Archaeology and the New Testament

By

Merrill F. Unger. Th. D., Ph. D.

A Companion to Archaeology and the Old Testament

Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing Company

1962

Boise, Idaho: Global Affairs Publishing Company
P. O. Box 16184. Boise, Idaho 83715

Copyright © 2007 by Michael L. Chadwick. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2007 of Electronic Texts by Michael L. Chadwick. All rights reserved. No part of this electronic text may be reproduced, distributed, stored in electronic databases, personal computers, search engine databases, web sites or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. Electronic fingerprints have been placed in the text to prevent copyright violations.
 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1—The Role of Archaeology in the Study of the New Testament

Chapter 2—From Alexander the Great to Herod the Great—The Foundation of New Testament Political and Cultural History

Chapter 3—Palestine and the Roman World at the Time of Christ

Chapter 4—The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ministry of John and Jesus

Chapter 5—Places Where Jesus Walked and Worked in Judea and the Jordon Valley

Chapter 6—Places Where Jesus Walked and Worked in Northern and Central Palestine

Chapter 7—Christianity is Born and Expands Beyond Judaea

Chapter 8—Antioch—the Birthplace of Christian Missions

Chapter 9—The Cities of St. Paul’s First Missionary Tour

Chapter 10—Christianity Prepared for World-Wide Proclamation

Chapter 11—The Churches of Macedonia

Chapter 12—The Gospel and the Glory of Ancient Greece

Chapter 13—Tribulation and Triumphs in Ephesus

Chapter 14 – Gospel Progress and the Cities of the Lycus Valley

Chapter 15—Gospel Progress in Other Cities of Proconsular Asia

Chapter 16—Paul’s Last Journey to Jerusalem and the End of His Third Missionary Tour

Chapter 17—Paul the Prisoner of Rome

Chapter 18—Archaeology and the New Testament as Literature

Bibliography

Chapter 1—The Role of Archaeology in the Study of the New Testament

     Archaeology (from the Greek archaios, "old," "ancient" and logos, "word," "treatise," "study") is a science devoted to the recovery of the remains of ancient civilizations with a view to reconstructing the story of their rise, progress, and fall. Considered in this aspect, archaeology is the handmaid of history, particularly of ancient history. It is the research department of all branches of learning that seek to expand man's knowledge of the past.

     General archaeology undertakes the excavation, decipherment, and critical evaluation of the remains of ancient human life wherever found on this planet. The more circumscribed field of biblical archaeology confines itself to the study of the material remains of those lands and peoples that directly or indirectly affect the language and literature of the Bible, as well as its message and meaning. For the Old Testament the geographical area of interest centers in James Breasted's famous "fertile crescent," with one tip touching Palestine and the other tip extending to lower Iraq and the Persian Gulf, with the body of the moon comprising the Middle and Lower basin of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. For the New Testament, the focus of activity falls in Palestine and fans out into the Graeco-Roman culture of the Mediterranean world of the first century A.D. [See map on page 14.]

     The fascination of biblical archaeology for the student interested in expanding the scientific aspects of the study of the Bible is immense. No realm of research has offered more thrilling rewards or afforded greater promise of continued progress.

There are, however, certain essential differences in the results of the application of archaeological research to the Old Testament as over against the New Testament. In the Old Testament the impact has been much more obvious, because ancient Bible history previous to the fifth century B.C. was much less known than the later Graeco-Roman period of Mediterranean history that underlies the New Testament. Old Testament archaeology has rediscovered whole nations, resurrected important peoples, and in a most astonishing manner filled in historical gaps, adding immeasurably to the knowledge of biblical backgrounds.

     Although New Testament archaeology has not been called upon to perform such sensational feats, its importance is no less far-reaching and is becoming more significant each year. Dealing with a much shorter span of history (a bare century in contrast to several millennia of the Old Testament world), and concerned largely with smaller groups of individuals united by spiritual ties rather than with a whole nation like Israel, held together by political bonds, archaeological data have been more difficult to apply to the New Testament than the Old, but scarcely have they been less important or exciting.

1. WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT IS

Before considering the service archaeology is rendering the study of the New Testament, it is well to pause a moment to inquire precisely what the New Testament is. Christians of various shades of theological persuasion naturally define it differently. But whatever the attitude or critical evaluation, the Greek New Testament as a historical document is of incalculable importance in the spiritual history and destiny of mankind and is so recognized by practically all Christians. Moreover, historic, spiritually vitalized Christianity has always defined it in the highest terms and reposed implicit faith in its message and redemptive efficacy.

l. The New Testament Is the Inspired Revelation

of God to Man

     While naturalistic negative criticism has from time to time sought to reduce the inspiration of the New Testament to a purely human level, denying divine intervention in any degree in the production of the New Testament documents, less radical views have allowed some measure of supernatural superintendence over the writing of these records of the origin of the Christian faith. Any view less than this can hardly present a rational explanation of the remarkable regenerative ministry of the New Testament nor avoid the bane of spiritual bankruptcy. [Cf. the author’s Archaeology and the Old Testament, 3^rd ed. (Grand Rapids, 1956), pp. 9-25.]

     Mediating positions recognize the factor of divine intervention in inspiration, but posit that there were error and fallibility on the human plane, and that the reflection of these in the sacred writings is not inconsistent with the production of Holy Writ. These views, in vogue in recent decades, are an accommodation to the affirmed findings of scientific research and the alleged assured results of modern criticism. [Cf. Kenneth Kantzer, “Revelation and Inspiration in Neo-Orthodox Theology,” Bibliotheca Sacra, April, 1958, pp. 120-127; July, 1958, pp. 218-228; Oct., 1958, pp. 302-312; Paul King Jewett, Emil Brunner’s Concept of Revelation (London, 1954), pp. 118-120; 158-172; Revelation and Inspiration ed. By John F. Walvoord, (Grand Rapids, 1957), pp. 210-252.] Although they represent a reaction against the crass naturalism of radical liberalism, and have fostered more constructive. critical study of the Bible, they do not represent the historic, conservative belief of the church.

     The orthodox opinion on biblical inspiration still remains that the New Testament (as well as the Old) is God-breathed and without error or mistake in the original autographs. [Laird Harris, Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible (Grand rapids, 1956); Wick Broomall, Biblical Criticism (Grand Rapids, 1957), pp. 11-84.] This conviction extends infallible inspiration not only to the thoughts of Scripture but also to the very words, and extends it equally and comprehensively to all of the canonical books of both Testaments. Thus Scripture, as the disclosure of the redemptive purposes and plans of God for the human race, is inspired in a unique way. The product itself is accordingly unique and on a different plane from any other writing, sacred or secular.

2. The New Testament Is the Capstone and Consummation

of Old Testament Revelation

     It is inseparably connected with the Old Testament as a tree is connected with its roots, as a house with its foundation, as a head with its body. Separated from its roots, a tree dies. Without a foundation, a house collapses. Cut off from its body, a head becomes lifeless. Without the Old Testament, there could have been no New Testament, and apart from it, the New Testament is pointless. One is the counterpart of the other. As Augustine maintained, the New Testament is enfolded in the Old and the Old is unfolded by the New.

     To apply the results of archaeological research to the New `Testament without recognizing its inseparable connection with the Old Testament as a fulfillment of all the redemptive plans and promises made there, has produced much confusion. For this reason historical and archaeological findings have frequently been misused. The result has been serious misunderstanding and misinterpretation.

     As the consummation of Old Testament revelation, which was preparatory and introductory to it, the New Testament recounts the history of the incarnation, the earthly life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ and the founding of Christianity. In addition, it presents a systematic exposition of the doctrines of the Christian faith. As the capstone of all the redemptive plans and purposes for man (and without detracting in the least from its inseparable unity with the Old Testament), the New Testament is beyond doubt the most important document in the world. It records God's full and final message for sinful man. It presents Him in history of whom the Old Testament speaks in symbol, type, and prophecy. In presenting Him it brings sinful humanity face to face with the One who alone can meet its deepest and most fundamental need of salvation from sin.

     No other religious writings—the Vedas, the Koran, the sacred scriptures of Taoism, Confucianism, or Buddhism—can compare with the New Testament. It has a place apart because of the unique Person it presents and the unique work of salvation He accomplished by His sinless life, vicarious death, and glorious resurrection. His ascension to heaven from which He came, the consequent gift of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the Church of Christ are all well-attested events of history unparalleled by the claims, much less by the facts, of any other religion.

     Not only as authenticated history, but in the matter of prophecy, which is so frequently interwoven with history in the biblical revelation, the New Testament is unparalleled. It catalogues in detail the complex and minute fulfillment of Old Testament predictions concerning the first advent of the Messiah in suffering, rejection, and death. But it goes farther than this. It picks up the extensive theme of yet-unfulfilled Old Testament prophecy concerning the second advent of the Messiah in glory, and the establishment of the kingdom over Israel, and develops these far-reaching disclosures with added revelation in the great eschatological discourses of Jesus (Matthew 24:1-25:46), Paul (I Thessalonians 4:1-II Thessalonians 2:12), Peter (II Peter 2:1-12) and particularly John in the book of the Revelation.

     Although, as history, the New Testament covers less than a single century, as prophecy, it spans the ages of time and plumbs eternity, past as well as future. Whatever naturalistic criticism may attempt to do with its miracles and its fulfilled prophecies, all the labors of form criticism to "demythologize" it still leaves its greatest wonders—the glorious Person of whom it tells and the great work of salvation He wrought—untouched and rationally inexplicable, except on the basis that He was what the New Testament declares He was—God in human flesh appearing—and He did what the New Testament asserts He did—died, rose again from the dead, ascended to heaven, and gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to call out His redeemed Church.

     Moreover, if Christ is what the New Testament sets Him forth to be, and if He did what the New Testament says He did and what the subsequent facts of history and our experience of His salvation give us reliable reasons to be the case, then the New Testament which catalogues these tremendous truths and calls men from the sordidness of sin to God is indeed among God's very best gifts to man and one of man's most valuable treasures.

II. HOW ARCHAEOLOGY FACILITATES THE STUDY

OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

     If the New Testament is what it is herein defined to be, and what history, fulfilled prophecy, and the experience of redeemed humanity attest it to be, its own incalculable importance in degree attaches to every branch of research that can forward the study of it and contribute to its elucidation. In the forefront of such studies is the science of biblical archaeology. In the New Testament field this comparatively young science (about a century-and-a-half hold in its broadest limits, but only a youngster of less than a half-century in the sense of an exact science) is growing in significance year by year and constantly making new contributions to the better understanding of the New Testament on the human side.

1.     Archaeology Expedites the Scientific Study

of the New Testament

     This is perhaps its most fundamentally significant contribution. The Bible has always had the student who studied it from the aspect of its spiritual message and meaning. But sacred Scripture in addition needs the technical expert—the trained linguist, grammarian, historian, geographer, and textual critic. In this list of specialists in various phases of biblical science, the archaeologist now takes a prominent and important place.

     Without the consecrated labors of biblical technicians, knowledge of Scripture on the human plane (and the Bible is a human book as well as divine) would remain static or even suffer retrogression. This situation would soon affect the spiritual comprehension of Holy Writ, since the divine and human elements in Bible study interact and cannot be separated one from another or one be neglected without adverse effect upon the other.

     An example of archaeology aiding the scientific study of the New Testament is furnished in the field of textual criticism. This fundamental area of research, which by the nature of the case is basic to all other study in this field, has been signally advanced during the past fifty years by new manuscript finds which have furnished technical scholars with added data for the evaluation and revision of the labors of textual critics, particularly the epochal work of Westcott and Hort.

     Most recent official statistics on the number of witnesses to all or parts of the Greek New Testament list 2,440 minuscule manuscripts, 232 uncials, 1,678 lectionaries, 63 papyri and 25 ostraca (potsherds). [Cf. Ernst von Dobschuetz in Eberhard Nestle's Einfuehrung in das griechische Neue Testament 4te Aid. 1923 and in Zeitschrift fuer die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft XIII, pp. 248-264; XXV, pp. 299-306; XXXII, pp. 185-206; Kurt Aland, Theologische Literaturzeitung (1953) , pp. 465-496.] Particularly significant are the Chester Beatty Papyri from the third century, edited by Sir Frederic Kenyon in 1933-1937. From a papyrus codex which originally contained all four gospels and the Acts, six leaves of Mark, seven of Luke, and thirteen of Acts remain. [See F. G. Kenyon, Te Text of the Greek Bible, a Students’ Handbook, 1937.] From a papyrus codex originally containing ten Pauline epistles, 86 leaves are extant, and from another papyrus codex originally of the book of Revelation, only the portion comprising chapters 9:10-17:2 has been preserved.

     Of uncial manuscripts, among the most important ones discovered in the twentieth century are Codex W from the early fifth century and Codex Theta from the ninth century, both containing the four gospels. Of late other uncial manuscripts have also been recovered. [B. M. Metzger, “Recently Published Greek Papyri of the New Testament,” Smithsonian Report for 1948, pp. 439-452; G. Maldfeld and B. M. Metzger, Journal of Biblical Literature, LVXVIII (1949), pp. 359-370.]

     A whole new field of scientific investigation of the New Testament in recent years has been opened up by the recognition of the value of the Greek lectionaries. These aids to the study of the original text, designed by their compilers to supply readings for the liturgical year of the church, contain most of the New Testament except the Revelation and a portion of the Acts. They are shedding much light on the history of the transmission of the New Testament text and furnish a valuable illustration of archaeology's ability to promote constructive scientific research of the Scriptures. [See chapter XVIII.

     In the area of ancient versions of late years, manuscript evidence has been supplemented making possible further progress in textual analysis. In addition, several versions not previously known have been brought to light. [See Bruce Metzger, “Bible Versions (Ancient),” Twentieth Century Encyclopaedia (1955), pp .137-143.] Interesting and significant for textual criticism is the discovery at Dura on the Euphrates of a parchment fragment of the Diatessaron of Tatian in Greek, belonging to the period just prior to the Roman garrison city's fall to the Persians in A.D. 256-257. Published in 1935, this bit of evidence settles once and for all the long debate whether or not Tatian's Harmony ever existed in Greek.

     These textual advances have made feasible a constant stream of revisions of the Bible in the common languages of the peoples of Europe and America, besides giving impetus to scores and scores of translations for the mission fields of the globe.

     Archaeology in giving valuable aid in establishing a critical text, opens up the way for profitable research on the part of the grammarian, the philologian and the lexicographer. The remarkable recovery of papyri since about 1890, [See Chapter 18.] besides enabling scholars to evaluate the true character and literary nature of the language of the New Testament, [See Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, 3^rd ed., (1927).] are immeasurably aiding the accurate understanding of the morphology (a study of the form of words), phonology (a study of their sound and pronunciation) and syntax (the relations of words to one another in the sentence) of the Greek in the New Testament. Moreover, in illustrating and thus elucidating the meaning of New Testament vocabulary in the light of the common language of the time, the papyri are rendering far-reaching service to the lexicographer, making possible great strides in this area. [See Walter Gingrich, “Lexicons of the Greek New Testament,” Twentieth Century Encyclopaedia, pp. 657-659.]

     Of particular importance is the Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Neuen Testament by Gerhard Kittel. This magnificent work (based on the earlier work of H. Cremer, which was frequently revised since its appearance in 1866) promises to be a crowning achievement made possible by new archaeological discoveries expanding the horizons of biblical knowledge. The majority of its seven volumes have already appeared. Since the death of Gerhard Kittel in 1948, the work has been continued by Gerhard Friedrich. Dealing only with words of theological import, it, however, is able to treat them much more accurately and fully than any of its great predecessors because of modern advance in research.

     Of first-rate importance also is the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, translated and edited by Arndt and Gingrich and published by the University of Chicago (1958). This valuable work that employs the latest results of papyrological studies, renders obsolete such earlier lexicons as Thayer, Moulton and Milligan, and even Liddell and Scott.

2. Archaeology Acts As a Balance in the Critical Study

of the New Testament

     New Testament scholarship, like that of the Old Testament, has often been plagued with extremism. In the case of both Testaments, archaeology has frequently acted as a corrective and purge in showing the falsity of many erratic theories and false assumptions. This is true of the Old Testament to a larger degree perhaps than the New Testament. The simple reason for this is that incomparably less was known of Old Testament backgrounds than was true of the New Testament before the advent of the science of biblical archaeology in the nineteenth century. This situation gave more radically inclined higher critics greater range for extreme naturalistic views than was' possible in the New Testament where a great deal was already known about its historical environment from abundant classical and other sources. [Se the present author’s Archaeology and the Old Testament, 34d ed. (Grand Rapids, 1957), pp. 14-15.] Nevertheless, archaeological research has important bearings in balancing New Testament criticism.

     To cite an example, the date of the gospel of John is a case in point. According to the influential Tuebingen School, founded by F. C. Baur, fewer than a half-dozen books of the New Testament were written in the first century A.D. John's gospel was placed as late as the second half of the second century, thus being effectually removed from authentic apostolic tradition. Until recently it has been popular in radical critical circles to posit a date for the fourth gospel not earlier than the first half of the second century. The school of form criticism since 1919 [Cf. M. Dibelius, Formgeschichte des Evangeliums 1919; 2^nd ed., 1933; Engl. Trans. From Tradition to Gospel, 1935; R. Bultmann, Die Geschichte der synoptischen Tradition 1921, 2^nd ed., 1931; L. J. McGinley, Form Criticism of the Synoptic Healing Narratives, 1944.] has carried on this unsound practice of late-dating the gospels, particularly John, which is in a peculiarly vulnerable position, and which is supposed by these scholars to be devoid of any original historical matter and to reflect the beliefs and ideas of an early second-century Gnostic sect.

     New archaeological finds are effectively counteracting these extreme views. A small papyrus fragment containing John 18:31-33, 37-38, published in 1935 and now in the John Rylands Library at Manchester, England, constitutes the oldest known fragment of the New Testament. It is dated by competent palaeographers within the period A.D. 100-150. [So C. H. Roberts who published the fragment in 1935 and H. I. Bell, A. Deissmann, W. H. P. Hatch, and F. G. Kenyon.] The evidence it furnishes at once exposes the untenableness of the Tuebingen School and the contentions of many of the form critics. Added to this, the Qumran Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls since 1947 show that the supposed second-century Gnostic ideas of John's gospel are authentic to first-century Jewish sectarian life and thought and substantiate the traditional first-century date of John's gospel within the apostolic period. Likewise numerous geographical and topographical allusions in the fourth gospel have been vindicated against the critical charge of adaptations or later pure inventions.

     [See the present writer’s The Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Amazing Archaeological Discoveries 1957, pp. 1-50. F. F. Bruce, Second Thoughts on the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1956. W. F. Albright, The Bible After Twenty Years of Archaeology, Religion in Life, XXI, 4 (1952), pp 547-550.]

     [Cf. W. F. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine, 1949, pp. 244-249.]

     The Bodmer Papyrus Manuscript of John (dating from about 200 A.D. and preserving most of the gospel of John) is another recent phenomenal discovery that bears on the date and text of the fourth gospel1 8 and is as spectacular in its own right as the discoveries from Qumran and other places in the Dead Sea area. This early manuscript, for example, omits the account of the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53-8:11) as well as the troublesome incident of the moving of the waters at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:3b-4). There is, moreover, no mark or hint that either scribe or corrector knew of anything additional belonging at these two points in the text. Thus it apparently is growing increasingly evident that these two passages were not a part of the original writing. This manuscript also substantiates the reading God (theos) rather than Son (huios) in John 1:18.

     Also of unparalleled significance is the Gospel According to Thomas included in the thirteen papyrus volumes discovered in 1945 in Upper Egypt. These have yielded the text of a new collection of the sayings attributed to Jesus and have been transmitted with a prologue by an editor named "Didimus Jude Thomas." This collection includes a number of completely new parables and shorter sayings of Jesus and promises to be of far reaching importance in the study of the sources of the gospels. [The Gospel According to Thomas translated from the Coptic by A. Guillamont, Henri-Charles Puech, Gilles Quispel, Walter Till and Abd Al Masih (New York, 1959): see Chapters IV, pp. 92, 93 for a full discussion.]

     Another example of archaeology's role in balancing New Testament criticism is the abandonment of the often-made claims that Christianity was highly influenced by the mystery religions. In the hey day of the religionsgeschichtliche Schule, this was a popular contention. However, discoveries of the past generation in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt have caused the pendulum to swing back to a more balanced position and have gone far to demonstrate the uniqueness of early Christianity as a historical phenomenon. Instead of Christianity turning out to be only one of many various sects of similar nature which professedly proliferated in the eastern part of the Roman Empire in the first century A.D., as was the contention in former decades, it appears as a unique historical phenomenon, like the religion of Israel which preceded it.

Excavations in Bible lands have uncovered no documents or buildings belonging to such alleged sects. Dura on the Euphrates has yielded heathen temples, a Christian chapel, a Jewish synagogue, a Mithraeum, as well as fragments of Jewish and Christian writings, but nothing has turned up belonging to any other comparable religious group. Numberless synagogues, churches, and pagan temples have been found in Syria and Palestine, but there is a conspicuous absence of other religious structures. Egypt has yielded early written evidence of Jewish, Christian, and pagan religion. It has preserved works of Manichaean and other Gnostic sects, but these are all considerably later than the rise of Christianity. The total array of archaeological evidence thus presents the Christian faith as unique as a historical phenomenon, like the faith of Israel that preceded it and formed the indispensable introduction to it.

3. Archaeology Illustrates and Explains

the New Testament

     Perhaps the most striking example of this contribution of archaeology again comes from the papyri. The great mass of documents in the vernacular Greek which has come to light in ever-increasing quantity, besides illustrating New Testament language and literature, expands the horizons of biblical history, furnishing vastly augmented knowledge of the life of the common people of the Hellenistic-Roman era in Egypt as well as elsewhere in the Graeco-Roman world. Economic, cultural and social conditions of the New Testament period are now much better understood.

     Since 1930 exciting papyri finds from the second century A.D., including a whole library of lost Gnostic literature from the third and fourth centuries discovered since 1945 at Chenoboskion (Nag Hammadi) in Upper Egypt, supply invaluable information concerning Christianity. It is now evident that the Gnostics of the early Church had stranger and more pernicious doctrines than critical scholarship had formerly attributed to them. The new material shows how unsustained such criticism was in attempting to identify Gnostic tenets with the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. Besides it gives point to numerous solemn New Testament warnings against such dangerous doctrinal aberrations.

     To cite other examples of archaeological illustration and elucidation, diggings at various places may be mentioned. Excavations at New Testament Jericho since 1950 have facilitated the understanding of the biblical references. [Cf. Matthew 20:29; Mark 10:46; Luke 10:30; 18:35; 19:1.] The forum of the Roman city with a grand facade facing the Wadi Quelt has been uncovered. At Delphi an inscription has been found which makes possible to date the arrival of the proconsul Gallio at Corinth in the summer of A.D. 51 and to conclude that Paul came to the city at the beginning of A.D. 50. The Rome of Paul's time has been revealed by excavation showing temples, theatres, forum, aqueducts and other sites doubtless familiar to the Apostle.

     Corinth, Athens, Philippi, Ephesus and other cities evangelized by Paul are now much better known as a result of archaeological excavation. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (Acts 19:27) came to light after long search. The theatre is also now known, although the remains probably date later than Paul's time. Palestine of Christ and the whole Graeco-Roman world of Paul and the apostles are put in a new light by archaeological research and lend the evidence they furnish to the illustration and elucidation of the pages of the New Testament.

