attend upon them, Barnabas turned aside with Mark to his native country of Cyprus; while Paul, accompanied by Silas, revisited those cities in Syria and Cilicia, where they had already established Christian communities. At Lystra, Paul showed his deference to Jewish opinion by permitting a useful disciple, named Timothy, to be circumcised.* But this case was peculiar, as Timothy, by his mother's side, was a Jew; and, though by a connection with a man of Greek race, she had forfeited both for herself and her offspring the privileges of Jewish descent, the circumcision of the son might, in a great degree, remove the stigma which attached to his birth, and which would render him less acceptable among his Jewish brethren. Having left this region, he ranged northward, through Phrygia, Galatia, and Mysia; but, instead of continuing his course towards the shore of the Black Sea to Bithynia, admonished by a vision, he passed to * Acts, xvi. 3. II. Europe, and at Neapolis, in Macedonia", landed CHAP the obscure and unregarded individual, to whom Europe, in Christianity, owes the great principle of her civilisation, the predominant element in her superiority over the more barbarous and unenlightened quarters of the world. At Philippi, the Jews being few in number, appear only to have had a Proseucha, a smaller place of public worship, as usual, near the sea-side; at Thessalonica they were more numerous, and had a synagoguet; at Berea, they appear likewise to have formed a flourishing community; even at Athens the Jews had made many proselytes. Corinth, a new colony of settlers from all quarters, a central mercantile mart, through which passed a great part of the commerce between the East and West, offered a still more eligible residence for the Jews, who, no doubt, had already become traders to a considerable extent. Their numbers had been lately increased by their expulsion from Rome, under the Emperor Claudius. § This edict is *Acts, xvi. 11, 12. + Acts, xvii. 1. Thessalonica is a city where the Jews have perhaps resided for a longer period, in considerable numbers, than in any other, at least in Europe. When the Jews fled from Christian persecution to the milder oppression of the Turks, vast numbers settled at Thessalonica. Hist. Jews, iii. Von Hammer states the present population of Thessalonica (Salonichi) at 16,000 Greeks; 12,000 Jews; and 50,000 Turks. Osmanishe Geschichte, i. 442. Corinth, since its demolition by Mummius, had lain in ruins till the time of Julius Cæsar, who established a colony on its site. From the advantages of its situation, the connecting link, as it were, between Italy, the north of Greece, and Asia, it grew up rapidly to all its former wealth and splendour. The manner in which this event is related by the Epigrammatic Biographer, even the mistakes in his account, are remarkably characteristic. Judæos, Chresto duce, assidue tumultuantes Roma II. BOOK attributed by Suetonius to the tumults excited by the mutual hostility between the Jews and Christians. Christianity, therefore, must thus early have made considerable progress in Rome. The scenes of riot were, probably, either like those which took place in the Asiatic cities, where the Jews attempted to use violence against the Christians; or, as in Corinth itself, where the tribunal of the magistrate was disturbed by fierce, and to him unintelligible disputes, as he supposed, between two Jewish factions. With two of the exiles, Aquila and Priscilla, Paul, as practising the same trade, that of tent-makers *, made a more intimate connection, residing with them, and pursuing their craft in common.t At Corinth, possibly for the first time, the Christians openly seceded from the Jews, and obtained a separate school of public instruction; even the chief ruler of the synagogue, Crispus, became a convert. But the consequence of this secession was the more declared and open animosity of the Jewish party, which expulit. The confusion between literâ Chrestum solent dicere. Lact. Inst. 4. 7. 5. *The Jews thought it right that every one, even the learned, should know some art or trade. Sapientes plurimi artem aliquam fecerunt ne aliorum beneficentia indigerent. Maimonides. See Lightfoot, iii. 227. There was a coarse stuff called Cilicium, made of goats' hair, manufactured in the native country of Paul, and used for the purpose of portable tents, which it is ingeniously conjectured may have been the art practised by Paul, II. ended in an appeal to the public tribunal of the CHAP. governor. The result of the trial before the judgment-seat of Gallio, the pro-consul of Achaia, appears to have been an ebullition of popular indignation in favour of the Christians, as another of the chief rulers of the synagogue, probably the prosecutor of the Christians, underwent the punishment of scourging before the tribunal. From Corinth Paul returned by sea to Cæsareat, and from thence to Antioch. journey of The third journey of St. Paul belongs still Third more exclusively to the conflict of Christianity Paul. with Paganism. At Ephesus § alone, where he arrived after a circuit through Phrygia and Galatia, he encountered some wandering wonder-working sons of a certain Sceva, a Jew, who attempted to imitate the miraculous cures which he wrought. The failure of the exorcism, which they endeavoured to perform by the name of Jesus, and From Corinth after he had been rejoined by Silas (Silvanus) and Timotheus, was most probably written the first epistle to the Thessalonians. This epistle is full of allusions to his recent journey. On his arrival at Athens he had sent back Timotheus to ascertain the state of the infant Church. Subsequently it appears that the more Jewish opinion of the immediate reappearance of the Messiah to judgment, had gained great ground in the community. It is slightly alluded to in the first epistle, v. 2, 3. The second seems to have been written expressly to counteract this notion. We make no observation on the vow made at Cenchrea, as we There is great doubt as to Acts, xviii. 23. xxi. 6. BOOK II. Paul in A. D. 58. which only increased the violence of the lunatic, |