4. Archaeology Supplements the New Testament

     An example is furnished by added light on the important era from the accession of Herod the Great (B.C. 37) to the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans (A.D. 70). This period is now far better known as a result of archaeological research than it was in the nineteenth century. Since then many gaps in our information have happily been filled in. Most significant of the discoveries affecting the environment of Jesus, John the Baptist and the early apostles are the dead Sea Scrolls. These valuable documents, especially the recovered literature of the Essene-type of sect which flourished at Qumran in the wilderness area near the Dead Sea southwest of Jericho since 1947, have revolutionized knowledge of sectarian Judaism of the time and have set forth in clear focus the pre-Gnostic milieu of thought and language in which Jesus and John the Baptist grew up. [Cf. F. F. Bruce, Second Thoughts on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Grand Rapids, 1955), pp. 123-137.]

     Another illustration of archaeology's ability to fill in gaps in historical knowledge is found in the evidence it affords of the thoroughness of the interruption not only of Jewish communal life in Palestine as a result of the First Revolt of A.D. 66-70 but of the Christian communities as well. The completeness of the catastrophe involved in the destruction of Jerusalem is seen in the fact that not a single synagogue of the early Roman period has apparently survived. Known synagogues date to the end of the second century A.D. or later. Contrary to common contention, Jewish communal life was not resumed at Jerusalem. Not a single one of the numerous Jewish tombs in the region of Jerusalem can be dated to the period after A.D. 70. All inscribed ossuaries hitherto found in the vicinity of Jerusalem belong to the period 30 B.C. to 70 A.D.

     Christians suffered even more than the rest of the Jewish population of Palestine, since they were indiscriminately treated as Jews by their pagan neighbors and persecuted by Jews as well. Before the last Roman invasion of Judaea, the Christian remnant fled from Jerusalem to Pella. Understanding the scope of the disaster that befell Jerusalem, which archaeology helps to make clear, has important bearings on New Testament criticism and on New Testament interpretation as well. [Cf. W. F. Albright, Archaeology of Palestine (1949), p. 424.]

5. Archaeology Authenticates the New Testament

     Since the background of the New Testament is recorded in the contemporary history of the Graeco-Roman world, of which there exists a fair knowledge, classical historians and critics have always been tempted to measure swords with the New Testament in the matter of its historical, geographical, and literary authenticity. While difficulties still persist, archaeology has in numerous cases vindicated the New Testament, particularly Luke. [Cf. A. T. Robertson, Luke the Historian in the Light of Research 920), pp. 1-241.] The Acts of the Apostles is now generally agreed in scholarly circles to be the work of Luke, to belong to the first century, and to involve the labors of a careful historian who was substantially accurate in his use of sources. Attempts to impugn Luke's reliability have constantly been made, but most of these have been rendered futile by light from the monuments of antiquity and the archaeologist's spade. [Cf. the works of Sir William Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen (1897); the Cities of St. Paul (1907, reprint 1949), The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament (4^th ed. 1920, reprint 1953).]

     The role which archaeology is performing in New Testament research (as well as that of the Old Testament) in expediting scientific study, balancing critical theory, illustrating, elucidating, supplementing and authenticating historical and cultural backgrounds, constitutes the one bright spot in the future of criticism of the Sacred Oracles. The unanswerable evidence of the archaeologist's spade is bound not only to make Scripture better understood on the human plane, but also better respected on the same plane by scholars who will not recognize the supernatural in history and whose only creed is pure science.

LITERATURE ON THE ROLE OF ARCHAEOLOGY

IN THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

     Cadbury, H. 4m, The Present State of New Testament Studies" in The Haverford Symposium in Archaeology and the Bible, 1938, pp. 78-110.

     ________, "Current Issues in New Testament Studies' in Harvard Divinity School Bulletin (1954) 49-64.

     Howard, W. F., "A Survey of New Testament Studies During Half a Century—1901-1950" in London Quarterly and Holborn Review CLXXVII (1952), pp. 6-16.

     Stauffer, Ethelbert, "Der Stand der Neutestamentlichen Forschung" in Theologie and Liturgie, 1952, pp. 35-105.

     Sukenik, E. L., The Earliest Records of Christianity, 1947.

     Kenyon, Sir Frederic, Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, 1940.

     Dalman, Gustav, Sacred Sites and Ways, 1935.

     Styger, Paul, Die Roemischen Katakomben, 1933.

     Crowfoot, J. W., Early Churches in Palestine, 1941.

     Metzger, Bruce, Annotated Bibliography o f the Textual Criticism o f the New Testament, 1955.

     Boulton, W. H., Archaeology Explained (London, 1952).

Chapter 2—From Alexander the Great to Herod the Great—The Foundation of New Testament Political and Cultural History

Shortly before 400 B.C. the Old Testament period ended. The four centuries intervening until the rise of the New Testament era are sometimes called the "Four Hundred Silent Years," since according to conservative criticism, divine inspiration was in abeyance and no canonical Scripture was produced. Liberal critics, on the other hand, commonly place Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles about 250 B.C., many of the Psalms, Proverbs, and the book of Daniel in the Maccabean age, and Esther even later-about 125 B.C. Zechariah 9-14 is placed around 200 B.C., as well as Ecclesiastes, Canticles, and Jonah. The collection of Isaiah and the addition of "Second Isaiah" are put between 300-200 B.C. Spacious arguments are advanced for the late dating of these books, but unanswerable proof is lacking for placing any of them later than 400 B.C. [For the late-date arguments see Bernhard W. Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament (Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1957); Henry Pfeiffer, Old Testament Introduction (New York, 1941) pp. 812, 830, 765, 742. Frank Knight Sanders, History of the Hebrews (New York, 1928), pp. 310-317; J. Bewer, The Literature of the Old Testament (New York, 1933) ; Otto Eissfeldt, Enleitung in das Alte Testament (Tuebingen, 1934); Aage Bentzen, Introduction to the Old Testament (2 vols., 1949). For presentation of the early dating arguments see J. F. Steinmueller, A Companion to Scripture Studies (2 vols., 1942); E. J. Young, An Introduction to the Old Testament (1949 rev. ed., 1958); Merrill F. Unger, Introductory Guide to the Old Testament (2nd ed., 1956).]

     Although this period under conservative criticism, constituted an extended hiatus as far as revelation and inspiration in the canonical sense are concerned, it nevertheless witnessed the rise of an important body of extra-canonical literature of vast importance to the background of the New Testament, called the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. This body of literature furnishes an indispensable introduction to the understanding of the times and the advent of the New Testament era. The political, social, religious, and moral conditions that constitute the cultural background of New Testament history had their origin and development during these intertestamental centuries.

     With the fall of the Chaldean Empire in 539 R.C., imperial sway passed out of the hands of the Semites. The Persian, Greek, and Roman empires of the interbiblical period were ruled by Indo Europeans or Aryans. The vast Persian imperial power which dominated the ancient biblical world from 539 B.C. to 331 R.C. witnessed the consummation of the Old Testament period as well as the commencement and considerable development of the interbiblical period. Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, which was being ruled by Nabonidus and the crown prince Belshazzar, in 539. Cambyses his son (530-522) conquered Egypt. Darius I (522-486) advanced against Greece, but was defeated at Marathon in 490. Xerxes I or Ahasuerus (486-465) likewise attempted to conquer the Greek states, but was effectually repulsed at Thermopylae and Salamis in 480.

     With the reign of Artaxerxes 1 (465-424) the interbiblical period began and developed under Xerxes I (424-423), Darius II (423-404), Artaxerxes II (404-358), Artaxerxes III (358-338), Arses (338-336) and Darius III (336-331).

     During this long period of Persian dominance, Judaea was a part of the empire, which was divided into provinces called satrapies, each administered by a Persian governor called a satrap. Palestine fell within the boundaries of the Fifth Persian satrapy, with capital located at Damascus or Samaria. [J. McKee Adams, Biblical Backgrounds (Nashville, 1934), p. 287.]

I. ALEXANDER'S REMARKABLE CAREER OF CONQUEST

     With the rise of Philip I of Macedon (359-336), the power of Greece began to be consolidated. The battle of Chaeronea (338) brought to an end the autonomy of the individual Greek city-states. The death of Philip in 336 set the stage for the phenomenal rise to power of his son Alexander. Becoming king of Macedonia, Alexander commandeered the respect of all Greece by pitilessly destroying the Greek city of Thebes that dared to revolt against his authority. [James H. Breasted, The Conquest of Civilization (New York, 1926), p. 431. For a comprehensive study of Alexander’s career, see C. A. Robinson, Alexander the Great (New York, 1947); W. W. Tarn, Alexander the Great, 2 vols. (Cambridge University Press, 1948).] Promptly the various city-states formed a league, appointed him as its leader and general, and dispatched soldiers to augment his army. Sagaciously Alexander assumed the role of champion against Asia and punisher of Persia for invading Greece in the days of Xerxes, a century and a half earlier.

1. Alexander's Lightning-like Triumphs

     In 334 B.C. Alexander invaded the East with a formidable army, accompanied by a distinguished retinue of philosophers, writers, and scientists. At the river Granicus, which flows into the Hellespont, he clashed with the Persian forces of the western satraps. Both militarily and psychologically a decisive victory was won. The Persian army was not only scattered, but the superiority of the Greek cavalry was demonstrated.

     The mighty Persian Empire began to split apart. City after city in Western Asia began to yield to Alexander without opposition. [R. W. Rogers, A History of Ancient Persia (New York, 1929), pp. 272, 273.] Pushing on through the Cilician Gates, Alexander advanced on the Plains of Issus at the northeast corner of the Mediterranean. There in 333 B.C. he defeated the main Persian army under the personal command of Darius III (336-331), who barely escaped with his life.

     In 1831 in the ruins of ancient Pompeii, a mosaic in colored glass was recovered depicting Alexander's spear piercing a nobleman who was protecting Darius as the routed Persians were desperately endeavoring to take Darius from the field of battle at Issus. [See Breasted, op. cit., p. 432, figure 169.] Little wonder this famous and decisive battle should be thus commemorated, for it changed the course of world history and opened Syria-Palestine, Egypt, and the East as far as India to Greek conquest and the influence of Greek culture.

2. Alexander in Phoenicia

     From Issus Alexander marched south into Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Egypt. Cities like Aradus, Byblus, and Sidon surrendered without resistance. Tyre, however, stoutly opposed on the grounds of neutrality in the Graeco-Persian conflict when Alexander demanded permission to enter the city and offer worship at the temple of the god Melkart. At this rebuff Alexander began the siege of the city that was to require an immense amount of work in building a mole out into the water to storm the walls of the island town, in addition to raising a navy of some 220 war ships from the kings of Aradus and Byblus and from the island of Cyprus. The mole or land bridge was constructed of cedar logs from Lebanon as piles and with the debris of the old land city of Tyre which previously had been destroyed by the army of Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.) in a thirteen-year siege (585-573). After seven months, the mole was brought up to the island, the walls were broken through and the city fell, strikingly fulfilling Ezekiel's prophecy that the stones, timber, and dust of Tyre would be laid "in the midst of the water" (Ezekiel 26:12).

3. Alexander in Palestine

     The taking of Tyre was a feat, like his successes at Granicus and Issus, which immeasurably increased Alexander's prestige. The celebrated conqueror continued down the coast of Phoenicia and Palestine receiving the homage of city after city he encountered until he came to the redoubtable fortress city of Gaza in southern Palestine. Lying somewhat inland from the ancient coastal town whose harbor had silted up, the city of Alexander's day, constructed on a foundation more than sixty feet high with massive walls of defense, was beyond the reach of Greek siege machines and practically impregnable. Not to be frustrated, Alexander constructed a huge mound twelve hundred feet wide at the base and 200 feet high. From the man-made elevation his siege engines were able to break down the wall and take the city.

     The two-month siege yielded rich rewards in further increase in prestige, vast quantities of food and supplies, consolidation of his control of Palestine, and an open road of access to Egypt.

     Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century A.D., recounts a story, otherwise unsubstantiated except by the Jewish Talmud, to the effect that after the fall of Gaza, Alexander visited Jerusalem, received the high priest Jaddua in a friendly manner, read the prophecies of Daniel concerning himself, and offered sacrifice to God in the temple at Jerusalem. [Antiquities of the Jews, translated by W. Whiston, Book XI, chapter VIII, 4, p. 282.] While Josephus apparently appends melodramatic details, there is no ground for denying the historicity of Josephus' main statement. As Israel Abrams has pointed out, the visionary aspects of Alexander's alleged Jerusalem visit both in Josephus and the Talmud, although these sources disagree in detail, are eminently true to Alexander's character as a visionary. [Israel Abrams, The Campaigns in Palestine from Alexander the Great, The Schweich Lectures, 1922 (London, The British Academy, 1927), pp. 10-12.] Plutarch as well as Arrian give abundant evidence of the visionary nature of Alexander's temperament, which would make his Jerusalem visit conform to type. [Abrams, Ibidem.]

     The old-line argument against the authenticity of Josephus' account that the Greek historians leave no loophole for a digression to Jerusalem has been shown to be untenable. The critical argument assumes that as soon as Gaza fell, Alexander proceeded by a seven-day forced march to Pelusium, leaving no room for an excursion into the Judaean hill country. A correct interpretation of Arrian, however, reveals that when Alexander removed his army from Gaza to Egypt, the march was rapid. But he did not leave Gaza immediately upon its fall. On the contrary, there was much to be done before he quitted the place. As Abrams says, ". . . there is nothing in Arrian or Curtius to imply that time failed for such an experience as Josephus describes." [Abrams, Ibidem.]

4. Alexander in Egypt

     With Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine well under his control, Alexander pushed on into Egypt, arriving in Pelusium in the northeastern .Delta. From there he went to Memphis in the southern Delta to worship at the shrine of the Apis-bull cult and win the goodwill of the Egyptians. In his advance to the northwestern part of the Delta, he selected a site for the city of Alexandria to be founded to perpetuate his fame. Little could he know the wisdom of his choice or visualize the vast growth and importance of this city and its prominent role in the development of both Judaism and Christianity.

     While army engineers were proceeding with plans for the new metropolis, Alexander visited the famous temple of the ancient and widely-venerated Egyptian moon god, Amon, located deep in the heart of the desert, now known as the Oasis of Siwa. As he came out of the desert sanctuary, he was styled by the high priest of the cult as the son of Zeus-Amon. [Breasted, op. cit., p. 440. For a study of Alexander’s conquests, see F. M. Abel, “Alexandre le Grand en Syrie et en Palestine” in Revue biblique 43 (1934), pp. 528-545; 44 (1935), pp. 42-61; T. Birt, Alexander der Grosse und das Welt-griechentum [1928); E. Schrer, Geschichte des jdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi I, 4 (1901), pp. 31-111; 165-210; III, 4 (1909), 192-202; B. Niese, Geschicte der grieschicshen und makedonischen Staaten (1893-1903).] The whole episode was a part of Alexander's plan to attach the idea of deity to his person to emphasize his phenomenal career of conquest.

5. Alexander at Gaugamela

     Alexander left Egypt in the spring of 331 B.C., retracing his course up the Palestinian and Phoenician coast to Tyre. From there he advanced up the Orontes Valley to Antioch and then north and east ward across the Euphrates and Tigris to clash with Darius on the plain of Gaugamela, 75 miles from Arbela on the great Persian royal road which connected Sardis in Asia Minor with Susa, one of the capitals of the Empire. As at Issus, Alexander's forces overwhelmed the obsolete Persian army. Once again Darius was put to ignominious flight, only to be stabbed to death a short while later by a treacherous attendant.

6. Alexander in India and His Death

     The decisive battle at Gaugamela made Alexander complete master of Persia. Susa, Ecbatana, and Persepolis were at his mercy. At Persepolis he set fire to the palace of the Persian kings with his own hand. His ardor for conquest led him farther eastward to cross the Indus to the frontiers of India. Not until he descended the Indus and touched the waters of the Indian Ocean did he resume the severe journey homeward, arriving in Babylon in 323 B.C.

     But the grueling marches and immoderate drinking of the great conqueror extorted their toll. After a brief illness, Alexander died an untimely death at the age of thirty-three at Babylon in 323 B.C., at the zenith of his career.

II. THE RESULTS OF ALEXANDER'S CONQUESTS IN THE

HELLENIZATION OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

     The military successes of Alexander had remarkable and far-reaching effects on the political and cultural complexion of the ancient world that set the stage for the formation of the Graeco-Roman society of the first century A.D. and prepared the way for the eventual appearance of the New Testament revelation.

1. Division o f Alexander's Empire and Resulting Political Picture

     Alexander's sudden death precipitated a struggle for power among his generals. Seleucus, whose successors were known as the Seleucids with their center at Antioch, gained control of Mesopotamia and Syria, a sizeable slice of the territory that had comprised the Persian Empire. Ptolemy, whose line was known as the Ptolemies with its headquarters in Alexandria, came into possession of Egypt. These two Hellenistic empires which emerged from Alexander's empire took definite shape from the first and were most vitally and intimately to affect Jewish inter-biblical history and the background of the New Testament era.

     In the unsettled conditions that resulted upon Alexander's death, a third Hellenistic empire emerged by 277 B.C. This was Macedonia under Antigonus Gonatus (277-239 B.C.). This imperial line continued until Perseus (179-168 B.C. ), when Macedonia came under Roman influence and was made a Roman province in 146 B.C. The Greek cities resisted Macedonian domination and made alliance with Rome until Rome gradually took over Greece and it became a province (27 B.C.).

     Several smaller kingdoms emerged from Alexander's realm. Pergamum in Asia Minor continued under the Attalid dynasty until Attalus III (139-133), who willed his kingdom to Rome. Bithynia on 'the Black Sea in Asia Minor was founded by Ziboetes (327-c. 279 B.C. ) and Nicomedes I (c. 279-c. 250 B.C.) and continued until Nicomedes 111 (94-74 B.C.), who, like Attalus III of Pergamum, willed his rule to Rome.

     Other kingdoms of Asia Minor were Pontus on the Black Sea and Galatia on the Halys River, which was settled by Gauls about 278 B.C. and passed on to Rome in 25 B.C. at the decease of Amyntas. Pontus was ruled by the Mithridatids, commencing with Mithridates I (336301 B.C.) and dominated by Rome by the middle of the first century B.C.

     Another important political entity that ultimately emerged from Alexander's empire was Parthia. Traditionally, under Arsaces the rule of the Seleucids was cast off. From about 247 B.C. the Parthian era began with an expanding empire that gradually extended from the Euphrates River to the frontiers of India. By 53 B.C. the Parthians threatened to engulf Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor after they defeated the Roman Crassus. In 40 B.C. they actually invaded Jerusalem, but in 38-39 B.C. Rome's might effectually repelled them, so that they were no longer a menace, although their kingdom continued with declining power until A.D. 224.

2. Alexander and the Dissemination of Hellenic Culture

     It was not accidental that the golden age of Greek learning and philosophy immediately preceded the unification of the Greek states under Philip of Macedon and the world conquests of Alexander. Greek art and literature reached their peak of efflorescence before being spread far and wide to form the cultural background of the interbiblical period and the New Testament world. Pericles flourished (460-429 B.C.), Herodotus, "the father of history," traveled and wrote (c. 484-425 B.C.). The great philosophers and logicians, Socrates (c. 470-399), Plato (c. 428-348 B.C.) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) produced their great masterpieces that were to affect the intellectual and philosophical climate of the Graeco-Roman age and all subsequent generations as well.

     In addition, the Greek language was to undergo a process of popularization and dissemination that was to prepare it to be a suitable vehicle for the writing of the New Testament as a universal revelation of truth intended for the whole world. [See Chapter 18.] Alexander's army brought together recruits from the various city-states. Differences in dialect and orthography tended to vanish as soldiers from various parts of Greece and Macedonia, who had hitherto fought only in the isolated regiments of their own home states, now mingled freely and fought side by side in a common army. The resulting popularized language was carried rapidly into distant conquered lands to form eventually a lingua franca spoken throughout the Mediterranean world. This lingua franca was vitally to affect the Jews of the Diaspora and eventuate in the translation of the Old Testament Scriptures into the common Greek of the day. This Greek translation in turn was to become an important factor in the formation of the New Testament, as well as with it, the Bible of early Christianity.

     Since Alexander's dream was to establish a world kingdom in which Greek and Oriental culture were to be wedded, Macedonian and Greek colonists followed in the footsteps of the victorious army.

     Thus philosophically and artistically Greek thought and customs spread by Alexander were to be instrumental in fashioning the religious and intellectual thought of Judaism in the inter-biblical period as well as in exerting a strong influence on Christian life and activity. The seeds of Hellenic culture scattered far and wide by Alexander's armies were to bear abundant harvest by the time of Jesus, Paul, and the other apostles. The process was one of many in preparing for "the fullness of the time" when God sent forth His Son (Galatians 5:4). Alexander, the pagan, in a sense had as definite and far-reaching a purpose in preparing the way for Christianity as Paul, the Christian, did in preaching and propagating it.

     Everywhere the Apostle to the Gentiles went in the Graeco-Roman world, he found that Hellenic culture had gone before him to prepare the way for' the reception of the Gospel of grace he proclaimed. He also discovered that the Judaism of the Diaspora and the far-flung synagogue in the Hellenic cities of Syria, Asia Minor, and Europe formed the bridge between the spiritual truths of Christianity and the heart of a godless paganism he was seeking to evangelize. In short, the message which had had its foundations in the revealed Hebrew Scriptures of an Oriental people, who were intensively exclusive and un-cosmopolitan, was now broadened and liberated for an entire world outreach and ministry. And the world-transforming events which were to set the stage for this momentous event in the history of civilization required more than three and a half centuries from the time of Alexander the Great to Paul.

III. HELLENISM AND THE JEWS UNDER THE PTOLEMIES

     The New Testament in its formative background contains two fundamental elements-the Hebraic and the Greek-which in the course of pre-Christian centuries combined in its production as a document of universal human appeal. The Hebraic element is, of course, much the older of the two. It goes back to the earliest Old Testament times (since the New Testament is erected upon the foundation of the Old Testament), has its source and significance in the Old Testament, and is an unfolding of its meaning and a fulfillment of its prophecy. Hence the New Testament quotes from the Old Testament, employs Old Testament figures and symbols, uses Old Testament typology, claims fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, and attests its unity with the Old Testament as the consummating revelation of the divine plan of redemption incipiently unfolded there.

     But the New Testament, although written by Jews (in the main if not indeed in its entirety) is not Jewish, nor written in Hebrew, nor intended for Jews (as the Old Testament was) but is universal and slanted for all, imparting, since its appearance, a universality to the Old Testament which it never had until it became the indispensable introduction to the New Testament and its inseparable counterpart.

     The element that was to bridge the gap between the isolationism of Judaism in the Old Testament to the universality of Christianity in the New was the Greek. The Greek language and Greek culture in the inter-biblical period were to interact with Hebrew theology and thought in four centuries of preparation not only for the coming Redeemer but for the written revelation that was to follow upon the consummation of His redemptive career. Only as it is perceived how Hellenism (the adoption of Greek language and customs) came in contact with and sometimes in collision with Judaism (for there was much in the former that was pagan and polluting as well as admirable and cultural) in the period between the Old Testament and the New can the background of the New Testament be understood and the nature of its message and the universality of its appeal be comprehended.

1. Ptolemy I Soter (323-283 B.C.)

     Fortunately, upon Alexander's death Egypt and Palestine came under the rule of one of the most prudent and enlightened of Alexander's successors, Ptolemy I Soter. This able general founded a dynasty of Graeco-Egyptian kings which ruled Palestine until 198 B.C., and Egypt until its subjugation by Rome in 31 B.C. Though "Ptolemy" was the common, it was not the exclusive name of the kings of this line. They are better distinguished, therefore, by the surname Lagidae, from Ptolemaeus Lagus, Ptolemy's Greek name.

     Ptolemy I adopted a liberal policy toward the Jewish people. He brought many thousands of them from Palestine to Alexandria, conferring full political and religious privileges upon them, and showed them other favors. He raised Alexandria to the highest rank of commercial prosperity and cultural progress. He himself had a reputation in letters and wrote an account of the campaigns of Alexander that was used as an authoritative source by Arrian, the celebrated Greek historian of the second century A.D. [His Anabasis of Alexander the Great is still extant and has appeared in various editions.] Ptolemy was, in addition, a distinguished patron of literature, art, and science, and founded the famous library and museum of Alexandria. The special place this cosmopolitan metropolis took in philosophy, literature, and politics in subsequent times was in large measure due to the colony of Jews Ptolemy I founded in his capital city.

2. Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.) and the Septuagint

     Ptolemy II, called Philadelphus, continued the beneficent attitude of his father toward the Jews. Under his aggressive political and commercial policies, they prospered economically and socially. As a result of his munificent patronage of the arts and sciences, they enjoyed a cultural efflorescence. He spared no pains to fill the library of Alexandria with all the treasures of ancient literature. Under his auspices, tradition contends, the Old Testament Scriptures were translated into Greek as the wider cultural language of the time.

     According to the letter of Aristeas, [See H. T. Andrews in Pseudepigrapha (R. H. Charles, Oxford, 1913), pp. 83-122. R. H. Pfeiffer, History of New Testament Times, (New York, 1949), p. 224f.] some of the details of which are not critically above suspicion, Ptolemy's librarian suggested to his royal patron the importance of having a Greek rendering of the law of the Hebrews made for the library. The idea, it is said, pleased the king, who dispatched an embassage with rich gifts to the high priest at Jerusalem imploring him to send a copy of the Torah with scholars to translate it into the Greek tongue. The result was the Septuaginta,

or rendering of the "Seventy" Jewish scholars from the twelve tribes, now known as the Septuagint.

     From this tradition it may safely be affirmed that the Law was first rendered about 260 B.C. or somewhat earlier, in the reign of Ptolemy 11, to meet the liturgical needs of the Greek-speaking Jews at Alexandria and of the Diaspora in general, with the other Old Testament books following in the succeeding century. Moreover, the Septuagint was a vital influence in Alexandrian Judaism and philosophy for several centuries. Most significant of all, it released the great revealed truths of creation, redemption, sin, and salvation from the narrow isolationism of the Hebrew language and people and made them available to the world through the providentially prepared vehicle of the Greek lingua franca of the times. In performing this task, it bridged the chasm between Hebrew and the Greek-speaking peoples of the ancient world, spanning the gap between Oriental and Occidental cultures. [Merrill F. Unger, Introductory Guide to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, 2^nd ed., 1956), p. 156.]

     In this significant way the Septuagint constituted a preparation for the advent of Christianity by releasing the Hebrew Old Testament in the same international tongue in which the New Testament was destined to appear. The far-reaching result of this in the history of redemption was that the completed divine revelation became available to all men in the one cosmopolitan tongue of the period. The Greek New Testament in course of time was to share with the Greek Old Testament the momentous ministry of presenting revealed truth to the peoples of that age. Before the New Testament appeared, the Greek Old Testament was the Bible of early Christianity. After the New Testament was written, it was added to the Septuagint to constitute the completed Scriptures of Christianity.

3. Hellenism and the Jews from Ptolemy III Euergetes (247-222 B.C.) to

the Wane of Egyptian Power Over Palestine

     The Ptolemies of Egypt were able to control Palestine for upwards of a century. During this period the Jews were happy and prosperous. Judaism both in its native Palestine as well as in Alexandria, Egypt, its chief center outside Palestine, was able to develop its distinctive aspects and crystallize its tenets against the background of Hellenistic thought. At the same time in Palestine it had opportunity to fortify itself against what was to turn out to be a violent collision with Hellenizing forces.

     In Alexandria it was impossible that Judaism could remain unaffected, at least in degree, by Hellenic thought and institutions. But the natural conflict between Judaism and Hellenism did not become acute. The Jews there, enjoying political autonomy, kept their religious and commercial life distinct. However, on Palestinian soil the situation was different. The temple at Jerusalem and the whole system of Jewish worship were so inextricably bound up with every phase of Jewish daily life and so inexorably regulated by rigid ecclesiastical traditionalism that adamant resistance to the cultural and social pressures of Hellenistic thought and customs was produced. It was inevitable that trouble would arise if ever the attempt was made, as was done under Seleucid rulers, who followed the Ptolemies, to use force to impose Hellenism upon the Jews of Palestine. [For a discussion of the broad aspects of this problem, see W. O. S. Oesterley, The Jews and Judaism During the Greek Period—The Background of Christianity (London, 1941).]

4. Archaeology and the Ptolemaic Control of Palestine

     Archaeology has furnished abundant evidence from coins and pottery that many of the excavated sites were occupied during the era the Ptolemies of Egypt ruled Palestine. But there is a notable poverty of architectural remains in Palestine and Syria from the whole Hellenistic period, as compared to a wealth of such monuments in Asia Minor and Egypt.

     The most important monuments of this period are the remarkable painted tombs of Marisa, north of Beth Gubrin (Eleutheropolis) on the road to Gaza, dated from the second half of the third century B.C. Discovered about 1902, these caves had been excavated for the heads of a Sidonian colony established there and beautifully painted with accompanying inscriptions and graffiti in Greek. They are thus of considerable historical value, giving much information on the life and religion of the Edomite settlement in southern Judah. Later, in the Maccabaean Age, John Hyrcanus conquered and forcibly converted the Idumaeans to Judaism. Still later, Antipater, the father of Herod the Great, was governor of Idumaea. The paintings at Marisa are a welcome archaeological sidelight of this period when the Jews at Jerusalem in Palestine and Alexandria in Egypt enjoyed the beneficent rule of their Hellenistic Egyptian overlords.

IV. HELLENISM AND THE JEWS UNDER THE SELEUCIDS

     The Seleucids of Syria had constantly desired Palestine. They had fought with Ptolemy Philadelphus and Ptolemy Euergetes, but unsuccessfully. Ptolemy IV Philopator (222-205 B.C.) had held Antiochus III in check, but his successor, Ptolemy V Epiphanes (205-182 B.C.), was unable to do so. Antiochus III (223-187 B.C.), now a renowned conqueror, in 198 R.C. succeeded in expelling the Egyptians and annexing Palestine to the Seleucid empire. By this turn of events the Jews became losers and were soon to find themselves struggling for their religious institutions and the faith of their fathers in the violent attempt of their Seleucid overlords to enforce submission to pagan customs and the Hellenistic way of life.

1. Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.) and Enforced

Hellenization of the Jews

     Inheriting the fierce desire of his grandfather, Antiochus III, to retaliate against the Romans for curbing his sphere of conquest, Antiochus Epiphanes ("The Illustrious") planned to organize a pan Hellenic league uniting all Greek-speaking peoples of Asia and Africa against Rome. Conceiving an intense dislike for the Jews of Judaea, he determined to destroy their ancestral religious faith and to completely Hellenize them (169-167 B.C.). His fearful atrocities drew out their dauntless courage and enabled them to write in blood and death one of the most glorious chapters of their history.

     Antiochus sacked Jerusalem, murdered thousands of the inhabitants, settled many Greeks and renegade Jews in the city, profaned the sanctuary, and offered sacrifices to Olympian Zeus on the altar of burnt offering. This gross act of sacrilege proved to the Jews that Antiochus was bent on destroying Judaism and substituting pagan culture in its place.

2. The Rise of the Maccabees

     The standard of revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes was raised by Mattathias, an aged priest, and his five heroic sons who were residing at Modin, a village some twenty miles northwest of Jerusalem at the extreme corner of Judea. They were of the family of Hasmon. When offered handsome rewards if he and his sons would comply with the commands of Antiochus, Mattathias not only refused but with a show of valor that precipitated a courageous war for independence, struck dead a neighbor who stepped forward to make a pagan sacrifice, as well as the commissioner of Antiochus.

     Judas Maccabaeus, Mattathias' eldest son, organized a guerilla army of patriots and took to the mountains to fight the well-trained Syrian armies. He was often outnumbered six to one, but was aided by Hellenized Jewish spies. In a series of victories (167-165 D.C.) he routed the Syrian armies, cleansed and rededicated the temple, reestablishing the regular worship. This was marked by great rejoicing and the introduction of an annual festival known as the Feast of Lights or Dedication, still observed by the Jews.

3. Archaeology and the Seleucids

     One of the most interesting monuments from this era is the mausoleum of the Tobiad family, discovered at Araq el-Emir, not far from present-day Amman in central Transjordan. This ruling dynasty was founded by Tobiah, the Ammonite governor who allied himself with Sanballat, the governor of Samaria, in opposing Nehemiah's work in restoring the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:10; 4:3, 7; 6:1-19). The mausoleum at Araq el-Emir is inscribed in Aramaic of the third century R.C., bearing the name Tobiah, evidently the descendant of Nehemiah's foe and who, like his ancestor two centuries earlier, was governor of Amman. Not far from the tomb is an edifice whose architectural details done in vigorous Hellenistic style place it in the time of Hyrcanus, the last of the Tobiads, who was active on the eve of the Maccabaean age. The Tobiad family lost its prestige when the Seleucids overran Palestine and Antiochus Epiphanes launched his mad plan of forcible Hellenization of the inhabitants. [See W. F. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine (Pelican Books, 1949), p. 149f.] The excavations of J. W. Crowfoot at Samaria in 1931-1933, continuing the earlier work of the Harvard expedition of 1908-1910, have brought to light Hellenistic tower fortifications, the oldest of which were built along the line of the casemated wall of Israelite times. These towers have been assigned an early Hellenistic date, and Albright assigns them to the period immediately following Alexander the Greats’ death, between 323-321 B.C., when Perdiccas, one of Alexander's generals, rebuilt Samaria, according to Eusebius. About a century and a half later, apparently during the Seleucid-Maccabaean Wars, a massive fortress with walls four meters thick was constructed at Samaria. [Albright, op. cit., p. 150.] Numerous coins of Seleucid rulers have been recovered in various cities of Palestine-Syria, especially at Bethzur in southern Judaea on the borders of Idumaea. Some coins bear the names of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.) and his son Antiochus Eupator (164-162 B.C.).

V. HELLNISM AND THE JEWS UNDER THE HASMONAEANS

     Judas' great victories over the Syrian armies (167-165 B.C. ), however, did not end the struggle with Hellenic paganism. The citadel at Jerusalem was still in Syrian hands, and Antiochus V Eupator sent a huge army to Jerusalem, defeated Judas and almost ended the Maccabean struggle, had not complications at the Syrian capital of Antioch made withdrawal necessary. But before retiring Antiochus V concluded a treaty with Judas allowing full religious liberty to the Jews, and appointed a pro-Hellenic high priest named Alcimus to office. This man, however, Judas refused to allow to function.

     Meanwhile, Alcimus fled to Antioch to complain to the new king, Demetrius, who dispatched an army which was twice defeated and replaced by another. Finally Judas, whose ranks had thinned to 800 men, had to face more than 20,000 soldiers under Bacchides. In the fierce struggle the great Jewish patriot fell at Eleasa.

1. Jonathan and Further Strides Toward Jewish Independence (161-143 B.C. )

     Judas' death left Alcimus and the Hellenizers in power, supported by Bacchides. Alcimus went so far as to order the barrier which separated the outer and inner courts of the temple to be removed so that there would be no difference between Jews and Gentiles. Such extreme concessions to Greek thought and customs caused the pendulum to swing the other way when Alcimus suddenly died in 160 B.C.

     Jonathan Maccabaeus, an adroit diplomat, was chosen as leader and was quick to take advantage of the current contest for the Syrian throne in 152 B.C. when Alexander Balas, a pretender, revolted against Demetrius I. By 150 B.C. Alexander Balas had secured full power and reigned from 150-145 B.C. Already under Demetrius, Jonathan had been permitted vassal rule over the Judaeans, kept in check, however, by Syrian garrisons in the citadel at Jerusalem and by fortresses built by Bacchides at Jericho, Emmaus, Bethhoron, Bethel, Bethzur and other strategic places. But under Balas, Jonathan's power soared, especially when he gained control of much of Philistia by fighting on Balas' side against a new throne-claimant, Demetrius II, who defeated Balas and ruled 145-140 B.C.

     This favorable shift on the throne of Syria enabled Jonathan to lay siege to the citadel of Jerusalem. Although unable to take it, he built a great wall to seal it off, which led to its surrender under his successor, Simon. Simon fell a victim to treachery, but had made great strides toward regaining Jewish independence.

2.     Simon (143-135 B.C.) and the Inauguration of the Period of

Jewish Independence (143-63 B.C.)

     Demetrius II (145-139 B.C.) desperately needed the loyalty of Simon in the uncertain struggle for power at Antioch, and accordingly recognized him as high priest, remitted payment of tribute and granted the Jews practically full independence (143 B.C.). Simon ruled well, expelled the Syrian garrison from Jerusalem, fortified the temple area, and conquered Gezer and Joppa. Antiochus Sidetes challenged these acts, but Simon's son, John Hyrcanus, thoroughly defeated the army of Antiochus, so that Simon was left at peace, recognized as civil, military, and religious head of Judaea, although he never styled himself king.

3.     John Hyrcanus (134-104 B.C.) and the Conflicting Parties in Judaism:

The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes

     John Hyrcanus succeeded to the Hasmonaean dynasty after his father Simon was assassinated. The reigning Syrian king, Antiochus VII (139-129 B.C.), seized the occasion as an opportunity to invade Judaea, conquer Jerusalem, and impose a heavy war tribute, but Antiochus' death five years later marked the virtual end of Seleucid power over Palestine, and John Hyrcanus and his successors were free to enlarge and strengthen their kingdom.

     John Hyrcanus embarked on a career of conquest in Transjordan and then in Samaria where he destroyed the Temple on Mt. Gerizim, which for two centuries was a rival to the temple at Jerusalem, and thus intensified the hatred between Jew and Samaritan (cf. John 4:9, 20). Next he conquered the Edomites on his southern border and subjected them to forced conversion to Judaism or exile. Eventually he ruled over a small empire from Lower Galilee to the southern desert and from the Mediterranean to the borders of Nabataea.

     With the wealth and captives he took in war, he beautified and strengthened Jerusalem, erecting a new fortress and palace and apparently a high level aqueduct. The city was to bear permanent memorials of this period of Jewish conquest and political efflorescence. [The principal source of the reign of John Hyrcanus is Josephus Antiquities 13:8-10 and Wars. His history, alluded to in I Maccabees 16:23f., has not survived.]

     During the Maccabaean period, the two great parties of Judaism, the Pharisees and Sadducees, which figure so prominently in the time of Jesus, [Robert Pfeiffer, History of New Testament Times (New York, 1949), pp. 54-57.] came into existence. The Pharisees were apparently the successors of the Hasidim ("the Pious") who preferred death to violation of the Law and the traditions of the elders (oral law) when Antiochus IV Epiphanes proscribed Judaism in 168 B.C. (I Maccabees 2:29-38; 7:13; 11 Maccabees 14:6). Intensely devoted to the Law of Moses, they joined Judas Maccabaeus to gain the right to their religious convictions, but after the termination of religious persecution (164 B.C.), they were not eager to keep on fighting for political autonomy.

     The name "Pharisee" apparently means "separated," but is explained variously. [Cf. G. F. Moore, Judaism (Cambridge, 1927) Vol. I, pp. 60-62; R. Pfeiffer, History of New Testament Times, p. 54.] The chief characteristic of the Pharisee was his punctilious observance of the law, both oral and written. [Josephus War 8, 14; Antiquities 17: 2,; Life 38; Mark 7:3; Matthew 15:2; 23:1-25, etc.] The Pharisees are first mentioned in Jonathan's time (161-143 B.C.), somewhat irrelevantly, but actually appear in the flesh as opponents of John Hyrcanus in his assumption of the holy office of priest as well as civil ruler. They devoted themselves to interpreting and teaching the law, that the nation might indeed be holy before God. Their watchwords were repentance, prayer, and charitable giving. They looked for the Messiah and the resurrection of the faithful at His advent. They had an admirable beginning in the fires of Maccabaean suffering, but gradually degenerated by Jesus' day into proud and empty religionists, devoid of faith or spiritual life.

     The Sadducees, probably "Zadokites," descendants or partisans of Solomon's priest Zadok (I Kings 2:35), were principally aristocratic, worldly-minded priests, obeying the literal commands of the law, but not stretching them, denying future resurrection and retribution, and skeptical of the supernatural. They naturally welcomed Hellenic culture and were willing to gain worldly advantage through adroit diplomacy or military strategy, etc. They were despised by the Pharisees who regarded them as being devoid of real piety. Such virulent animosity developed between these two parties that they eventually wrecked the Hasmonaean kingdom rather than settle their own differences.

     [See Josephus Antiquities 13:5, 5; 13:10, 6; 18:1, 4; 20:9, 1; War 2:8, 14; Mark 12:18-27; Matthew 3:7; 16:1-12; Luke 20:27-40; Acts 4:1; 5:17; 23:6-9.]

     Another group of Jewish society (a sect rather than a party) were the Essenes. Josephus, as well as Philo and Pliny, describe this ascetic group. [Josephus Antiquities, 13:5, 9; 15:10, 4-5; 18; 1, 5; War 2:8, 2-13; Philo, Every Good Man Is Free 75-91, translated by F. H. Colson, Loeb Classical Library IX (1941), pp. 53-63; Pliny, Natural History 5;17.] Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls since 1947, these were the only sources of information concerning this communal order. Now a great deal more is known of them from Khirbet Qumran, their center in the west side of the Dead Sea. The Qumran manuscripts are copies of Old Testament books and other treatises, including a book of rules of the order. These great archaeological discoveries make it highly probable that the Qumran Community consisted of a group of Essenes [H. H. Rowley, The Zadokite Fragments and the Dead Sea Scrolls l(1952), pp. 78f., The Dead Sea Scrolls and their Significance 91955), p. 20; Theologische Zeitschrift (1957), pp. 530-540; A Dupont-Sommer, The Jewish Sect of Qumran and the Essenes. See also chapter IV.] or a very closely affiliated order, with actual headquarters located at this Dead Sea site, as the extent of the library found would indicate.

4. Aristobulus (105-104 B.C.) and Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B.C. ) and

Forebodings of the End of the Hasmonaean Dynasty

     Before Hyrcanus died, he tried to ease the opposition of the factions in his kingdom by appointing his eldest son high priest and his wife as his civil successor. But Aristobulus imprisoned his mother and seized the kingship. He died shortly after, however, and the third son of Hyrcanus, Alexander Jannaeus, assumed control and conducted himself in such a treacherous, vengeful, and unworthy manner that he completely alienated the Pharisees, estranging the loyalty of the finest Judaeans to the Hasmonaean dynasty. He also greatly intensified the mutual hatred and distrust of the Pharisees. Although he was a great conqueror, he sealed the eventual doom of the Hasmonaean house.

5. Alexandra (76-67 B.C.) and the "Golden Age" of Pharisaism

     Alexander Jannaeus' wife succeeded her husband and reversed her husband's policy by favoring the Pharisees, who. abused their power and put many Sadducees to death. Elementary education by scribes instead of by parents was introduced in Alexandra's reign, and the Sanhedrin was organized with scribes admitted to its membership.

6. Hyrcanus II's Struggle with, Aristobulus II and the End

of the Maccabaean Age

     Hyrcanus, the elder son of Alexandra, had been made high priest during his mother's reign. Aristobulus, another son of Alexandra, was ready to seize the throne at his mother's death and permit his brother Hyrcanus to remain as high priest. But Antipater, the governor of Idumaea, persuaded Hyrcanus to flee to Petra, to secure the aid of the Nabataean prince Aretas in winning the throne of Judaea. In the struggle that ensued, an appeal was sent to Rome to settle the quarrel. The Pharisaic party expressed its desire that Rome take over political control of Palestine, which Pompey agreed to do in 63 B.C., thus ending the Hasmonaean monarchy. Internal dissension of the Jewish parties thus was a factor in the loss of political liberty.

     Pompey organized the Decapolis league in Transjordan, restoring local liberty to these Hellenistic cities to balance the power of the Jews, and reduced Judaea to its former smallness. Hyrcanus was left as nominal ruler for 23 years. But these were years full of turmoil which made Roman rule a necessity.

7. Archaeology and the Maccabaean Period

     The cities of Bethzur, Gezer and Marisa, which figure prominently in Maccabaean history, exhibit interesting remains of this period. Gezer yielded a fortress of Simon Maccabaeus. Marisa yielded an en tire Hellenistic city with characteristic arrangement of streets running at right angles and forming regular blocks much as in a modern town. It is significant also that at Bethzur, Gezer, and Marisa a series of Jewish coins comes to an end about 100 B.C., demonstrating that these three towns were abandoned soon after Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B.C.), the most empire-minded king of the Maccabaean dynasty, had conquered all Palestine and it became unnecessary to maintain these points as strong outposts. Pottery found substantiates the witness of coins, as usual, in the matter of dating.

     But the most rewarding site illustrating the Maccabaean period is Bethzur, strategically located on the Jerusalem-Hebron road on the Judaea-Idumaea border. Excavated by W. F. Albright and O. R. Sellers in 1931 with work resumed in 1957, [O. R. Sellers, The Citidel of Beth-zur (1933), and in the Biblical Archaeologist 21 (1958), pp. 71-76; Robert W. funk in Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 150 (April 1958), p. 8-20.] the site has yielded extensive Maccabaean remains, confirmed by coins of the period whose testimony dovetails with the notices in the First Book of Maccabees, where Bethzur prominently figures in the Maccabaean struggles with the Seleucid tyrants. Precisely the literary evidence indicates that Bethzur was relatively unimportant prior to the second campaign of Lysias in 163-162 B.C. after Judas had turned it into a fortress following his victory over Lysias in 165 B.C. [Robert w. Funk, Bulletin of the American Schools l50 (April, 1958), p. 16.]

     Phase I of the Bethzur citadel is dated by Robert Funk in the Ptolemaic period. Phase II, which is oriental in plan, is not certainly dated (coins from Antiochus IV) but Phase III is now known to be the work of the Syrian Bacchides some time after 161 B.C. [Funk, op. cit., p. 16.] The evidence from coins demonstrates that Bethzur was sparsely settled during the sixth to the fourth centuries, revived under the Ptolemies in the third, and prospered under the Seleucids and Maccabees in the second century. Coins and pottery recovered show that during the relatively tranquil periods of the second century (175-165 and 1401.00 B.C.) the population overflowed the city wall. In this way archaeology is expanding the horizons of history and illuminating ancient literary references, and filling in details and gaps in the historian's knowledge.

250. R. Sellers, The Citidel of Beth-zur (1933), and in The Biblical Archaeologist 21 (1958), pp.

Chapter 3—Palestine and the Roman World at the Time of Christ

     Under Alexander Jannaeus (103-76) the Maccabaean kingdom reached the zenith of its power and greatness, being practically coterminous with the territories won and controlled by David nine centuries before. Coins recovered from this prosperous era of Jewish independence bear the proud title of "king" stamped in Hebrew and Greek as the designation of the reigning Hasmonaean. Although Jannaeus' widow, Alexandra, was to rule as queen for some nine years (76-67), the days of Jewish autonomy were numbered. The sons of Jannaeus, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, in becoming rival claimants for the throne, both taking the fatal steps, of calling upon Rome to intervene, sealed the fate of the Hasmonaean dynasty. Aristobulus II and his followers in their struggle for power were destined to suffer defeat under Roman intervention, while Hyrcanus' regime as high priest and ethnarch (63-40 B.C.) was merely a puppet rule under Roman domination.

I. HEROD THE GREAT, KIING OF THE JEWS

     The Herodian line of kings under which Christ lived and died and under which the Christian Church had its beginning was not of Jewish stock, despite the legend circulated by Herod the Great that his family had descended from a distinguished Babylonian Jew. [Josephus, Antiquities, XIV, 1, 3.] But Herod was always detested by the Jews as a half-foreigner and a cunning opportunist who cultivated friendship for Rome merely to further his own power. As an Edomite (Idumaean), Josephus dubbed him a "half-Jew." [Ibid., 15, 2. What is known of Herod is mainly gathered from Josephus in his Antiquities and Jewish War, from Strabo and Dio Cassius among the classics, and from modern archaeological research.]

1. Herod the Great and His Rise to Power

     The Herodian dynasty sprang from Antipater I, whom Alexander Jannaeus had appointed as governor of Idumaea [The Greek and Roman name of Edom (mark 3:8). In the post-exilic period the Edomites were gradually driven northward by the Nabataeans and by 150 B.C. were settled in the southern half of Judaea in Hebron and as far north as Bethzur (I Maccabees 4;29; 5:65).] when the latter conquered the Idumaeans and forcibly "converted" them, subjecting them to circumcision about 125 B.C. [Antiquities XIII, 9, 1.] When Antipater I died (78 B.C. ), his son and namesake, Antipater II, succeeded him. It was this astute politician who won great power and in turn set the stage for the rise of his son, Herod the Great. Herod's father, Antipater 11, adroitly used two levers to force his way to power-the unconquerable might of Rome and the pitiable weakness of the decadent Hasmonaean dynasty. From about 55 B.C. to 43 B.C., Antipater II was virtual ruler of Palestine under Roman grant, Julius Caesar appointing him procurator of Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee about 47 B.C.

     In 43 B.C. Antipater II was assassinated, leaving four sons, Phasael, Herod the Great, Joseph, and Pheroras. The second of these sons was destined to raise the Herodian dynasty to the acme of its power and prestige, commencing his notable career as governor of Galilee. He early won Roman favor by his success in raising tribute money for the imperial government and in ridding Galilee of roving bands of freebooters. These initial accomplishments won him rapid promotion, and Antony made him tetrarch of Judaea in 41 B.C.

     The Parthian invasion in 40 B.C. and the resulting temporary demise of Roman authority in Palestine forced Herod temporarily to leave his domain, which was seized by Antigonus, sole surviving son of Aristobulus II, who became king and high priest of the Jews for three years (40-37 B.C.), [Josephus describes the brief reign of Antigonus in Antiquities 14:14-16; War 1:14, 1-18, 3, who pledged the Parthians 1,000 talents and 500 Jewish women to secure the throne.] the inscription on whose coins reads "Of king Antigonus," inscribed in Greek, and "Mattathias the high priest," inscribed in Hebrew.

     But Antigonus' seizure of power was the final spasm of the dying Hasmonaean house. In the meantime Herod was at Rome seeking the crown of Judaea, which he obtained through the favor of Antony and Augustus in 37 B.C., and by the sword as soon as he arrived back in Palestine, putting to death Antigonus and forty-five of his principal supporters.

2. Herod, Client-King o f Rome

     Herod's advent on the stage of history toward the end of the period of Roman conspiracies and civil wars and the commencement of the imperial period was propitious. The second triumvirate (Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus) defeated the republican forces under Brutus and Cassius at Philippi (42 B.C.), and finally after the victory at Actium (31 B.C.), Octavian, under whom Herod was destined to rule so long as a client-king, emerged as sole ruler of the vast Roman world.

     On January 16, 27 B.C. the Roman senate conferred on Octavian the title Augustus and recognized his supreme authority. The title, rendered Sebastos in Greek, connoting the generalized idea of "worshipful," did not imply that the bearer was to be an object of actual worship. Augustus always discouraged any ceremonial that might suggest he was a god, though his "father" Julius Caesar had been formally deified after his death. However, in the course of time Caesar-worship was to develop, especially in the east "where since time immemorial divinity had hedged a king, the cult of the emperors spread far and early." [Stewart Perowne, The Life and Times of Herod the Great (London, 1956), p. 88.]

     Such was the overlord and patron for whom Herod did everything his subtle political sagacity could conjure up to please. Augustus on his part realized Herod's outstanding capabilities to rule a region of such strategic importance as Palestine was to the Roman imperial scheme, Palestine being the bridge between the rich province of Syria, the granary of Egypt, and the lucrative trade routes via Petra and the west, as well as constituting an important buffer territory against the Parthian peril on the east. [Perowne, op. cit., pp. 89-94.] But Herod's client-kingship in Judaea was no new institution in Rome's expanding government. It had already existed for two centuries, and client kingdoms at this period were found in Armenia, Cappadocia, Galatia, and Commagene, in each case Rome making even kings the instruments of servitude. Herod might be the means to rule the difficult-to-manage Jews of Palestine, but it was really Rome that ruled, and always the client king held his kingdom on the basis of imperial favor. If this was offended, he could be dethroned at will. Rome considered its supreme calling to govern, and it mattered little who the instrument was - proconsul, procurator, legate, or king. Roman rule and Roman law were the important factors.

     However, the client-king was entitled to the crown, the scepter and the purple, and was supreme in his kingdom in legislative, administrative, judicial, and fiscal matters. Moreover, he had enjoyed two important privileges-exemption from tribute for himself and his kingdom and from the garrisoning of Roman troops on his people at their expense. Exemption from taxation of client-kings was apparently, however, abolished by Augustus, according to Luke's account. "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled" (Luke 2:1). [Sir William Ramsay presents evidence from Appian and Strabo that client kingdoms were as really under Roman rule as the provinces, both senatorial and imperial (Was Christ Born at Bethlehem? pp. 118-124).] Although Herod was in high favor with Augustus, he came perilously near losing both his crown and his head when he sent Nicolaus of Damascus to Augustus for his defense concerning the charge of treason against Rome made by Syllaeus in the matter of the Nabataean uprising. [Cf. Josephus Antiquities XV, 10; A. T. Robertson, Luke the Historian in the Light of Research (New York, 1930), p. 121. As sole ruler of the Empire, there is nothing unnatural in Augustus' decreeing a universal enrolment for all his subjects, although critics commonly deny it applied to Palestine.

4.     Herod's Character and Matthew's Account of the Magi and the

Slaughter of the infants

     The picture presented of Herod in Matthew's gospel in connection with events following the nativity of Christ is remarkably vivid and singularly in agreement with the personal character of Herod as known from extra-biblical sources. These events catalogued in Matthew 2:1-23 occurred in the last years of the king's reign when the twin demons of jealousy of power and maniacal suspicion had overpowered him, converting him into a Jewish Nero, who bathed his own house and kingdom in blood.

     It is pathetic to see the aged monarch, soon to die, so agitated over the question of the Magi, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?" (Matthew 2:2). At the very mention of a rival claimant to his throne in an atmosphere of fervid Messianism, his deep-set jealousy for power set in motion the same craftiness and insane suspicion that had caused Herod to murder numerous members of his own family, including his favorite wife, Mariamne. Trials and executions of his own conspiring sons were conducted with the condonement of the Roman authorities, for Herod was crafty enough not to violate his position as a client-king of Rome. Yet so thoroughly were the intrigues, tragedies and mutual recriminations of Herod's court known at Rome that with the murder of Mariamne's sons, Augustus is said to have exclaimed: "I would rather be Herod's hog than his son."

     It is precisely such a character that appears so graphically in the biblical reference to Herod. Completely perturbed at the rumor of a new king of the Jews being born, Herod, jealous of power, immediately sets in motion the machinery of inquisition, using in this instance scribes, Pharisees, and ancient Hebrew prophecies as his informants. When frustrated in his diabolical cunning by the wisdom and divine warning to the Magi, his uncontrollable rage so characteristic of the man when outwitted, manifests itself in the brutal massacre of the young children of the Bethlehem area. The whole episode portrays a man, although possessed of great talents and abilities, captivated and corrupted by his lower nature and appearing in the starkest contrast to the divine King of whom he was so irrationally suspicious.

     Such a barbarous and superstitious act as Herod perpetrated upon the helpless children of Bethlehem was by no means unheard of in pagan antiquity where the life of a newborn babe was at the mercy of the father or of the state. A few months before the birth of Augustus, a prodigy presaging the nativity of a king for the Roman people, having taken, place, the frightened Senate decreed that none of the children born that year were to be brought up. [Perowne, op. cit., p. 172.] At a later era, Nero was so upset by the appearance of a comet that he ordered the execution of leading Roman citizens, whose children were driven from the city and died of hunger and exposure.

4. Herod and the Herodium

     Not long after his contact with the Magi and the ruthless murder of the infants of Bethlehem, Herod died at Jericho in the spring of 4 B.C., dropsical, gangrenous, and in the throes of loathsome disease. In the days preceding his death, horror and tragedy, which had often stalked his palace, reigned supreme. In the midst of his terrible sufferings, he attempted suicide with a paring knife, and soon afterward ordered the execution of his son Antipater only five days before his own death.

     In full royal regalia the funeral procession of the deceased king left Jericho for its destination, southeast of Bethlehem, in the very country he had recently deluged in sorrow by an act of insane criminality. Herod's body lay on a golden, gem-encrusted bier, beneath a long purple pall. His diadem with golden crown was on his head and his scepter was placed in his right hand. Immediately behind his bier were his sons and all his family, followed by the Royal Guard, the Thracian Regiment, the German Regiment, the Galatian Regiment and Regiments of the Line, all in full battle order. This imposing procession was followed by 500 servants of Herod carrying spices. It moved up the steep road south of the Wadi Qelt beneath Cypros, the traditional Valley of the Shadow of Death, and across the barren downs of the Wilderness of Judaea to the Herodium, one of Herod's fortress castles which he had chosen as the site for his final resting place, and where his body was interred.

     The Herodium was identified by the early Palestinian explorer-archaeologist Edward Robinson with the so-called Frank Mountain (Jebel el Fureidis) some half-dozen miles southeast of Bethlehem. The hill on which Herod's fortress-castle was built was raised until it resembled the shape of a woman's breast, according to Josephus. A polished-stone staircase of 200 steps gave access to the castle, which was fortified with four circular towers from which there was a magnificent view of the entire countryside dear to Herod because here he had won an important victory over the Supporters of the last Maccabaean king. Within the Herodium itself were sumptuous apartments. Ruins of a surrounding wall still remain on the northeast base of the hill skirting the Bethlehem-to-Engedi road on either side of the former ascent stairway, and a present-day road to the summit skirts south o$ the Bethlehem road near the remains of the old city and gives access to the summit from a westerly direction. At the northern base of the hill are ancient ruins of buildings, cisterns, walls, and pools, and the surrounding plain was dotted with villas and estates of relatives and courtiers.

     The Herodium was another of Herod's brilliant building operations like the temple and other constructions in Jerusalem, and like his magnificent architectural accomplishments in Samaria (Sebaste ), Strato's Tower (Caesarea ), Antipatris, Jericho, Phaesalus, Askelon, Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, Tripoli, Antioch on the Orontes and even in Athens. The Herodium was Herod's bid for a unique mausoleum to perpetuate his memory, the idea for which he evidently got from a colleague client-king, Antiochus of Commagene in southeastern Asia Minor, north and northwest of Syria. King Antiochus planned a similar unique mausoleum on the Nemrud Dagh in the Taurus Mountains, having gravel piled over his tomb to a depth of a hundred feet, raising the elevation of the entire mountain. Ruins of the statue of the gods Ahuramazda, Mithras, Verethragna, Commagene and Antiochus can still be seen atop Nemrud Dagh. If Herod's and Antiochus' crypts are still intact, it is hoped future excavations may recover them.

     In the Jewish-Roman War (A.D. 70) the Herodium was destroyed when Jewish rebels who held it were finally defeated. As a result of the destruction which took place at the time, the top of Frank Mountain assumed its present-day crater-like appearance.

4. Herod and Archelaus, and the Flight of the

Holy Family to Egypt

Matthew's gospel not only introduces Herod into the Christmas story, but also the flight of the holy family into Egypt to escape the wrath of the aged tyrant. Egypt since 30 B.C. had been one of the most important provinces of Rome, a world in itself, and in a sense the bread basket of the Empire, ruled by a prefect. Fleeing there doubtless by way of Bethzur or Hebron to the coastal plain and via the old highroad to Pelusium, Joseph and Mary breathed more easily when once they were outside the jurisdiction of Herod. In Egypt they remained until the death of Herod in the spring of 4 B.C. (Matthew 2:15).

     After his unsuccessful attempt at suicide and the execution of his son Antipater only five days before his death, Herod once again made a new will, his fourth and last, by which he appointed Archelaus, his son by the Samaritan Malthace, as king of Judaea. It was when Joseph was divinely warned that those who sought the child Jesus' life were dead, that he left Egypt, but he was afraid to go into Judaea "when he heard that Archelaus reigned over Judaea in the place of his father Herod" (Matthew 2:22).

     Archelaus, realizing the client status of the Herodian kingdom, prudently refrained from ascending the throne until Herod's will was approved by Augustus, which the emperor did in its essential pro visions, against both Jewish opposition and that of Archelaus' younger brother Herod Antipas, who appeared as a rival. But Archelaus received only the title of ethnarch, "ruler of the people," which was inferior to that of a king. [Josephus, Antiquities XVII, 8, 1; 9:7; 11:5.] His rival Antipas, however, was given only a tetrarchy.

     Archelaus, according to Josephus, was barbarously cruel both to Jews and Samaritans who had opposed his accession to power and had a quarrel with him. Both groups had dispatched embassies to Augustus to complain of his ruthlessness. The holy family had undoubtedly heard of his severe repression of a Passover riot in B.C. 4, in which 3,000 people were killed, even before he was confirmed in power, and decided to keep clear of his domain. In the tenth year of his administration (A.D. 6) Augustus deposed him and banished him to Vienne in Gaul, and his wealth was put in the imperial treasury. [Josephus, War II, 7, 3.]

6. Herod and the Party of the Herodians

     In his ardent love of Hellenistic culture and his devotion to Caesar Augustus and the luxurious ways and habits of life of the Romans, Herod the Great continually offended his legally austere Jewish subjects by the introduction of Roman athletics, pagan architecture, heathen temples, and non-Jewish customs into his realm. As a brilliant and thorough-going Hellenizer, he often exhausted his talents as a shrewd diplomat and masterful tactician to placate and mollify the Jews. His most colossal attempt was his erection of the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, which was so transcendently beautiful that Josephus seems tireless in describing its splendors, and even Titus, out of regard for its magnificence, was anxious to spare it when the city fell in 70 A.D. Bat despite this and many other dispensations of charity in time of famine, and tactful yielding to Jewish prejudices whenever possible, his subjects saw in Herod only a usurper to the throne of David who maintained himself by the strong arm of the detested Roman oppressor, and who was always ready to rob his own people for self-aggrandizement and in order to give munificent gifts to the Romans.

Although Herod's Hellenizing activities were staunchly resisted by most Jews, his influence on the younger Jews was not without far-reaching effects. Slowly a distinct party arose, partly religious, partly political, partly cultural, which became known as the Herodian party, composed of those who were Jews in external religious forms, but devotees of easy-going, world-conforming Hellenism in matters of dress and general view of life. -Members of this party were a bitter offense to the nation as a whole, but made common cause with mutual enemies, the Pharisees and Sadducees in their opposition to Christ (Matthew 22:16; Mark 3:6; 12:13).

II. ARCHAEOLOGY AND LUKE'S ACCOUNT OF JESUS' BIRTH

     Interwoven prominently in the Christmas story as narrated by Luke in Chapter 2 of his gospel is a pivotal passage of immense historical importance (Luke 2:1-7) that has been furiously assailed until comparatively recent times as being almost completely unhistorical, a mere legend, at best a bundle of blunders.

1. Luke the Historian and the First Taxation Enrollment

     In this important passage Luke asserts that (1) such a census (enrolment) first took place under Caesar Augustus during the reign of Herod, (2) that it involved the return of everyone to his ancestral home, (3) that it constituted part of an empire-wide enrolment ("all the world"), meaning the sphere of the Roman Empire, (4) and that it was held during Quirinius' first governorship of the province of Syria.

     Although as a result of archaeological discoveries it is now widely admitted in critical circles, both by theological and historical scholars, that these four declarations of Luke may be authentic, such was emphatically not the case before Sir William Ramsay's researches on the subject of Luke's historical reliability in the first decade of the twentieth century. [The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament (The James Sprunt Lectures for 1911, reprint Grand Rapids, 1953) pp. 238-300.] Despite the fact that it is still rare to fin(. the same critic admitting all four of Lukes' assertions, [For example, Lily Ross Taylor who grants the first three of Luke’s assertions, but is not persuaded that Quirinius was Syrian legate at the time (American Journal of Philology LIV, 1933), pp. 120ff.] scientific advance has done much to vindicate his historical reliability, though some problems still remain. No longer, however, can the arbitrary attitude of earlier critics be defended who assumed that Luke was bound to be wrong simply because he stood unsupported by other ancient authorities, forgetting that the genuine worth of a historian, when he stands alone is put to the acid test of whether he blindly follows tradition or has conducted original investigation for the facts (cf. Luke 1:14).

Supporting the possibility that the census may have taken place in Herod's reign is the assertion of Josephus that toward the end of his rule as a client-king Herod was dealt with by Augustus as a subject rather than a friend. [Antiquities XVI, 9, 3; XVII, 2, 4.] Also Luke's reliability in this aspect of the complicated issues involved in this crucial passage (Luke 2:1-3) is supported by the evidence that this procedure was normal with client kingdoms, as Tacitus notes that such an enrolment was imposed on the vassal kingdom of Antiochus. [Annals, VI, 41.]

     Supporting also the now widely admitted possibility that Luke's census may have involved the return of everyone to his ancestral home is the evidence from periodic enrolments in Egypt which were con ducted on a fourteen-year cycle and were by households. [Cf. A. T. Robertson, Luke the Historian in the Light of Historical Research (New York, 1930), p 125. The title is always apographe kat' oikian "enrollment according to a household," the same word for enrolment or census (apographe) as that used in Luke 2:2. Cf. also A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East (1910), pp. 268 ff.] The edict in question is that of G. Vibius Maximus, prefect of Egypt and dated 104 A.D. "Since the enrolment by households is approaching, it is necessary to command all who for any reason are out of their own district to return to their own home, in order to perform the usual business of the taxation . . ." [Frederic G. Kenyon and H. Idris Bell, Greek Papyri in the British Museum III (1907), no. 904.]

     In addition a letter from the late third century contains a request that the writer's sister endeavor to enroll far him but if that is not possible, to let him know that he may come and do it himself.

     “To my sister, lady Dionysia, from Pathermouthis, greeting. As you sent me word on account of the enrolment about enrolling yourselves, since I cannot come, see whether you can enroll us. Do not then neglect to enroll us, me and Patas; but if you learn you cannot enroll us, reply to me and I will come. Find out also about the collection of the poll tax, and if they are hurrying on with the collection of the poll tax, pay it, and I will send you the money; and if you pay the poll tax get the receipt. Do not neglect this, my sister, and write to me about the enrolment, whether you have done it or not, and reply to me and I will come and enroll myself. I pray for your lasting health.” [19Adolf Deissmann, Light vom Osten, Das Neue Testament and die neuentdeckten Texte der hellenistisch-romischen Welt (4th ed., 1923), p. 231. "Thus the situation presupposed in Luke 2:3 seems entirely plausible" (Jack Finegan, Light from the Ancient Past, rev. ed., 1959), p. 261.]

     Supporting also the now widely admitted possibility that Luke's census may have constituted part of an empire-wide enrolment is the evidence from the papyri of periodic enrolments from 11 and 8 B.C., the evidence for an Egyptian census in 10-9 B.C. being practically conclusive. [F. F. Bruce, "Census" in the Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1955), Vol. I., p. 222. cf. V. Wilcken, Papyruskunde I 1912), pp. 192 ff.]

Discoveries among papyri from the sands of Egypt prove that a periodic fourteen-year census was taken in Egypt and doubtlessly throughout the empire. Definitely dated census returns come from the years A.D. 34, 48, 62 and numerous examples extending to A.D. 202, authenticating the fourteen-year cycle. [The Oxyrhynchus Papyri II, p. 207, cf. no. 255.] Returns whose dates are not extant apparently belong to A.D. 6, A.D. 20, and A.D. 34. [The Oxyrhynchus Papyri II, nos. 254, 256.] Supporting the possibility that the census of Luke 2:1-4 may have been held during Quirinius' first governorship of Syria, the evidence is not as yet completely satisfactory as might be desired, and problems still remain to be cleared up by further archaeological research. The crux of the problem is that it is difficult to fit Quirinius' governorship of Syria into the years before 4 B.C., whereas it is rather known to have begun-about A.D. 6 in connection with the commencement of Coponius' procuratorship of Judaea [Josephus Antiquities XVIII, 1, 1.] and Josephus' dating of the taxings conducted by Quirinius in the thirty-seventh year of Caesar's victory over Antony at Actium, September 2, 31 B.C., so the date would be September 2, A.D. 6. [Antiquities XVIII, 2, 1.] But an enrolment held in A.D. 6/7 is patently too late to be related to the birth of Jesus, although some critics argue that the birth of Christ did not occur until that late date. [Cf. Kirsopp Lake, The Expositor (Nov., 1912), pp. 462f. Alfred Plummer maintains that in the matter of Quirinius, "We must be content to leave the difficulty unsolved" (Commentary, p. 50).]

     The solution to this vexing problem is that Quirinius apparently was twice associated with the government of the province of Syria. Sir William Ramsay accepted the inscriptional evidence contained in Titulus Tiburtinus, construing the words "iterum Syriam," i.e. "a second time Syria" to refer to Quirinius. [Was Christ Born at Bethlehem?, p. 109.]

     Likewise the inscriptions of Aemilius Secundus (Lapis Venetus) mentions P. Sulpicius Quirinius in connection with the census (perhaps the first). But Ramsay has adduced additional inscriptional evidence that Quirinius commanded the Homanadensian campaign as legate of Syria between 12 and 6 B.C. [Bearing of Recent Discoveries on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament (1915), pp. 223 ff., Journal of Roman Studies VII, 1917, pp. 271 ff.] Ramsay's inscription, discovered at Antioch of Pisidia in 1912 and dated 10-7 B.C., refers to Gaius Coristanius Fronto as "prefect of P. Sulpicius Quirinius duumvir." Another inscription from the village of Hissardi close to Antioch discovered by Ramsay mentions the same man, Gaius Coristanius Fronto, as "prefect of P. Sulpicius Quirinius duumvir" and "prefect of M. Servilius." [Bearing of Recent Discovery, p. 300.] "Thus Quirinius and Servilius were governing the two adjoining provinces, Syria-Cilicia and Galatia, around the year 8 B.C., when the First Census was made," [Ibid.] says Ramsay.

     The fact that Tertullian [Against Marcion IV, 19.] asserts that Jesus was born when Sententius Saturninus was governor of Syria (9-6 R.C. ), represents his unwarranted attempt to correct Luke because the first periodic enrolment of Syria was made under Saturninus (8-7 R.C.). But Ramsay shows that the enrolment of Palestine was delayed until the late summer or fall of 6 B.C., when Varus was controlling the internal affairs of Syria and Quirinius was directing its armies and its foreign policy.

III. PALESTINE UNDER THE RULE

OF THE CAESARS

     In a passage remarkable for its historical comprehensiveness and accuracy, Luke pinpoints the commencement of the public ministry of John the Baptist and necessarily also that of Jesus. "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God come to John the son of Zachariah in the wilderness" (Luke 3:1, 2).

1. Tiberius and the Procuratorial Government of Palestine

     Caesar Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, under whose reign Jesus was born and grew up to young manhood, died in A.D. 14 and was succeeded on the throne by Tiberius, his adopted son and son-in law (he married the Emperor's daughter Julia). Tiberius, who reigned till A.D. 37, is mentioned specifically by name only in Luke 3:1, but is the person referred to as "Caesar" in the gospel accounts (except Luke 2:1). [Cf. Matthew 22;17; Mark 12:14; Luke 20:22; John 19:12.] Tiberius was of the Claudian family, and the son of an officer bf Julius Caesar and Livia. As a result of his conspicuous service in the army, especially in campaigns along the Danube and the Rhine, he became "the first soldier of the Empire," establishing the imperial organization in Europe and becoming military governor of the Roman provinces in A.D. 12. As Imperator he was noted for rigid economy in the government of the Empire, leniency in the matter of taxation, justice in punishing unprovoked oppression, and interest in trade and communication.

     Under Tiberius, Judaea was governed by procurators, who had exercised authority since the deposition of Herod's son Archelaus under Augustus. The first procurator of Judaea was Coponius (A.D. 6-9), followed by Marcus Ambivius (A.D. 9-12) and Annius Rufus (A.D. 1215). In Tiberius Caesar's reign, procurators were Valerius Gratus (A.D. 15-26), Pontius Pilate (A.D. 26-36) and Marcellus (A.D. 36-37).

     Procurators were governors of the equestrian order subject to the Emperor and who could summon assistance from the legate of Syria, if needed. They resided in Caesarea, but if special emergencies arose, they might take up temporary residence in Jerusalem. The procurators were a special class of imperial administrator be cause procurement of funds or financial management was their principal interest, and they were appointed where difficult or turbulent conditions existed, as in Palestine. This form of government proved to be unhappy among the Jews because Roman business men who were selected for these jobs were unable to understand an Oriental people bound by innumerable ceremonial laws and capable of much fanaticism in matters of their religion. As a result, the procurators made one mistake after another, and often allowed their patience to be exhausted in outbursts of cruelty in dealing with the intransigeant and often incomprehensibly stubborn Jews. The inefficiency of procuratorial government was one of the major causes of the Jewish-Roman War of 67-70.

     Important archaeologically are the coins which date from the period of the Judaean procurators. Coins struck by the procurators from Coponius to Antonius Felix are extant. Of special interest are examples from the second to the sixth year of Pontius Pilate A. D. 27/28 to A. D. 31-32. [Cf. Florence A. Banks, Coins of Bible Days (1955); a Kinder, Israel Exploration Journal 6 (1956), pp. 54-57.]

2. Pontius Pilate the Most Famous Procurator of Judaea

     Because of his dramatic connection with the trial and death of Jesus, Pontius Pilate (A.D. 26-36) is a household name to Bible readers. Philo describes Pilate in the severest terms of condemnation, [Legatio and Caium XXXVIII.] but various apocryphal writings from the third to the fifth centuries and later, present him in a favorable light together with his wife, who was said to be a Jewish proselyte at the time of Jesus' death and later with her husband to have become a Christian. Her name, along with Pilate's, is honored both in the Greek and Coptic Church.

     Actually, however, Pilate was apparently ruthless, and being appointed through Tiberius' prime minister Sejanus, who hated the Jews, he antagonized his subjects and dealt cruelly with them when they resisted his measures. Luke incidentally records one of Pilate's acts of violence, otherwise unrecorded, how he mingled the blood of certain Galileans with that of their religious sacrifices (Luke 13:1).

     History, however, records other atrocities. On one occasion he used the sacred temple treasure, called "corban," to finance an aqueduct to bring water into Jerusalem. When a crowd demonstrated against this violation of Jewish principle, he had the rioters beat down mercilessly. [Josephus, Antiquities III, 2, Wars of the Jews II.] On another occasion,, his soldiers brought ensigns bearing the image of the emperor into Jerusalem, violating Jewish scruples. Crowds of excited Jews hurried to Caesarea to petition Pilate for their removal. For five days Pilate refused to hear them. On the sixth day he threatened them with instant death if they did not cease to bother him. Whereupon the entire crowd of petitioners bared their necks to die rather than compromise their convictions. Pilate, unwilling to execute so many, yielded the point and removed the ensigns. [Josephus, Antiquities XVIII, 3, 2.] A similar episode occurred over some gilt shields Pilate dedicated in Herod's palace in honor of the emperor. These contained no representation, but simply the name of the donor and of him in whose honor they were set up. When the Jews petitioned him to have them removed, he refused, but an appeal to Tiberius resulted in the removal of the disputed shields to Caesarea.

     A final act of violence against a crowd of Samaritan religious enthusiasts led to Pilot's deposition. Misled by a pretender who promised that if the Samaritans assembled at Mt. Gerizim he would show them the sacred vessels which he alleged Moses had hidden there, Pilate's cavalry attacked the crowd of zealots and many of them were killed. Upon appeal to Vitellius, the legate of Syria, Pilate was displaced by Marcellus (A.D. 36-37) and was ordered to Rome to render an account to Tiberius. [Antiquities XVIII, 4, 1-2.]

     Tacitus, relating the atrocities Nero perpetrated on the Christians, mentions the fact that Christ, from whom the name "Christian" derived, was put to death under Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate.37 Little is known of Pilate except that which is derived from the new Testament and from the Jewish writers, Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. The fact that he was able to rule the Jews for a decade in the light of the extreme difficulty of his task argues for some administrative talents. His role at the trial of Jesus, while weak and compromising, displays beneath his outward actions traces at least of the older Roman virtue of love for justice. Only when he discovered that the doing of justice imperiled his position did he reluctantly give in to the demands of the Jews, whose bigotry and hypocrisy he utterly despised. Although his cowardice caused him to act against his conscience and deeper moral sense, yet he still had compunction and a sense of moral rightness. He was guilty, but as a pagan Roman less so than the Jewish leaders to whom he yielded.

3. Herod, Tetrarch of Galilee

     Together with the emperor Tiberius and the procurator Pontius Pilate, in presenting the political complexion of Palestine-Syria at the time of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus' forerunner, John, Luke mentions "Herod the tetrarch of Galilee" (Luke 3:1, 2). This is Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great by Malthace, a Samaritan woman, and therefore not even a "half-Jew" like his father. He was tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39. This is the Herod who ruled during Jesus' youth and public ministry, and hence is referred to more frequently in the New Testament than any other of the Herods who reigned.

     He it was who outraged his Jewish subjects by incestuously marrying his niece, Herodias, former wife of his half-brother Philip, and revived the memory of the infamous cruelty of the house of Herod by murdering John the Baptist (Matthew 14:1-12). He it was who was "perplexed" about Jesus and expressed a desire "to see him" (Luke 9:7, 9). But Jesus was well aware of his crafty wickedness and sly treachery, calling him "that fox" (Luke 13:32) and characterizing his banefully evil influence as "the leaven of Herod" (Mark 8:15).

     Herod Antipas is also the ruler to whom Pilate sent Jesus and who "set him at nought and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate" (Luke 23:6-15). Because of their mutual dealings concerning Jesus, Pilate and Herod became fast friends (Luke 23:12). In Acts 4:27 Herod Antipas is again linked with Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel as being "gathered together" against God's "holy servant Jesus."

     Herod's capital city was Sepphoris, located about four miles north of Nazareth. After Herod the Greats’ death in 4 B.C. zealots practically destroyed the site, which Herod Antipas restored. Galileans worked on Antipas' building operations there, which included an aqueduct and an amphitheater. Being so close to Nazareth, it is not impossible that Joseph the carpenter or even the lad Jesus might have worked there.

     About A.D. 26, however, Herod Antipas built Tiberias, a new capital on the southwestern shore of the Lake o Galilee near the warm springs of Hamath and not far from Sennabris (present-day Sinn en Nabra) and less than a half-dozen miles from Beth Yerah at the outlet of the lake. On the southern end of modern Tiberias are old ruins, but later than Antipas' day. However, ruins of what may prove to be Herod's palace exist on the hill known as Qasr hint el melek, or "Castle of the King's Daughter." Tiberias was accordingly a newly-found city in Jesus' day, with few if any Jews in residence, since it was considered ceremonially unclean, because Herod Antipas had erected it on the site of an old burial ground. This may explain why Tiberias is not recorded as being the scene of any ministry of Jesus.

     Some scholars [Cf. Emil Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas, p. 385f.] connect the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist with Tiberias to fit the details of the gospel accounts (Matthew 14:3-12; Mark 6:17-29; Luke 3:19, 20), while Josephus places these events at the remote fortress of Machaerus some five miles east of the Dead Sea in the extreme southern frontier of Peraea, in a barren and almost inaccessible location, "a very inconvenient place to which to bring the Galileans for a birthday party." [Kraeling, in. loc.] This formidably strong fortress (second only to Jerusalem in strength, in Pliny's opinion) originally built by Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B.C. ), was destroyed by Pompey's general Gabinius in 63 B.C., but was impressively rebuilt by Herod the Great. The German traveler Seetzen discovered the place in the early Nineteenth Century, but the site is as yet archaeologically unexplored. However, its ancient name is still preserved in the present-day designation, el-Mekawer. From the ancient fortress of Machaerus Herod's first wife escaped to her father Aretas, king of Nabataeans, who thereafter became the tetrarch's deadly enemy. Herod suffered banishment to Gaul around A.D. 39, and Herodias voluntarily accompanied him.

4. Philip, Tetrarch of the Region of Iturea and Trachonitis

     This Herod, known as Herod Philip II, is generally styled Philip the Tetrarch. He was the son of Herod the Great by Cleopatra of Jerusalem, and according to the will the aged Herod rewrote a few days before his death in 4 B.C., Philip inherited Gaulonitis, Trachonitis, Batanaea and Paneas. Gaulonitis lay east of the Sea of Galilee and Galilee proper. Batanaea was situated east of Gaulonitis. Trachonitis lay northeast of Batanaea toward Damascus. Auranitis lay south of Trachonitis. Paneas was the district about the southern foothills of Mt. Hermon. Luke employs abbreviated geographical terminology to refer to Philip's kingdom, introducing the term Iturea, which was situated southeast of Mt. Hermon and was well-known as an independent kingdom in Maccabaean times.

     Thus Philip ruled over a territory bounded on the north by Mt. Hermon, on the northwest by Phoenicia, on the southwest by Galilee, on the south by the Decapolis and in the southeast, east and north east by the kingdom of the Nabataeans. Philip's subjects were principally Gentiles. He ruled with discretion and integrity for almost four decades (4 B.C.-A.D. 34), perhaps the best of Herod the Greats’ sons.

     Among Philip's accomplishments was his rebuilding of the city of Panias (Paneas ), renaming it Caesarea to honor the emperor. It came to be known as Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13; Mark 8:27) to distinguish it from Herod's metropolis on coastal Palestine founded in 22 B.C. Philip also enlarged and rebuilt Bethsaida, just east of the place where the Jordan River enters the Lake of Galilee, calling it Bethsaida Julias.

     There is no record that Jesus' ministry extended into Philip's kingdom, except in the western portions contiguous to Galilee and the Jordan River, in the north of Caesarea Philippi, and in the southwest on the eastern shores of the Lake. The larger part of the kingdom being Gentile, it was outside the pale of His earthly ministry (cf. Matthew 15:24).

5. Lysanias, Tetrach of Abilene

     This tetrarchy was named from its capital Abila, which was situated on the Barada River some nineteen miles northwest of Damascus, where the present-day village of es-Suk stands. Nearby is a gorge with a Roman road cut in the cliff, an ancient cemetery and the traditional tomb of Abel. [The tradition doubtless arose purely from the coincidental similarity of sound between Abila and Abel. Abila is apparently derived from Semitic ‘abel, “a meadow.”] The territory of Abilene accordingly lay north of Philip's realm.

     An inscription at Abila, dating from the reign of Tiberius, mentions Lysanias as tetrarch at that time, [John D. Davis, A Dictionary of the Bible (4th rev. ed., 1954), p. 5.] thus confirming Luke's statement. Luke's accuracy in distinguishing Abilene from Philip's tetrarchy is also confirmed extra-biblically. Some years later the tetrarchies were still separate, for the Emperor Caligula (37-41 B.C.) gave the "tetrarchy of Philip," by that time deceased, and the "tetrarchy of Lysanias" to Herod Agrippa, [Josephus Antiquities XVIII, 6, 10. This Herod was the Herod of Acts. 12.] and Emperor Claudius confirmed to him "Abila of Lysanias." [Antiquities XIX, 5, 1.]

6. The High Priesthood o f Annas and Caiaphas

     Annas, the Greek form of the Hebrew Hannaniah ("The Lord is gracious"), is called Annas by Josephus. He was appointed to his high priestly office by Quirinius, the governor of Syria, about A.D. 7, and deposed by Valerius Gratus, the procurator about A.D. 16. Annas had five sons, all of whom became high priests. He himself was the father-in-law of the high priest Caiaphas. [John 18:13; Antiquities XVIII, 2, 1 and 2.]

     Annas figures prominently in the trial and arrest of Jesus, although at that time he was no longer actually officiating as high priest, but still bore the title and exercised great influence by virtue of his age and prestige. To him Jesus was first conducted (John 18:13) and after being examined by him was sent bound to Caiaphas. Later Annas was prominent among the Jewish dignitaries who examined Peter and John when they were arrested (Acts 4:6).

     Joseph Caiaphas was appointed to the office of high priest by the procurator Valerius Gratus, the immediate predecessor of Pontius Pilate, and is prominent in the events that led to Jesus' condemnation, and death (John 11:49-53; 18:14). At his official residence the conference of chief priests, scribes, and elders assembled to devise means to arrest Jesus (Matthew 26:3-5). Like his father-in-law, Annas, he was not only deeply culpable in the matter of condemning Jesus, but also in the trial of the apostles, Peter and John, who were brought before him (Acts 4:6). Vitellius, the legate of Syria, deposed Caiaphas in A.D. 36. [Antiquities XVIII, 4, 2.]

Chapter 4—The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ministry of John and Jesus

     Much interest in Biblical archaeology has been aroused in the last decade and a half by remarkable and widely publicized manuscript discoveries in the Dead Sea area of Palestine. Since 1947, when the first batch of manuscripts came to the notice of the scholarly world, having been stumbled upon quite accidentally by a Bedouin shepherd who found them in an isolated cave in the limestone cliffs less than a mile north of Khirbet Qumran, the archaeological world has been set agog as a result of the historical, biblical, and philological importance of the new material, augmented by subsequent finds (1947-1953) at Qumran, Wadi Murrabb'at, and Khirbet Mird in the region northwest of the Dead Sea.

     One reason contributing to the significance of the Scrolls for biblical studies, particularly in elucidating the backgrounds of the New Testament, is their date. Three lines of evidence converge to demonstrate that they have been correctly dated by W. F. Albright and other competent palaeographers well before A.D. 70. [w. f. Albright, “The bible After Twenty Years of Archaeology 1932-1952” in Religion in Life XXI, 4, 1952, p. 540.]

     The first line of evidence is the palaeographic. The stylistic formation of the letters employed by the various scribes in the recovered scrolls represents a period of more than a century, the letters them selves being intermediate between the known script of the third century B.C. and the middle of the first century A.D. "All competent students of writing conversant with the available materials and with palaeographic method" date the Scrolls "in the 250 years before A.D. 70." [Albright, op. cit., p. 540; cf. John C. Trever in The Biblical Archaeologist II (1948), pp. 46 f.; Albright in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 115 (Oct., 1949), pp. 10-19; Solomon A. Birnbaum, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 115 (Oct., 1949), pp. 20-22 and in the Bulletin's Supplementary Studies 13-14 (1952); also Birnbaum’s The Hebrew Scripts (1954). For a table -of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet as written in the scrolls, cf. E. L. Sukenik, editor, The Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University, p. 40.]

     The second line of proof supporting a date 200 B.C. to A.D. 70 is the evidence from the carbon 14 test, which dates the linen in which the scrolls were wrapped to the general era 175 B.C. to A.D. 225. [Cf. Ovid R. Sellers, "Radiocarbon Dating of Cloth from the ‘Ain Feshka Cave" in the Bulletin of the American Schools o f Oriental Research 123 (Oct. 1951), pp. 24 f. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 1 (1951), p. 6.]

     The third line of evidence substantiating an early date for the scrolls is archaeological. The pottery from Cave 1, including two intact jars as well as a mass of potsherds, belongs to the end of the Hellenistic period (first century B.C. ), while additional pieces were dated in the Roman period in the second or third centuries A.D. [The Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University, E. L. Sukenik, editor, p. 20; R. de Vaux, “Fouilles au Khirbet Qumran” in Revue Biblique LXI, 1954, pp. 231-236.]

     Scholars now posit three periods for the Qumran manuscripts. (1) An archaic period (c. 200-150 B.C.), (2) a Hasmonaean period (150 B.C.-30 B.C. ), and (3) a Herodian period (c. 30 B.C. to A.D. 70). [ Frank M. Cross, Jr., “The Oldest Manuscripts from Qumran,” Journal of Biblical Literature LXXIV, Sept. 1955, p. 164.] The vast majority of the Qumran manuscripts are now adjudged to belong to the second and third periods, especially to the latter half of the second period and the latter part of the third period when activity at Khirbet Qumran was at its heights. [Cross, ibid.; also “The Manuscripts of the Dead Sea Caves,” in The Biblical Archaeologist XVII, 1 (Feb. 19545), p. 20.] Other finds from later caves date in part from the second century A.D.

     The established early date of the Dead Sea manuscripts notably enhance their value. They come from a period of immense significance, which connects the New Testament with the Old, and which has contained serious gaps in matters of history, particularly with regard to inter-biblical background and the era of John the Baptist and Jesus. These new discoveries add a flood of light and broaden the horizons of New Testament religious and cultural history.

I. THE CONTENTS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

     The contents of the new manuscripts from the Dead Sea caves are partly biblical and partly intertestamental.

1. The Contents of the Scrolls from Cave 1 at Qumran

     Perhaps the most important find from Qumran is the Isaiah Scroll (1QIs^a). [According to a system of abbreviations adopted internationally by scholars, the material on which the writing is found is indicated by "p" for papyrus, "cu" for cuprum, copper, "o" for ostracon, and no sign indicating leather. The place of discovery is shown, 1 Q meaning cave 1 at Qumran. The contents of the document are indicated by regular abbreviations for the canonical and apocryphal books. A commentary is shown by "p" (pesher). New works are designated by the letter of the first word as it occurs in Hebrew, e.g. "S" (serek) meaning "order" or "rule," refers to the Manual of Discipline (1 QS). "The War of the Sons of Light With the Sons of Darkness" (IQM, from milhamah meaning "War").

     This is a parchment twenty-four feet long and approximately ten inches high, containing practically the entire book of Isaiah in a high state of preservation. [The Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark’s Monastery I, The Isaiah manuscript and The Habakkuk Commentary, ed., Millar Burrows (1950).] It comprises a text remarkably similar to the standard Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible which goes back to the early tenth century A.D. textual tradition.

     Another important find from Qumran is the Habakkuk Commentary (1QpHab ), [The Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark’s Monastery I, The Isaiah Manuscript and The Habakkuk Commentary; translated by Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls (1955), pp. 365-370; Theodore Gaster, The Dead Sea Scriptures in English Translation (1956).] a roll about four and a half feet long and somewhat less than six inches wide, containing chapters 1 and 2 of Habakkuk's prophecy with accompanying comments.

     A third document, now known as a Genesis Apocryphon (1QApoc), [Nahum Avignad and Yigael Yadin, A Genesis Apocryphon, A Scroll from the Wilderness of Judaea, Description and Contents of the Scroll, Facsiimiles, Transcription and Translation of Columns II, XIX-XXII, translated by Millar Burrows, More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls (1958), pp. 387-393.] is an Aramaic rendering of several chapters of the book of Genesis with a number of legendary stories interwoven into the lives of the patriarchs. The roll measures some nine feet in length and is twelve inches wide. It was unrolled with extreme difficulty because of the poor condition in which it was found.

     The scroll named "The War of the Sons of Light with The Sons of Darkness" (IQM) [E. L. Sukenik, editor, the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University (1955); translated by Theodore H. Gaster, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English Translation (1956), pp. 281-301.] is more than nine feet in length and six inches in width and describes a victorious conflict engaged in by the Israelite tribes with their enemies called the Kittim.

     Another work from the Qumran collection is the so-called "Manual of Discipline" or "Rule of the Community" (1QS ). [Millar Burrows, editor, the Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark’s Monastery II, Facsimile 2, Plates and Transcription of the Manual of Discipline (1951); William H. Brownlee, The Dead Sea Manual of Discipline, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Supplementary Studies 10-12 (1951); P. Wernberg-Moeller, The Manual of Discipline Translated and Annotated with an Introduction, J. Van der Ploeg, editor, Studies on the Tests of the Desert of Judah 1 (1957).] This parchment roll, measuring more than six feet in length and about nine inches in height, contains the rules and regulations which guided the pre-Christian sect of Essenic Judaism which flourished at Qumran.

     Another scroll from Qumran is composed of "Thanksgiving Psalm," called in Hebrew Hodayot (1QH ), [E. L. Sukenik, editor, The Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University (1955); Theodore H. Gaster, The Dead Sea Scriptures in English Translation (1956), pp. 123-202.] very similar to the canonical Psalms. The extant scroll is fragmentary, preserved in three separate leather leaves and seventy separate pieces. It was originally a roll about six feet long and thirteen inches high.

     In addition to the first Isaiah scroll (1QIs^a), a second copy of the book of Isaiah was also recovered at Qumran (1Q.I^b). [Sukenik, op. cit.] Unlike the first scroll, this second scroll of Isaiah is not complete. It is in a much poorer state of preservation, with chapters 38-66 better preserved than chapters 1-37. However, like the first Isaiah Scroll, it is surprisingly similar to the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible dating a millennium later.

     From Cave 1 at Qumran have also come portions of the book of Daniel on three small pieces of leather (1Q71, 72). [D. Barthlemy and J. T. Milik, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, I, Qumran Cave 1 (1955), pp. 49-155.] Also as the result of the excavation of cave 1 by R. de Vaux and G. Lankester Harding in 1949, numerous fragments of biblical texts in Hebrew and Aramaic have been recovered (including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Judges, Samuel, Psalms, Micah and Zephaniah, besides several apocryphal books, etc.). Pottery finds were sufficient to reconstruct forty large jars twenty-four inches tall and ten inches in diameter, such as originally held the cache of scrolls. [Barthlemy and Milik, op. cit., I, pp. 8-17.]

2. Contents o f the Scrolls from Other Qumran Caves

     In 1952 a series of other caves in the general area of Cave 1 at Qumran were discovered. Cave 2 (2Q) yielded fragments of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Ruth, Psalms, Jeremiah, and Jubilees, and bits of numerous non-biblical books. Cave 3 yielded, besides fragments of a dozen manuscripts, an interesting document listing the hiding places of some sixty caches of treasure over Palestine. This enigmatic scroll was bound in copper, finally opened in 1956 in England, and returned to the Jordan Museum in Amman. Whether it is a compilation of folklore concerning the burial place of ancient treasure hordes or a directory of treasures hidden away by the Essene communities, has not been determined. [Cf. A. Dupont-Sommer, Revue de l’histoire des religions 151 (1957), pp. 22-36.]

     Caves 4, 5 and 6 in the Qumran area were discovered later in 1952. Caves 5 and 6 contained comparatively few manuscript fragments, but Cave 4 (4Q) proved a sensational find, eclipsing even the remarkable discoveries of the original Cave 1, and yielding tens of thousands of fragments of manuscripts. From 1952-1956 painstaking work assembling and identifying these manuscripts was in progress, with the happy result that some 330 manuscripts have been identified, about 90 of which are biblical books. All the books of the Old Testament are represented with the sole exception of Esther. Of unusual significance is a copy of Samuel (4QSama ), which is more than eighty percent complete. Its unusual feature is that it follows the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew Text, differing in this case from the Isaiah Scrolls from Qumran, which closely follow the Masoretic tradition. [Cf. Frank M. Cross, Jr., in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 141 (Feb. 1956), pp. 9-13.]

     Cave 4 at Qumran also yielded five manuscripts of books of the Pentateuch, ten of Psalms, twelve of Isaiah, and seven of the Book of the Twelve Prophets, besides fragments of the book of Ecclesiastes (4QSAM^a), inscribed in a middle second century B.C. script, showing that at least by this date this critically disputed book was accepted by the Qumranites. [Cf. James Muilenberg in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 135 (Oct. 1954), pp. 20-28.] Numerous other works are represented in the rich find of fragments in Cave 4 at Qumran, and other caves in the region are adding new material to the incredible store already in the Palestine Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem and elsewhere.

3. The Contents of the Scrolls from the Caves of Wadi

Murrabb’at and Khirbet Mird

     Four large caves at Wadi Murrabb’at about a dozen miles south of Qumran, yielded a number of Aramaic and Greek business documents and several letters written in Hebrew on papyrus. They were excavated in 1952 by an expedition of the Jordan Department of Antiquities, the cole Biblique in Jerusalem, and the Palestine Archaeological Museum. Two of these documents turned out to be written by the leader of the Second Revolt, Simeon ben Kosiba (Bar Kokhba). Fragments of biblical books include Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah, containing a text practically identical with the Masoretic Text. Since some of the Qumran manuscripts differ from the Masoretic Hebrew, the new material has important bearings on the question of the transmission of the sacred text.

     Farther south of Qumran, some four miles northeast of the Mar Saba Monastery in the Wadi en-Nar, is located the ancient ruin of Khirbet Mird, the site of the Hasmonaean fortress of Hyrcania, re built by Herod the Great. In 1952 manuscripts were discovered in this region by the indefatigably active Bedouin, and an expedition of the University of Louvain in 1953 located the source at Khirbet Mird. This site yielded fragments of the Wisdom of Solomon in Greek uncials, fragments of Mark, John, and Acts dating from the fifth to the eighth centuries, as well as Christo-Palestinian Syriac fragments of Joshua, Matthew, Luke, Acts, and Colossians. The manuscript discoveries at Khirbet Mird are, therefore, much later than those at Qumran, [Charles T. Fritsch, The Qumran Community, Its History and Scrolls l(1956), p. 51.] but highly important in their own right.

II. THE QUMRAN COMMUNITY AND THE ESSENES

     Among important results of the manuscript finds and the excavations in the Dead Sea area have been the discovery not only of a substantial literature shedding light on the rules and practices of the Essenes, one of the most important sects of Judaism at the time next to the Pharisees and Sadducees, but also the discovery and exploration of the center of the sect on the western shore of the Dead Sea about seven miles south of Jericho, known as Khirbet Qumran. Within a few years this ruin (Khirbeh) of an ancient monastic community has become one of the most publicized sites in Palestine because of the phenomenal manuscript finds taking place in the cave-dotted cliffs around it since 1947.

1. Khirbet Qumran, Headquarters of the Essenes

     The recovery of the Manual of Discipline or Rule of the Community (1QS) among the initial discoveries in Cave 1 at Qumran sparked intense interest in the nearby ruin to ascertain whether it had connections with the hiding and preservation of the cave-deposited manuscripts, and more particularly whether the Manual of Discipline describes a sect of monastic Judaism of the time called Essenes, well-known in antiquity from the writings of Philo, Josephus, and Pliny, which may have had its headquarters there.

     In 1949 when G. Lankester Harding, Director of the Jordan Government Department of Antiquities and R. de Vaux, Director of the cole Biblique in Jerusalem, were exploring Cave 1 at Qumran, which had yielded the first sensational batch of manuscripts, their attention was directed to the ruins on the plateau about a mile farther south, which Clermont-Ganneau had examined in 1873-1874, and of which he had left the first authentic description of its pottery, walls, and adjacent cemetery. [C. Clermont-Ganneau, Archaeological Researches in Palestine During the Years 18873-1874, II (1896), pp. 14, 15; cf. G. Dalman, “Chirbet Kumran” in Palstinajahrbuch X (1914), p. 10; XVI (1920), p. 40. Dalman perspicaciously reasoned that the ruins were a military outpost of Roman times.]

     De Vaux and Harding's systematic excavations at the site of the Kirbeh from 1951-1956 have fully verified the place as the center of Essenic Judaism, and by the aid of recovered coins, pottery, and architectural remains, the story of Khirbet Qumran's occupation can now be told. Four periods in the later history of the site are traced. The first extends from its evident founding (c. 110 B.C.) under John Hyrcanus (135-104 B.C. ), since numerous coins of this ruler were dug up as well as of other Hasmonaean rulers through Antigonus (40-37 B.C. ), the last ruler of this line, to the seventh year of Herod (31 B.C. ) when a severe earthquake apparently leveled the site. [Cf. Josephus Antiquities XV, 5, 2, XIX, 3; of. Charles T. Fritsch for a discussion of the evidence for non-occupation during Herod’s reign in Journal of Biblical Literature 74 (1955), pp. 22-25. Only a single coin from Herod’s reign was found; cf. also Fritsch, The Qumran Community, pp. 22-25.] During the main part of Herod's reign, indications are that the place was abandoned.

     Period two at Qumran dates from its rebuilding and enlargement about the year A.D. 1, [Fritsch, The Qumran Community, p.1 4.] to its destruction by the Roman Tenth legion in June A.D. 68. During this period in the lifetime of Jesus, John the Baptist, and the early Christian apostles, the Qumran Community flourished and had its influence upon them as upon Judaism and the early Christian Church in general. Many of the 750 coins recovered from Qumran date from the time of Archelaus (4 B.C.-A.D. 6) and the Roman procurators down to the second year of the First Jewish Revolt (A.D. 66-70). A few are from Caesarea and Dora (dated A.D. 6768) under Nero, attesting that the Roman army which took Jericho in June A.D. 68, likewise took Qumran, as one coin marked with an x, belonging to the Tenth Legion, as well as iron arrowheads and a layer of burnt ash discovered in the excavations, demonstrate.

     Some scholars suggest that the monastic community at Qumran at this time may have been allied with the Zealots who led the rebellion against Rome, [Cf. H. H. Rowley in the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Manchester 40 (1957-1958), p. 144.] or actually are to be identified with this group. [Cecil Roth, Commentary 24 (1957), pp. 317-324.] At any rate,

Qumran fell to Roman occupation and some of the coins inscribed Judaea Capta and dating from the reign of Titus (A.D. 79-81) mark period three as that of Roman occupation after Jerusalem's destruction in A.D. 70. In addition, evidence that the Qumran structures were converted into army barracks seems to indicate that a Roman garrison was stationed there from A.D. 68 to c. 100 A.D., when the site was again abandoned.

     Period four at Qumran is marked by the reoccupation of the site during the Second Jewish Revolt (A.D. 132-135). Thirteen coins dating from this period, found at the bottom of the tower where Jewish patriots made their last stand, indicate that the Jews employed this isolated place as a fortress in their final futile attempt to drive the Romans from their country. Thereafter Qumran knew Arab shepherds on their way to water their flocks at the waters of `Ain Feshka, sporadic temporary encampments in later times being indicated by a sprinkling of Byzantine and Arabic coins. [Charles Fritsch, The Qumran Community: Its History and Scrolls l(1956), pp. 19-20.]

2. Buildings and Other Installations of the Essenes at Qumran.

     The main community structure was a building 100 feet by 120 feet, which formed the nucleus of a complex of rooms and cisterns. [For an account of the excavations at Khirbet Qumran (1951-1956), see R. de Vaux in Revue Biblique 60 (1953), pp. 838-106; 6i1 (1954), pp. 206-236; Fritsch, op. cit., pp. 1-25; James L. Kelso in Journal of Biblical Literature 74 (1955), pp. 141-146.] The northwest corner of this central structure was occupied by a massive defense tower with three-feet thick walls reinforced by stone embankments. A cache of coins from the time of the Second Jewish Revolt found in one of the secret chambers attests to its use as a bastion to the end of Qumran's history.

     A room with several fireplaces east of the tower evidently was the community's kitchen, while rooms to the southwest of the tower served as assembly halls or refectories, a low, carefully plastered bench along the four sides of one of them suggesting a meeting place of the sect.

     Alongside this meeting room in the largest hall of the main building was the scriptorium, containing pieces which, when patiently assembled in the Palestine Museum in Jerusalem, turned out to be a long narrow table and a companion bench. Two inkwells of the Roman period, one of which actually contained some dried ink, indicate that here the manuscripts had been copied by the community's scribes. A little platform with cupped-out basins also found in the debris was doubtless employed for ritual washings by the scribes when copying the sacred texts.

     To the south of the main building was a large room, twenty-two feet in length, probably a dining hall for the communal meal, since what was evidently a pantry adjoined it, in which were stacked against the wall more than a thousand bowls.

In the southwest part of the main building were two cisterns or artificial reservoirs, carefully constructed and plastered. One of these cisterns contains fourteen steps leading into the pool, railed off into four passages, as if to conduct people into it for baptisms and ablutions. [This is the interpretation of Fritsch, op. cit., pp. 5-8, who quotes from the Qumran literature to show that the Qumranites were a baptizing sect. But it is difficult to imagine that water in sufficient quantities could be stored purely for bodily immersions, especially when ritually clean water was stipulated.] Yet of the approximately forty cisterns and reservoirs at Qumran, the bulk of them at least must have been used purely for storage in the hot arid climate where the very life of the community depended on an adequate water supply. The spring at ‘Ain Feshka, and the Jordan not prohibitively distant, provided abundant fresh water for these purposes. All the water, however, for the intricate system at Qumran was conducted across the plateau by a stone aqueduct, traces of which can still be discerned.

     The cemetery adjacent to the Qumran Community, containing approximately one thousand graves, was the burial ground of the sect. R. de Vaux excavated about a score of these tombs, which are notable for their lack of any jewelry or finery, as would be expected from the ascetic monastic sect, and for the orientation of the corpse north and south and not east and west, which the Clermont-Ganneau explorations (1873-74) had determined were at least non-Moslem burials. [Clermont-Ganneau, op. cit., pp. 15, 16.] Potsherds in the grave fill also point to the fact that the cemetery is coeval with the existence of the Qumran Essene Community. As far as excavations have been conducted, the main cemetery consists of adult male skeletal remains, but women and children are interred in adjacent similar burial areas. [Cf. R. de Vaux in Revue Biblique 63 (1956), pp. 569-572.]

5.     Khirbet Qumran and the Essenes

     That the Jewish ascetic community at Qumran is to be identified with the important reformatory movement in first century Judaism known as the Essenes [Probably derived from the Aramaic hese "pure, holy." Philo connects the term with the Greek noun hosiotēs "holiness" and says the name Essene is given these people "because they have shown themselves especially devout in the service of God..." (Every Good Man Is Free, trans. F. H. Colson in Loeb Classical Library IX, 53-63); for twenty-five different entymologies of the word, cf. K. Cook, The Fathers o f Jesus (2 vols., London, 1886), II, pp. 48-49.] is indicated by the similarity of location and of attested practice at the Qumran Community with what is known of this group from Josephus, Philo, and Pliny. [Cf. H. H. Rowley, The Zadokite Fragments and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1952), pp. 78f., and in Theologische Zeitschrift 1 (1957), pp. 530-540; A. Dupont-Sommer, the Jewish Sect of Qumran and the Essenes, tr. R. D. Barnett (1954).] Pliny locates them in precisely the spot where Qumran is situated “on the west side of the Dead Sea.” He also speaks of “the town of Engedi” as “lying below the Essenes,” by which he obviously means south of them, with Masada next in order from north to south. [Natural History V, XV in the Loeb Classical Library, II, 277.]

     Philo extols their moral virtues, their industry, their rejection of slavery and covetuous commerce, their communal life with a common treasury and common meal. He calls them "Essenes or holy ones." [Phil, Every Good Man Is Free IX, pp. 53-63.] In his "Apology for the Jews," fragmentarily preserved in Eusebius' Praeparatio Evangelica, Philo says of the Essenes, "The test of their freedom is their life. Not one of them can abide to be possessor of anything whatever as his own private property . . . but once for all they lay all down in the midst, and reap their harvest from the common prosperity of all." [VIII, 11 translated by K. Cook, The Fathers of Jesus II, 5-8.]

     Josephus stresses the unselfish and industrious communality of the Essenes, their love for honest toil, their devotion, their being clothed in white, the probationary three-year period before admission to the sect, and their strict discipline when one of their number falls into serious sin.36

     In The Antiquities of the Jews Josephus mentions their lustrations, their number (4,000 ), their celibacy, their piety, their belief in the immortality of the soul and the rewards of righteousness. [Jewish War II, 8.]

When the descriptions of the Essenes given by Philo and Josephus are compared with the teachings and practices of the Qumran sect, many striking similarities are immediately obvious, which make it difficult to escape the conclusion that the Qumranites were Essenes, or at least a closely related group. For example, communal life was practiced by the two groups, both emphasizing community of goods and the common meal. Both sects abhorred slavery and practiced equality, each member in the Qumran Community being free to express his opinion and vote in the common session (IQS, VI, 19). The manner of initiation into the sect is strikingly similar in Josephus and at Qumran (1QS, V, 1 to VI, 23). Disciplinary dealing- with sin is much the same in both groups (IQS, VIII, 20 to IX, 2). A notable parallel is the ban against spitting, stated so plainly in Josephus and also in the Qumran Manual (VII, 13). The special interest of the Essenes in the Bible and in ancient literature, reflected in Philo and Josephus, is attested by the large library discovered at Qumran. Not only did they meticulously copy sacred literature but carefully preserved it. It may yet prove true that such extracanonical books as Enoch, Jubilees, The Assumption of Moses, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs are Essenic in origin, a theory held by certain scholars long before the Qumran literature was discovered. [Cf. A. Dupont-Sommer, the Dead Sea Scrolls, pp. 94, 95.]

     However, identification of the Qumran sect with the Essenes is not without some difficulties. Both Philo and Josephus relate a number of details concerning the Essenes which are not mentioned in the documents from Qumran - for example, the Essene custom of rising before dawn and praying toward the East, although morning and evening prayers are mentioned (I QS, X, 10). Josephus declares the Essene novitiate received a loin cloth (for bathing), a hatchet (to bury his excrement), and a white garment as wearing apparel. None of these is mentioned in the Qumran sectarian document dealing with the rules of admission to the community (1 QS, VI, 13-23). Philo strongly asserts the Essenes had nothing to do with arms or fighting, but this seems at variance with the militant sect of 1 QM describing the conflict between the children of light and the children of darkness. But Qumran's military handbook may belong to an earlier period of the sect (the Maccabaean struggles) or may have a spiritual and eschatological sense. The more pacifistic Essenes of Philo may have belonged to a later time, and the militaristically inclined members of the party no doubt left the Essenes and joined the Zealots who led the open revolt against Rome.

     But an overall study of the similarities between the organization and doctrines of. the Essenes and the Qumran Community far outweigh the differences, and these differences evidently can be attributed either to prejudiced and faulty reporting by Philo and Josephus or to present inadequate knowledge of the history and teachings of the Qumran sect. It is therefore to be concluded that the Qumran Community is to be identified with the Essenes as presented by Philo, Josephus, and Pliny. [Fritsch, op. cit., pp. 107-110.]

4. The Qumran Manual of Discipline and the Zadokite Document

     Since the discovery of the Qumran Manual of Discipline in 1947, it has become increasingly clear that this document has very close affinity with an older work found in 1896 in the genizah or storeroom of a medieval synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, and known as The Cairo Document of the Damascus Covenanters (CD) or more briefly, the Zadokite Document. [S. Schechter, ed., Documents of Jewish Sectaries (2 vols. New York, 1910) Vol. I Fragments of a Zadokite Edited from Hebrew Manuscripts in the Cairo Genizah Collection now in Possession of the University Library Cambridge, and Provided with an English Translation, Introduction and Notes (1910; Chaim Rabin, The Zadokite Documents (1954).] The Zadokite Document tells of the "sons of Zadok," Jews who migrated to Damascus, and under the leadership of the "Star" organized the Party of the New Covenant or Covenanters of Damascus. This Zadokite work, consisting of two parts—(1) the origin and migration of the Covenanters (chaps. 1-9) and (2) the regulations of the sect (10-20)—describes a "teacher of righteousness" whom God raised up to lead the group in a solemn covenant they made to separate from evil of every sort. Alongside the "teacher of righteousness" is his antagonist, the wicked priest or "man of lies," terms which probably could be used to designate the representative of the true priesthood of the sect and the false priesthood of the Jewish Temple at any time between the Maccabaean struggle and the fall of the house of the Hasmonaeans. [H. H. Rowley sets the scene under Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabaean revolt; Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Manchester 40 (1957-1958), pp. 114-146; Frank M. Cross, Jr. places the allusions to the “teacher of righteousness” under Jonathan and Simon Maccabaeus (160-142 B.C.), The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Biblical Studies (1958), pp. 95-119. Cf. also W. H. Brownlee, “The Historical Allusions of the Dead Sea Habakkuk Midrash” Bull. of the Am. Schs. 125 (1952), pp. 10-20 for a list of the various views of the historical background of 1Qp Hab.] It seems that both documents set forth the underlying struggle between the sect and the corrupt Jerusalem priesthood, but evidently apply to different phases of the conflict.

     A comparison of the .organization and teaching of the Qumran Community with the Community of the Covenant (Damascus Covenanters) closely relates the two groups, if not actually equates them as identical. However, because of certain differences [For a full discussion of these see Fritsch, op. cit., pp. 76-89.] it appears that the Zadokite Document and the Qumran Manual of Discipline represent different stages in the development of the one sect. It is significant, therefore, that an actual fragment of the Zadokite Document (6QD) was found at Qumran.

III. THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

     Although the Dead Sea Scrolls have already proved of immense value in the area of Old Testament studies in dealing with the Hebrew text, Hebrew history, palaeography, literary criticism, etc., and in the intertestamental era in elucidating its life, history and literature, it is in the field of New Testament studies that the Qumranite and the Dead Sea literature are proving especially significant. [Cf. F. M. Cross, Jr. “The Scrolls and the New Testament” in Christian Century (Aug. 24, 1955).]

1. The Qumran Community and John the Baptist

     Luke gives' a concise statement concerning the childhood and young manhood of John the Baptist which is now rich in suggestion in the light of the Essenic community at Qumran in the desert. "And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel" (Luke 1:80). Since the home of John's parents was in "the hill country of Judaea" (Luke 1:39, 40, 65) and John is not said to have resided with them during this formative period, it is highly probable in the light of John's acquaintance with Essenic thought that he resided in the Qumran Community and received his theological education among them. He may actually have been adopted by them, in accordance with their custom of choosing out "other persons' children," while they were pliable, and fit for learning to train them in their doctrines and practices. [Cf. Josephus’ statement of this custom among the Essenes (“Wars of the Jews II, 8, 2); cf. also W. H. Brownlee, “John the Baptist in the New Light of ancient Scrolls,” in Interpretation IX (1955), pp .71-90.] Whether this is true or not, he was at least cognizant of the group and influenced indirectly by them, as close parallels between his ministry and message and the Qumran Community attest.

     Both John and the Qumranites feature Isaiah 40:3. "Now when these things come to pass in Israel to the Community, according to these rules, they will separate themselves from the midst of the session of perverse men to go to the wilderness to prepare there the way of HUHA (surrogate for Yahweh), as it is written: In the wilderness clear the way. . . make level in the desert a highway for our God" (QS, VIII, 12-14; Matthew 3:1-3; Mark 1:2, 3; Luke 3:4-6).

     However, John evidently became convinced that the Essenes, although they were endeavoring to prepare themselves, were not preparing the nation for the advent of ,the Messiah, and so he must have broken with them, giving himself to an active ministry of preaching repentance and baptizing in the Jordan Valley. His message in featuring repentance (Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3), moreover, struck also a vital note in the theology of the Qumranites who believed they belonged to a "covenant of repentance" (CDC, IX, 15b) and styled themselves "the penitents of Israel" (CDC, VI, 1; VIII, 8; IX, 24).

     The baptism of repentance which John administered is also paralleled by the Qumranite sect among whom this rite was featured (IQS3:4-9; 5:13, 14). John's baptism was an outward indication of an inward spiritual repentance, enabling the recipients to recognize and receive the Messiah when He came. Qumranite baptism, however, was purely ritual and the recipients were enjoined to separate themselves rigidly from any who did not belong to their community.

     The severe indictment of the Jewish nation, so salient a feature of John's rugged preaching (Matthew 3:7-9; Luke 3:7, 8), was also characteristic of the Qumran sect, who regarded all outside their community as "sons of darkness" belonging to the realm of Belial. Members of the sect were the true Israel living in accordance with the Torah, and they alone could be sanctified by purifying water, and for them alone the baptismal rite therefore could have any meaning (IQS, III, 8, 9).

     Conspicuous also in John's message is the coming Messiah who would "baptize ... with the Holy Spirit and with fire..." (Matthew 3:11), the baptism with fire being the judgment upon the unrepentant in an eschatological sense. Such a judgment of fire is graphically described in one of the Qumran hymns under the figure of a fiery river overflowing in wrath "on the outcasts" and in "the time of fury for all Belial." [For complete translation, see A. Dupont-Sommer, op. cit., p. 73.]

     The baptism with the Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is prophesied by John to be the portion of those who would repent and receive the coming Messiah (John 1:33). In the Qumran literature not only does God "sprinkle upon him (the Messiah) the spirit of truth as purifying water so as to cleanse him from all abominations of falsehood and from being contaminated with the spirit of impurity" (1QS, IV, 22-32), but Messiah Himself sprinkles His people with His Holy Spirit, thus constituting them His anointed ones (CDC II, 9; IQS, IX, 11).

     But John differed from the Qumran Community not only in being intensely missionary and evangelistic in the proclamation of his Messianic message, whereas the Qumranites had no discernible program for adding new adherents, except adopting children to train in their ways, but also the Baptist stands in contrast to the Qumran sect in actually being vouchsafed the high honor of preparing the way for the true Messiah and being His forerunner. The members of the Qumran Community, in spite of their Messianic fervor and piety, never recognized the Messiah when He came, insofar as is known. The ascetic, self-developing, unevangelistic movement they evolved in the desert became a dead-end street, for it never conducted them to the One whom John immediately recognized when He appeared as "the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). But the piety and devoted loyalty of the group to God's laws were not fruitless, for one who was imbued with their teachings and expectation of the Messiah, and who may well have actually been a member of an Essenic group, was divinely privileged to prepare the way for the Lord's Anointed.

2. The Qumran Community and Jesus the Messiah

     Although the Qumran Community had a well-defined Messianic doctrine like the Old Testament, yet they could not comprehend the combination of King and Priest in one Person (Psalm 110:1, 4; Zechariah 6:9-15) as their ancient Scriptures taught. Neither could they see in the union of the same one Person the additional office of Prophet, although they featured the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:18, 19 in their literature. Their great priest was "Messiah of Aaron," their great military leader, the "Messiah of Israel." But the Prophet referred to in the Rule of the Community is set down alongside the "Messiahs of Aaron and Israel," apparently as a separate Messianic figure, emphasizing the fact that there is a radical difference in the Messianic concept as found in the Bible and that current among the members of the Qumran Community, although the latter's concept bears many striking similarities. [Cf. L. H. Silberman, he Two Messiahs of the Manual of Discipline” Vetus Testamentum V (1955) pp. 77-82.]

     In addition to the Messianic concepts at Qumran, there are many similarities between the organization and teachings of the Qumran group and the teachings of Jesus and the organization of the Christian Church. [Cf. J. L. Teicher, “Jesus’ Sayings in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Journal of Jewish Studies V (1954), p. 38, W. H. Brownlee, “The Cross of Christ in the Light of the Ancient Scrolls,” United Presbyterian Nov. 30, Dec. 7, 14, 21, and 28, 1953; J. Danilov, “Le Communaut de Qumran et l’organisation de l’Eglise ancienne, Revue d’Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuse XXXV (1955), 104-116.] For example, the passage in Matthew 18:15-17 concerning dealing with an erring brother has an interesting parallel in the Qumran literature, where there is also stipulated first a personal reproof, then a reproof before witnesses, and finally a reproof before the whole group or community (1QS, V, 25 to VI, 1). With the new material, the background of the gospel stories is much more richly illustrated. The Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper, and numerous other aspects of the earthly life and ministry of Jesus are fitted into a larger framework of historical background material, and to that extent are better understood on the human side.

3. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Literary Criticism

of the New Testament

     The phenomenal manuscript discoveries from the Dead Sea area have had a stabilizing effect upon the critical views of the date and authenticity of New Testament books. In the light of the new material, the New Testament appears as a Jewish book with a Christian theology with less Greek influence in its formation then Jewish, and there is reason to date the synotic gospels, beginning with Mark, between about A.D. 60 and 65.

     The gospel of John is now shown to have been written about A.D. 80. The new Essene materials from the last century and a half preceding Jesus' ministry have decisively discredited the rationalistic criticism of the nineteenth century which customarily dated John's gospel about A.D. 150 or later, or the earlier twentieth century views that placed it between A.D. 90 and 130, thus effectually removing it from the authentic tradition of the apostolic age and treating it as essentially an apocryphal book. [Cf. Lucetta Mowrey, “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Background for the Gospel of John” in the Biblical Archaeologist XVII (Dec. 1954A), pp. 78-97.] That the fourth gospel reflects the genuine Jewish background of John the Baptist and Jesus and not that of a later second-century Gnostic milieu is clearly attested by the remarkably close parallels to the conceptual imagery of John's gospel in the Essenic literature from Qumran. Now on the basis of the new evidence, there is every sound reason to believe in the genuineness of John's gospel and "there is no reason to date the gospel after A.D. 90; it may be earlier." [W. F. Albright, “The bible After Twenty Years of Archaeology,” Religion in Life, 21:4.]

     Another extremely significant archaeological find that adds its voice to the Dead Sea Scrolls in showing the unsoundness of making John's gospel a late production of a second century Gnostic environment is the recovery of thirteen codices containing some forty-nine Gnostic documents. In 1945 these were accidentally discovered in Upper Egypt at ancient Sheneset-Chenoboskion in the vicinity of Nag Hammadi thirty-two miles north of Luxor. [Victor R. gold in The Biblical Archaeologist 15 (1952), pp. 70-88.] Written in Coptic, they date from the middle of the third century A.D. and apparently rest on Greek originals. These important documents include discussions of the nature of gospels, epistles, apocalypses and evidently belonged to a group of Gnostics initiated into the sects' doctrines. Among them is the Apocryphon, or Secret Book of John, purported to have been given by Jesus to John on Olivet [Three copies were recovered at Chenoboskion and another was already known in the Berlin Coptic codex 8502 from the fifth century. See W. T. Till Die gnostischen Schriften des koptischen Papyrus Berolinensis 8502: Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichite der altchristlichen Literatur 60(1955).] and containing typical Gnostic heresy described by Irenaeus (A.D. c. 180) in his work, Against Heresies. [A Roberts and J. Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, 10 vols. (1885-87) 1., pp. 353f.] The new material from Sheneset-Chenoboskion, coupled with the evidence from Qumran, proves that Gnosticism is much later than the gospel of John, although the Gnostics based much of their teaching on the gospel.

     Evidence is also available that helps to date the Pauline epistles from about 50 A.D. to the early 60's. Elders and bishops (overseers), once thought to be late, now must be considered early in the light of the Manual of Discipline from Qumran about 100 B.C., where leaders are mentioned, called overseers, and described in detail.

     Both the catholic epistles (particularly Peter's second epistle) and the book of Hebrews may now be definitely dated before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The latter book apparently was penned to offset the Essenic idea of two anointed ones, one a prince and the other a priest, presenting the Christian and Old Testament doctrine (cf. Zechariah 6:9-15) that the Messiah would be king and priest in one person. Likewise, the book of the Revelation, although doubtless penned toward the end of the First Century, may now possibly be dated earlier (before A.D. 70) on the basis of its Hebraic background being illumined by evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls.

5. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the gospel of Thomas

It has been noted in the preceding section how the thirteen Coptic codices (containing forty-nine Gnostic treatises) from Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt have had bearings on the literary criticism of the date and authenticity of the fourth gospel. But the significance of this phenomenal archaeological find extends far beyond this particular contribution to biblical studies and presents a discovery comparable in importance to the Dead Sea Scrolls (although not nearly so profusely publicized) and of even greater moment to students of the New Testament. Robert M. Grant says, "It may be that future historians of criticism will look on the fifties as the Dead Sea Age and the sixties as the age of Nag-Hammadi." [Robert M. Grant, "Two Gnostic Gospels" in the Journal of Biblical Literature 79 (March 1960), pp. 1-11. The thirteen codices of the Nag-Hammadi library contain about 1,000 pages of which nearly 800 are complete (Cf. R. Grant, op. cit., p. 1). The bulk of them have been acquired by the Coptic Museum in Cairo. Cf. R. McLachlan Wilson, "The Gnostic Library of Nag-Hammadi," Scottish Journal of Theology (June 1959), pp. 161-170.]

Of all the documents from Nag-Hammadi, however, perhaps the most important is the Gospel of Thomas. Other apocryphal gospels of the second and third centuries are the Gospel of the Hebrews, the Gospel According to the Egyptians, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of

Truth and the Gospel of the Twelve. The Gospel of Thomas is particularly significant because it is the only complete early apocryphal gospel thus far uncovered. [ Robert M. Grant, The Secrete Sayings of Jesus (New York, 1960), p. 39. A Guillaumont, Henry-Charles Puech, Gilles Quispel, Walter Till and Yassah abd Al Masih (trans.), The Gospel According to Thomas (New York, 1959), pp. 1-62; R. McLachlan Wilson, “The gospel of Thomas,” Expository Times 7 (Oct. 1958-Sept. 1959), pp. 324-325.] In the Gospel of Thomas are 114 logia, or sayings attributed to Jesus. But inasmuch as the Gospel of Thomas is limited to sayings, Quispel defines it "not at all a Gospel, but a collection of about 114 sayings attributed to Jesus and allegedly written by the Apostle Thomas. " [G. Quispel, “Some Remarks on the gospel of Thomas,” New Testament Studies 5:276-290 (1958-59).]

     The Gospel of Thomas apparently reflects three sources. The first is the canonical gospels, one-half of the contents being in this category. The second is the apocryphal gospels, principally The Gospel According to the Egyptians and The Gospel According to the Hebrews. The third is an unknown source of sayings unique to this Gospel. [Walter C. Till, “New Sayings of Jesus in the Recently Discovered Coptic ‘Gospel of Thomas,’” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Manchester 41:446-458 (March, 1959).]

     In its relationship to the canonical gospels of the New Testament, two possibilities exist. One is that this work has an origin independent of the canonical gospels and therefore may give authentic facts concerning the sayings of Jesus. The other is that the Gospel of Thomas is a Gnostic writing derived from the canonical gospels but intentionally adding to or moulding the canonical gospels to propagandize the Gnostic system.

     Representing the first view are those who contend that Thomas, or at least those sayings in it which resemble our canonical gospels, merits equal respectful treatment as the synoptic gospels since, it is contended, it stands about as close to the oral tradition as they do. [Cf. Robert M. Grant, “Two Gnostic gospels: in Journal of Biblical Literature 79 (March 1960), p. 2. The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 29.]

     Quispel suggests that Thomas reflects an Aramaic Jewish-Christian gospel tradition independent of the sources of the canonical gospels, i.e., from the tradition referred to as "Q," but allows for the introduction of "elements which lead toward Gnostic conceptions." [G. Quispel, “Some Remarks on the Gospel of Thomas” in New Testament Studies 5 (1958-59), pp. 277 ff., p. 287.]

The other view is that the Gospel of Thomas is a Gnostic invention in support of the claim of the Gnostics "that they themselves were the only ones who understood what Jesus really meant." [Robert Grant, The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 65.]59 As Grant says, " . . . since the Gnostics found such gospels necessary they did invent them—not out of nothing, but (in the case of Thomas) out of the oral traditions in circulation in the second century, out of the four canonical gospels, and out of the apocryphal gospels as well." [Grant, “Two Gnostic Gospels:” Jour. of Biblical Literature 79, p. 2.]

     This is doubtless the correct view of the relation of the Gospel of Thomas to the New Testament gospels, especially in the light of its significant and marked omissions, in striking contrast to the fullness found in the canonical gospels. Thomas is silent about sin, forgiveness, miracles, or the deeds of Jesus, demons, or exorcisms. So marked a phenomenon is this incompleteness that an inadequate and distorted representation of Jesus is the result, and doubtless why the work was deemed un-canonical by the church. Grant's summary statement is to the point: "With all its fascination, we should beware of valuing the new Gospel of Thomas too highly. It is important as a witness to the development of Gnostic Christology, not to the teachings of the historical Jesus." [Op. cit., p. 4.]

Chapter 5—Places Where Jesus Walked and Worked in Judea and the Jordon Valley

     Modern scientific archaeology is making substantial contributions toward a better understanding of the gospel narratives and the apostolic period, although the net result of research cannot be expected to be so astonishing as is the Old Testament field where over a millennia and a half of history is illuminated, as over against less than a century in the case of New Testament backgrounds, and where incomparably more was known of the latter from extra-biblical sources than of the former before the advent of archaeological inquiry. But the New Testament field, although comparatively short-spanned, represents a period of quintessential importance to the Christian student because of its connection with our Lord and the proclamation of the Christian Gospel which enhances the value of such discoveries as are made concerning it. These discoveries mainly concentrate in illuminating the complex political and cultural milieu in which the ministry of Jesus and the apostles took place, recovering long-lost knowledge of geographical and other details of the gospel accounts and occasionally authenticating the sacred narratives against higher critical attacks alleging historical inaccuracies.

     In attempting to retrace the steps of Jesus and to re-envision the times in which He ministered, it is fortunate that the village and country life of Palestine until recent times has remained much the same as it was in the biblical era.

     [Cf. Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Vols. I, 11 (New York, 1940); A. C. Bouquet, Everyday Life in New Testament Times (New York, 1954); F. F. Bishop, Jesus of Palestine: The Local Background of the Gospel Documents, 1955; Jack Finegan, Light from the Ancient Past, 2n ed. (New York, 1959), p. 297.]

     Local customs and daily life can be reconstructed. Moreover, many of the places mentioned in the gospel narratives and the New Testament as a whole have been known from earliest times. Others once doubtful are now certain. Some still remain to be identified with the progress of archaeological research. Those which are known are becoming better known as a result of systematic scientific excavations.

I. JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE, FOCAL

POINT OF THE BIBLE

     Of all Palestinian sites, the city of Jerusalem is the most interesting to the Christian student. This is true not only because of the city's long and checkered history in Old Testament times, but also because of its intimate connection with the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord and the beginning of the Christian church. To Jew and Christian it is pre-eminently "the Holy City," and next to Mecca and Medina in Arabia is the most important sacred place in the Moslem world.

1. Jerusalem and Its Topography

     The city is located on the central highland ridge 2550 feet above sea level. Fourteen miles to the east lies the Dead Sea, nestled in the deep depression of the Jordan Valley some 1300 feet below sea level. Thirty-three miles to the west lies the Mediterranean.

     To the east of the city lies the Mount of Olives, rising several hundred feet higher than the city and separated from it by the Valley of the Kidron (II Chronicles 32:4). To the south and west runs the deep Valley of Hinnom. The city was built on the plateau which rises above these two valleys and connects with the central ridge on the north. The plateau itself is divided into two parts by a smaller north-south valley, commonly called The Tyropoeon ("valley of the cheese-manufacturers"). The Western Hill, called the Upper City, was larger and higher than the Eastern Hill, but the latter because of the water supply (the Gihon spring in the Kidron Valley and En-rogel at the juncture of the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys) was the site of the earliest occupation and fortress city of Old Testament times. This important fact of the location of the ancient bastion of Jebus conquered by David about 998 B.C. on the Eastern Hill rather than on the more imposing Western Hill, is a significant contribution of modern archaeological exploration of the city.

     [Cf. Jack Finegan, op. cit., pp. 178-180; Merrill F. Unger, Archaeology and the Old Testament (4th ed., Grand Rapids, 1960), pp. 206-209; G. Ernest Wright, Biblical Archaeology (Philadelphia, 1957), pp. 125-130; G. Ernest Wright, Floyd V. Filson; W. F. Albright, The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible (rev. ed., Philadelphia, 1956), p. 105.]

     Hasmonaean zealots, moreover, cut down the top of the Eastern Hill in the second century B.C. so that it might not rival the Temple area in eminence and filled in the valley between the fortress they built on the site of the old Lower City and the temple to the north. The Tyropoean Valley too was partially obliterated by the debris of centuries, so that the topography of Jerusalem has undergone change.

2. The Herodian City

     By the time of Jesus, the city of Jerusalem had been greatly enlarged, particularly as a result of the building activities of Herod the Great. It now spread to the north and west. The use of cisterns and aqueducts made this possible. It is definitely known, for example, that Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator of Judaea A.D. 26-36, aroused the ire of the Jews by appropriating temple funds to build or repair (probably the latter) an aqueduct into the city. The result of these building operations was that the central section of the city was no longer on the lower hill south of the temple, which had been known as Ophel in earlier periods, but to the north and west of the temple area. This situation demanded a revamping of the city's fortifications.

     The first and second north walls, which were already built when Herod became king, were elaborately strengthened by him with magnificent towers. One was named Hippicus in honor of a friend, one Phasael, after a brother, and one Mariamne after his favorite wife. The tower of Phasael stood where the Tower of David now stands, with Mariamne east of Phasael and Hippicus evidently to the southwest. Herod's hand can be detected in the characteristic heavy masonry, as at the Wailing Wall. The first north wall ran west from about the middle of the temple area. The second north wall has not been decisively outlined, but evidently ran from the Tower of Antonia to the Jaffa Gate.

     South of the towers Hippicus, Phasael and Mariamne, Herod built his resplendent palace. North of the temple he rebuilt the Baris, a Maccabaean fortress, and called it Antonia in honor of Mark Antony. This redoubtable fortification was constructed on a high precipice and was strengthened with four towers, the one at the southeast corner some 105 feet high, dominating the entire temple area and exposing to view all that transpired in the temple courts. Besides, access was possible to the temple courts by stairs and bridges, so that with a Roman cohort garrisoned in the fortress of Antonia, control of the Jews was possible in the whole temple area.

     Under Herod Jerusalem expanded considerably. On the north a suburb developed called Bezetha. To enclose this new area, Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great and the last "king of the Jews," began a third wall begun about A.D. 42 which, however, was not completed until A.D. 66, shortly before the destruction of the city by the Romans. All these fortifications were so formidable that they excited even the wonder of the world-conquering Romans and are described by the Roman historian Tacitus in connection with his comments on the siege of the city by Titus in A.D. 70. [History, Book V, paragraphs 11 and 12; cf. Wright, Biblical Archaeology, p. 222.]

     In addition to these structures, Herod, as an ardent admirer of Greek culture, built many other edifices in Jerusalem, including a hippodrome, theatre, and amphitheatre. It was his aim to fill his realm with architectural splendors in the best western tradition, as he did not only in Jerusalem but in Sebaste (Samaria ), Caesarea, and elsewhere. His reign witnessed the triumph of Hellenism over the traditionalistic conservatism of his predecessors, the Maccabees.

3. The Herodian Temple

     Herod's most elaborate building project, however, directed at ingratiating himself into favor with his Jewish subjects, was the temple. This magnificent enterprise was begun in 20-19 B.C., and although the sanctuary proper was finished in a year and a half, the larger plan envisioned by the monarch was not completed until A.D. 64. In Jesus' day the Pharisees declared that the temple already had been in the process of construction for forty-six years (John 2:20).

Herod lavished huge sums on the great structure to make it worthy of its fame as a center of pilgrimage for Jews from all over the Graeco-Roman world. Although its general plan was handed down from the ancient tabernacle and the existing second temple, Herod could adorn it with splendid colonnaded courts and porticoes. One such column was discovered in modern times in front of the Russian cathedral north of the old city. Being found defective, it had been abandoned in the quarry and never used for the purpose for which it had been made.

     To give the temple the spaciousness required for his ambitious plans and to accommodate the great throngs that crowded it on the occasion of the annual festivals, Herod constructed a sprawling platform extending over the southeastern area where the terrace dropped sharply. This area had to be supported by stout columns and cavernous vaults and a huge retaining wall, parts of which are still visible. One of Jerusalem's early explorers, Sir Charles Warren, excavated this wall between 1867-1870 and discovered it to have been sunk to bedrock in places fifty feet below the present surface of the ground. The ruins of this architectural complex, traditionally but erroneously called "Solomon's stables," are quite unconnected with King Solomon's chariot-horse stables. The remains of the superb wall Herod built around the great court in which the temple stood offer the finest example of extant Herodian architectural skill in Jerusalem.

     With data furnished by Josephus and the Mishnah (Tractacte Middoth), scholars are able to reconstruct the plan of the various parts of Herod's temple.

     [Cf. L. H. Grollenberg Atlas o f the Bible (New York, 1956), p. 115, map 33. Wright and Filson, The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible, p. 109, plate XVII; Wright, Biblical Archaeology, p. 224, figure 168.]

     The splendid edifice had at least eight gates, four on the west, two on the south, one on the north, and one on the east. Magnificent porticoes graced the outer court. Particularly splendid was the Royal Porch facing the south, which was more spacious than the others and more lavishly columned. Solomon's Porch, where Jesus taught (John 10:23) and where Peter and the apostles later taught and preached (Acts 3:11; 5:12), faced toward the east across the defile of the Kidron. In the northern extremity of this spacious portico was the Golden Gate, opening to a road that led to Gethsemane across the Kidron and branching toward the north to connect with the road to Jericho issuing from the Sheep Gate (John 5:2) near the pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the paralytic (John 5:1-14). The Beautiful Gate where the lame beggar was daily laid (Acts 3:2), evidently opening on to Solomon's Porch, was the Corinthian Gate. Here Peter performed the miracle of healing (Acts 3:2).

     The Court of the Gentiles was entered on the south end and was adjacent to the Royal Porch. Beyond this was the wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles (Acts 21:28; Ephesians 2:14). Past this area, a non-Jew might not go. Notices in the Greek language at the gates to the inner courts warned Gentiles not to enter. It is interesting to note that the only two pieces of surviving stone which are known to have belonged to Herod's temple bear this very warning: "No alien may enter within the barrier and wall around the temple. Whoever is caught (violating this) is alone responsible for the death (-penalty) which follows." One of these stone pieces was recovered in a cemetery in 1935. Another turned up near St. Stephen's Gate in 1935. These discoveries not only illuminate Herod's temple but vividly recall Jesus' solemn prophecy from Olivet concerning its destruction. "Verily I say to you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down" (Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:2), which was literally fulfilled when the Roman legions of Titus destroyed the temple and the city.

     Beyond the court of the Gentiles was the Court of the Women, beyond which no Jewish woman could go. In this area, contribution chests were placed. Here Jesus, sitting over against the treasury, saw the poor widow make a consecrated contribution which He immortalized by His words of commendation (Mark 12:41-44). Beyond the confines of the Court of

the Women lay the Men's Court, entered by the Beautiful Gate on the east or by a stairway leading from the Court of the Women on the south. In this Court of Israel, situated before the actual place where the priests ministered, Israelite men could watch the sacrificial system in operation on the altar of burnt offering.

     Steps leading up to an ornamental porch west of the altar of burnt offering opened up to the Holy Place, a chamber thirty feet by sixty feet, where priests officiated before the candlestick, the altar of incense and the table of show bread. Beyond this, behind a veil, was the inner sanctuary or Holy of Holies, thirty feet by thirty feet, where the high priest alone entered to make expiation for the nation annually on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16).

     Storerooms, treasuries, and priests' chambers were located in the temple area at convenient places. Just west of the temple area was a council chamber where the Sanhedrin met. Easy access to the temple courts and the Upper City was made possible by a viaduct across the Tyropoeon Valley.

     The Temple was oriented toward the east "and its back" was "turned westward." [Cf. The Letter of Aristeas, 88, translated by H. St. John Thackeray (1917), p. 41.] Its impressive appearance and wealth were recognized by the Romans. [Tacitus called it “a temple of immense wealth” (History V, 8), and Jesus disciples reflect their impression of its magnificence (cf. Mark 13:1).] Today the area lies within the holy precincts called by pious Muslims, who venerate this spot next to Mecca and Medina in Arabia, the Haram esh-Sherif, "the Noble Sanctuary." The edifice Qubbet es-Sakhra ("Dome of the Rock") built on the sacred site at the end of the seventh century A.D. encloses a rocky ledge which probably served as Araunah's threshing floor and the place where David erected an altar. [Floyd Filson in The biblical Archaeologist 7 (1944), p. 81; A. T. Olmstead, Jesus in the Light of History (1942),m p. 85; F. J. Hollis the Archaeology of Herod’s Temple (1934), pp. 84-86, Hans Schmidt, Der Heilige Fels in Jerusalem (1933), pp. 26, 55.]

4. Other Places in Jerusalem

     Herod's palace on the western side of the city was lavishly magnificent, according to Josephus. It had sumptuous bedrooms and dining halls and was surrounded on the south by pleasure gardens with fountains and watercourses. Entirely walled about to a height of forty-five feet, the walls on the west and north being identical with the city walls, the northwestern sector was graced by the gorgeous towers Hippicus, Phasael, with Mariamne on the north.

     After Roman occupation (A.D. 6) the Roman procurators of Caesarea resided in the palace on visits to Jerusalem, and hence it became known as the praetorium. Pilate's praetorium (Mark 15:16) is, there fore, probably to be connected with the Herodian palace, although later tradition links the praetorium with the fortress of Antonia. If this tradition is true, Pilate was residing in the Castle of Antonia at the Passover season to be near the temple, when Jesus was arraigned before him, and the Pavement called Gabbatha (john 19:13) was possibly the very one excavated in the central court of the fortress of Antonia below the Ecce Homo arch of the Hadrianic era.

     Excavations of the French Archaeologist H. Vincent of the Dominican Biblical School in Jerusalem have outlined the position and general plan of Herod's fortress of Antonia, and led this scientist to believe that this was the location of Jesus' interrogation and scourging before Pilate. In this event, the Via Dolorosa, or "Way of Sorrow," would run west from Antonia and then southwest to Golgotha (the mound called "skull," Latin "calvary") outside the wall of that day on the northwest corner of the city. [Cf. Marie Aline de Sion, La forteresse Antonia Jerusalem et la question du Prtoire (1956). Millar Burrows in The biblical Archaeologist 1 (1938), pp. 17f.] Near at hand was also the garden and the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea (John 19:41). However, the Pavement (Lithostroton) may possibly have been situated in front of Herod's old palace in the Upper City. The question involved is not as yet finally resolved.

     Another interesting building in Jerusalem was the palace of the Hasmonaeans. This was situated on the eastern side of the Upper City and commanded an excellent view of the temple. It was possibly in this building Jesus was arraigned before Herod Antipas (Luke 23:7). Later in the reign of Nero, Herod Agrippa II clashed with the Jews over a wall the priests built to hinder his view into the temple.

     Between the palace of the Hasmonaeans and the Temple was an edifice called the Xystus, near a viaduct leading across the Tyropoean Valley and connecting the Upper City with the temple area. Robin son's Arch is a remnant of an ancient bridge near the southwestern corner of the temple area. Wilson's Arch is a similar ruin farther north. [Charles W. Wilson and R. E. Warren, the Recovery of Jerusalem 91871), pp. 732-85.] Traces of Pilate's aqueduct run along the western side of the Hinnon Valley and then southeastward on the other side near the Gate of the Essenes in the south-most extremity of the city and northward east of the Tyropoean Valley to the temple area from the west. Ancient traditions place the house of Caiaphas south of the present walls of the Old City. The Upper Room of Pentecost (Acts 1:13) and the Last Supper are also traditionally placed in this southernmost section north of the Gate of the Essenes, which opened upon the Valley of Hinnon, where offal was dumped and burned, and which Jesus used as a figurative term of eternal hell where the -wicked would go (Mark 9:43, 45, 47) .

     The well-known Pool of Siloam where Jesus healed the man born blind (John 9:7) was located in the Lower City at the end of Hezekiah's underground conduit which brought water from the Gihon Spring, so vitally essential to the existence of Jebus and later to the city of David (I Kings 1:33). The Tower of Siloam which collapsed and killed eighteen people (Luke 13:4) also was in this general area of the most ancient part of Jerusalem. Akeldama ("the Field of Blood") referred to in Acts 1:19 has been located in the Valley of Hinnon below En-rogel since the fourth century A.D.

5. The Present-day City

     In the course of centuries, Jerusalem has shifted northwestward. Flanked on the east and south by the deep gorges of the Kidron and Hinnon, the city naturally expanded in the direction where no valleys hindered its growth.

     Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were not numerous enough not to be accommodated within the sixteenth century walls erected by Sultan Sulaiman II the Magnificent. The modern city, capital of the Israeli State, sprawls far beyond the walls to the northwest and has a population of some 150,000 people, embracing also a much larger area than the old city in the territory of Jordan, which has about 70,000 souls squeezed in the 250 acres within its walls.

II. THE MOUNT OF OLIVES AND ITS ENVIRONS

     Closely associated with Jerusalem in the ministry of Jesus is the Mount of Olives and the surrounding countryside and villages, notably Gethsemane, Bethphage, and Bethany. A present-day aerial view of this country reveals its outstanding features, the Mount of Olives east of the temple area and south of it the so-called Mount of Offence, at the foot of which lies the village of Silwan, whose name is reminiscent of the conduit of Shiloah and the Pool of Siloam just west of it on the east slope of Jerusalem. The name given to this southern hill by the early Christians ("The Mount of Offence") connects it with Solomon's apostasy and the worship of false gods (I1 Kings 23:13).

1. The Mount of Olives and Jesus

     The Mount of Olives, a mile-long spur of limestone hills, was a favorite haunt of Jesus and His disciples and one of the most conspicuous landmarks of Jerusalem, towering several hundred feet to the east above the plateau on which the city was built. The chain of hills of which the ridge is composed has several elevations, the northern-most contiguous to Mount Scopus near the Hebrew University and British War Cemetery is 2723 feet above sea level, and has been held by many as the place where Jesus ascended to heaven (Acts 1:11), being known as Viri Galiloei. However, the chief hill of Olivet is just south of that elevation and is actually called "The Ascension" (2641 feet) and here the Tower of the Ascension of the Russian Orthodox Church juts skyward and is visible for miles around the city. Islam's claim to the place of Christ's ascension is marked by a Moslem chapel. The next elevation is popularly known as "the Prophets," being erroneously connected with the tombs of Old Testament prophets by the credulous. The southernmost elevation, although sometimes considered separate, is the Mount of Offence, which is about the same elevation as the temple hill (2411 feet).

     Old Testament references to the Mount of Olives are sparse. During Absalom's rebellion, David escaped barefoot over its brow (II Samuel 15:30) and worshiped on its summit, possibly in a shrine located there (11 Samuel 15:32). Ezekiel envisioned the removal of the Shekinah glory from Jerusalem and saw it stand "upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city" (Ezekiel 11:23). Zechariah in eschatological vision prophesied the second advent of Messiah bodily to the "mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east" (Zechariah 14:4).

Jesus frequented the Mount of Olives, especially in the evening hours (John 7:53; 8:1). Tradition names it (probably erroneously) as the place where He instructed His disciples in the _ model prayer (Luke 11:1-4), and this belief is memorialized in a chapel erected on the east slope where the model prayer may be read in thirty-five languages on the chapel walls. Over its roads Jesus came and went to Jericho and thence northward through Peraea to Galilee. Often He resorted to the familiar way that led over its slope to Bethany (John 11:1). From the town of Bethphage Jesus rode down Olivet's slopes and across the Kidron and entered Jerusalem (according to tradition) by the Golden Gate in the eastern wall in His Triumphal Entry (Matthew 21:1-12; Zechariah 9:9). Thither He resorted with His disciples after this public event (Mark 11:11).

     On Olivet's brow in full view of Herod's resplendent temple and just before the events that culminated in His arrest and death, Jesus prophesied the destruction of the temple as His disciples were admiring its sumptuous splendor (Matthew 24:1, 2; Mark 13:1-3). It is significant that from the strategic summit of the Mount the invincible legions of Rome under Titus poised for the siege of the city that was to bring its destruction and the utter ruin of the temple in fulfillment of Jesus' ominous words.

     After the solemn Last Supper in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, Jesus and the eleven disciples went out to the Mount of Olives (Matthew 26:30), where among the ancient olive trees in Gethsemane He agonized in prayer, was betrayed by Judas, and arrested by the Romans (Matthew 26:47-56).

2. Gethsemane and Jesus' Agony

     Above the present road from Jerusalem to Bethany four traditional locations of Gethsemane are to be found today. Ancient olive trees in the walled Franciscan Garden mark the site claimed by the Latin Church. But other sites (Armenian and Russian) are located on the lower slopes of the Mount, also containing ancient olive trees, and lay claim for the site of Jesus' agony in prayer. Not far away in the lower portions of the hill are numerous Jewish and Herodian tombs, popularly but un-historically assigned to Absalom, King Jehoshaphat, St. James, and others.

     Matthew (26:36) and Mark (14:26, 32) give the name Gethsemane, but John, although he does not mention the name, gives a distinctive note for the localization of the place. "When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered" (John 18:1). All that can be said is that Gethsemane was located in this general area across the Kidron, but how far up the olive-clad hill is unknown. In the fifth century up to the era of the Crusades, it was thought to be situated on the ground where the Church of the Tomb of the Virgin now stands and the spot of Jesus' prayer a little distance up the hill (Luke 22:41).

     The meaning of the name Gethsemane is also not certainly known. Usually assumed to mean "press of oils," this is philologically dubious. Jerome connected it with Hebrew ge’e shemanim, "Valley of oils" or "Fat Valley" (cf. Isaiah 28:1), and may be correct in hinting that it was in a valley in which there were many olive trees.

3. Bethphage and Bethany

     The exact location of Bethphage is unknown. However, Beth-Page is found in rabbinic writings in close connection with Jerusalem, suggesting its proximity. [Gustav Dalman, Sacred Sites and Ways, pp. 252, 253.] Mentioned as the easternmost point in Jerusalem's territory, [Cf. Neubauer, La Gographie du Talmud, p. 149; T. K. Cheyne, Encyclopaedia Biblica, “Bethphage.”] the name has usually been derived from pag, "unripe, juiceless fig," and so would mean "house (or place) of unripe fig(s)." Dalman, however, suggests a possible derivation from Latin pagus” ("a country district"), meaning "the place of the pagi" i.e., "the country district of Jerusalem, her suburb." [Dalman, op. cit., p. 253.] To this place somewhere on the Mount of Olives near Bethany Jesus sent disciples to fetch the ass for use as His mount for the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1; Mark 11:1; Luke 19:29).

5. Bethany, the Town of Mary and Martha

     That Bethany lay east of the Mount of Olives is clearly suggested by the notices in the gospel narratives. [Dalman, op. cit., pp. 249-251.] It is to be found in the vicinity of the present-day small village el-‘Azariyeh, "The Place of Lazarus," in which the Arabic name preserves the tradition of the connection of Lazarus with Bethany. The exact location of the first century village is ascertained by considering the Lazarus tomb which was pointed out since about A.D. 300 and over which a church was erected before A.D. 380. The tomb is situated on the side of the hill called Ras esh-Shiyah, and above and near it is the present-day village. But the old village extended farther east where there are springs and ancient cisterns, and since Bethany is said to have been about fifteen furlongs (1% miles) from Jerusalem, it was not so near the tomb of Lazarus as the more recent western part of the present-day village. Archaeological finds have shown that the present village, in part, goes back to pre-Christian times, so that within its confines was located the house of Mary and Martha (John 11:1) and the house of Simon the leper (Matthew 26:6; Mark 14:3). [Dalman, op. cit., p. 249.]

5. Jesus Retires to Ephraim with His Disciples

     After the raising of Lazarus and the increased hostility of the Jewish leaders, John's gospel relates that "Jesus therefore no longer went about openly among the Jews but went from there (Bethany) to the country near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim; and there he stayed with his disciples" (John 11:54, R.S.V.). This is undoubtedly the Ephraim near Bethel, captured by Vespasian in the Jewish-Roman War and identical with the Aphairema, capital of a district bordering on Samaria mentioned in I Maccabees 11:34.

     Perhaps the Hebrew spelling was Ephron or Ephrain (cf. II Chronicles 13:19). The place is to be identified with et Taiyibeh, a secluded village close to the rocky gorges leading down to the Jordan Valley, four miles northeast of Bethel. Here Jesus and His disciples would be away from the beaten path and could relax in seclusion as the malignity of their enemies grew more intense.

III. JERICHO AND THE JORDAN VALLEY

     From Jericho to Jerusalem is a journey of 17 miles, with a steady ascent from over 1,000 feet below sea-level to almost 3,000 feet above sea-level. The desolate road through barren mountainous country was. infested with robbers, a circumstance reflected in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37). Jesus often traversed this route from Jerusalem to Jericho, up the Jordan Valley through Perea to Scythopolis and thence to Galilee.

l. New Testament Jericho

     The city of Jesus' day was Herod's winter capital. He and Archelaus elegantly beautified it with magnificent Hellenistic structures such as are reflected by the extant superb ruins at Graeco-Roman Gerasa (Jerash). These included a sumptuous winter palace, a theatre, a fortress, and a hippodrome. The palace in which Herod died was burned by a former slave of the king, but rebuilt by Archelaus on a sumptuous scale.

     In the winter of 1950 the American School of Oriental Research and the Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary undertook the excavation of portions of the New Testament site known as Tulul Abu el-‘Alayiq, one mile west of the modern city where the Wadi Qelt enters the Jordan Valley. James L. Kelso directed the operations. [James L. Kelso and Dimitri C. Baramki, Excavations at New Testament Jericho and Khirbet en-Nitla, annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 29-30 (1955); James M. Pritchard, Sherman E. Johnson and George C. Miles, The Excavation of Herodian Jericho (1951), Annual of the American Schools 32-33 (1958). For preliminary reports, see James L. Kelso, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 120 (Dec. 1950) and James B. Pritchard in Bulletin 123 (Oct. 1951), pp. 8-17.]

     The ancient ruins lie on both the north and south sides of the Wadi Qelt. On the south side under the ruins of an eighth or ninth century Arabic fortress lie portions of a civic center constructed perhaps by Archelaus and beneath that Herodian masonry with a still lower level of Hellenistic remains. Sounding on the north side of the Wadi shows fortresses and other structures there.

     The architecture of New Testament Jericho is strikingly reminiscent of Rome, Pompeii, and other cities of the Graeco-Roman world.

     Unlike the older cramped Canannite and Hebrew town, the Jericho of Jesus’ day was elegantly lined with trees such as the sycamore, which grows only in the Jordan Valley and on the coast. Along one of the streets Zacchaeus sat in such a tree to see Jesus pass (Luke 19:2-10). Bits of wood used for bonding the wall of a tower at Jericho have been shown to be sycamore at the Yale School of Forestry. [Emil Kraeling, op. cit., p. 395.]

     Here along the roadside just outside the city blind Bartimaeus sat begging (Mark 10:46) as Jesus passed on the way up to Jerusalem, which skirted the south bank of the Wadi Qelt and continued up the “Ascent of Adummim” (present-day Tal’at ed Damm) to the “Inn of the good Samaritan,” where the first glimpse of the Mount of Lives (et Tur, “the Mount”) is had.

2. The Jordan Valley and Jesus’ Route to Jerusalem

     In traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem, as Jesus often must have done from boyhood to attend the sacred feasts in Jerusalem, three roads were open—a middle route traversing the highlands of Samaria via Sychar, a western along the coast through the plain of Sharon, through Antipatris, Lydda, and Bethhoron, and an eastern road through Peraea and the Jordan Valley (cf. Matthew 19:1; Mark 10:1). As this latter route was not the shortest, nor the quickest, there were undoubtedly special reasons for following it, such as avoiding Samaritan or Jewish enemies, or desire for solitude and retreat, or special ministry. [Cf. Dalman, op. cit., pp. 233-239 for a discussion of the Peraean-Transjordanian route.]

     If Nazareth was the starting point, the road would have been followed via Endor and Scythopolis (ancient Bethshan at the eastern entrance of the Plain of Esdraelon), and thence by ford across the river and southwest in Transjordan past Pella, the city that remained loyal to Rome during the Jewish-Roman War (A.D. 66-70) to which Christians from Jerusalem fled to safety. Beyond Pella, Jesus was in Peraea, Josephus’ name for the territory referred to biblically as “the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan” (Matthew 19:1), “the farter side of Jordan” (Mark 10:1) and “beyond Jordan” (John 10:40). Peraea paralleled Samaria and Judaea and extended from Pella to Machaerus east of the northern half of the Salt Sea where an isolated fortress of the Hasmonaeans was imposingly reconstructed by Herod the Great, and where Josephus says John the Baptist was executed (Mark 6:14-29).

     But Jesus’ fruitful ministries in Peraea where “many believed on him” (John 10:42) and from which He was called to the sick bed of Lazarus (John 11:3), apparently did not extend southward beyond Bethany (Bethabarah) where John Baptized (John 1:28), located somewhere east of the Jordan north of the Dead Sea, and an important ford not far from Jericho.

     When Jesus journeyed and ministered in Peraea, Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, whom Jesus characterized as “that fox” (Luke 13:32), ruled it and Galilee as a tetrarch (B.C. 4 A.D. 39), and with a subtly evil influence Jesus' referred to as "the leaven of Herod" (Mark 8:15). But the country, consisting of picturesque and rugged highlands and dotted with fruitful valleys and prosperous cities, which included part of the Decapolis and such towns as Pella, Succoth, Penuel, Gadara, Gerasa (Jerash ), Madeba and Amathus, and bordered by the progressive and remarkable Arab Nabataean kingdom on the east and south, was not the scene of any extended ministry of Jesus, at least not according to the gospel records, and then only as He ministered to Jews who resided there within the reach of His travels to and from Galilee. Yet Peraea was heavily populated with Jews and, with Galilee and Judaea, was reckoned by them as the three provinces, Samaria being denied such dignity.' [Baba Bathra III, 2; Michael L. Rodkinson, New Edition of the Babylonian Talmud 10 vols., (1903,1916).].

     If Jesus had wished to travel from Capernaum to Jerusalem via Peraea, a route led through Tiberias along the western side of the Lake of Galilee to Scythopolis and thence southward through Aenon near Salim, where John had baptized (John 3:23). This road continued southward on the western side of the Jordan River, skirting east of Alexandrium, where Herod the Great had rebuilt a Hasmonaean fortress and used it as a depository for his wealth. This route then ran southward to Jericho and on to Jerusalem.

     It was also possible for Jesus to have traveled a road east of the Lake of Galilee through Bethsaida, Hippos, and Gadara on to Pella and points south in Peraea.

Chapter 6—Places Where Jesus Walked and Worked in Northern and Central Palestine

PLACES WHERE JESUS WALKED AND WORKED IN NORTHERN

AND CENTRAL PALESTINE

     While the climactic and concluding events of Jesus' life and ministry occurred in Jerusalem and its environs, most of the recorded events in the career of Christ took place in Northern Palestine, particularly in Galilee and more especially in the populous cities that dotted the region contiguous to the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. There in the city of Capernaum Jesus seemed to center His activities and may be said to have had His headquarters, insofar as He had any radiating point -of operation. Matthew says that Jesus left Nazareth "and lived (katōkēsen), "took up residence" in Capernaum" (Matthew 4:13), therefore calling it "his (Jesus') own city" (Matthew 9:1) and declaring that many of Jesus' "mighty works" were performed in it (Matthew 11:23). From Capernaum Jesus' ministry extended to the Galilean countryside as well as to such towns as Nazareth, Chorazin, and Bethsaida.

I. Nazareth and Other Towns of Galilee

     In the days of Jesus, Galilee, whose precise delimitations varied in different epochs, was a Roman province, consisting of two main parts—Upper and Lower Galilee. Upper Galilee comprised mountainous and plateau country from 2,000 to 4,000 feet in elevation. Into this region the eleven disciples were directed to go for a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus (Matthew 28:16, 17). Lower Galilee included parts of the Plain of Esdraelon, most of the western shore of the Lake of Galilee, and the western banks of the Jordan River to the upper tip of the Waters of Merom. On the west and northwest, Galilee was bordered by Phoenicia, extending some four miles south of Caesarea along the entire Mediterranean coast, while the Decapolis lay southeast, Gaulanitis on the east, and Ulatha on the north and northeast.

1. Nazareth and the Boyhood of Jesus

The village of Nazareth, secluded among surrounding hills, was not a significant place (cf. John 1:46) until it was immortalized in New Testament times as the boyhood home of Jesus. The site is not mentioned in the Old Testament (cf. Joshua 19:10f.), nor by the historian Josephus, although the latter enumerates forty-five Galilean towns. Nor is it referred to in the Talmud, which names sixty-three. In fact, the mention of the village as the residence of Joseph and Mary (Luke 1:26, 27) in connection with the childhood of Jesus (Matthew 2:23; Luke 2:4, 51) together with other allusions in the gospels, constitute the oldest-known literary references to the place.

     [The only reference to Nazareth in Jewish literature is in the elegy of Kalir, a Jewish poem (ninth century A.D. ), which contains very old material (second to third centuries). According to this poem a town written Nsrt in unvocalized Hebrew was the residence of the priestly order of Happizzez (A. V. Aphses in I Chronicles 24:15) in the second century A.D. (Emil Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas, p. 358).]

     Nazareth was not only a little-known place, it was apparently not very old. There is no archaeological indication beyond potsherds of Iron 11 (600 R.C.) in the neighborhood. [Catholic Biblical Quarterly 18 (19560, p. 42.] The reason is evidently to be found in the fact that this territory had been controlled by Japhia (Japha) of the tribe of Zebulon (Joshua 19:12), a strong fortress city a mile and a half to the southwest, [Present-day Yafa, an ancient place listed among the Palestinian places subdued by the Egyptian empire-builder Thutmose III in the fifteenth century B.C.] or possibly by Chessuloth of the tribe of Issachar (Joshua 19:18), a mile and a quarter to the southeast. As an outpost of one of these strong fortress cities, Nazareth was just a small village of farmers and artisans, such as the carpenter Joseph.

     Then, too, the village did not lie on any important trade route in Jesus' day. The commercial artery from Damascus to Egypt ran across the Plain of Esdraelon some half-dozen miles to the south of Nazareth, while a branch road to Accho (Ptolemais) ran about the same distance to the north of the town. South-bound travel, however, from Sepphoris would pass through Nazareth, so that, while Nazareth was not a bustling emporium, it was far from isolated from the busy Galilean cities and the stirring events of the time. It was, it may be supposed, an ideal place for Jesus to grow to manhood and to enjoy the solitude that was to precede His public ministry. When the time came for the latter, a teeming metropolis like Capernaum, with its welter of human need, was to form a more proper theatre for His activity.

     Certainly the geographical situation of Nazareth was conducive to the contemplative life. The scenery was expansive, if not breathtaking. Although Nazareth itself lies on a sharp slope of the Galilean hills at an altitude somewhat more than 1150 feet, from the crest above the village a majestic panorama includes distant snow-capped Hermon on the north, nearby Mt. Tabor on the east, the extensive Plain of Esdraelon like an enormous carpet on the south, and the headland of Mt. Carmel and the blue Mediterranean on the west. Although the gospel accounts are almost silent on these momentous character-forming years, Jesus is to be thought of as taking many long walks over the ridges of these noble hills in communion with God, His human nature developing in His theanthropic person and the vision of His life's work unfolding while He yielded Himself to the divine will, as His eye now met Tabor or distant Hermon, or caught the sunlit flash of the sea behind far-off Carmel.

     Many of the illustrations from country life must have imbedded themselves in Jesus' consciousness from boyhood memories of the tiny agricultural town in which He was reared—the sower, the horticulturalist, the traveler on a long journey, the wine and the wineskin containers, the busy threshing floor, the olive and the fig tree, etc.

     At Nazareth Jesus received the regular training of a Jewish lad in home and synagogue (Luke 2:21; 4:16). From the seclusion of the little village Jesus went to be baptized by John at Jordan (Mark 1:9) and returned to it after the temptation (Matthew 4:12, 13). After the violent opposition to Him in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4:1630), there is no indication that Jesus ever came back to His boyhood haunts, although the name of Nazareth came to be applied to Him by both his friends and enemies (Matthew 21:11; Acts 2:22; 10:38).

     Today, although Nazareth is a fair-sized town of about 22,000 and far larger than the modest village of Jesus' time, there is much in the city that recalls the ancient village. Carpenter and blacksmith shops front on the narrow, declivitous streets, and at Mary's Spring ('Ain Maryam) one can still see the women congregate to draw water with their pitchers picturesquely poised on their heads, just as the mother of Jesus did nineteen centuries ago. Actually, the source of the water is a spring behind the present-day Greek Church of the Annunciation, and the water is piped down the hill to Mary's Spring, so-called since the twelfth century.

     The site of the synagogue in which Jesus spoke (Luke 4:16) has been traditionally marked by the Church of the United Greeks, but the Orthodox Greeks locate the place where the Church of the Forty Martyrs stood, and this location has been defended recently. [Clemens Kopp in Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society 20 (1946), pp. 29-42..] But the Nazareth synagogue of Jesus' day was, of course, destroyed, undoubtedly in the Roman-Jewish War of 66-70, and was replaced by a second century edifice. Ruins of these early synagogues no doubt underlie later Crusader and Byzantine constructions.

     Of particular interest is an inscription alleged to have come from Nazareth and brought to Paris in 1878, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Unfortunately numerous scholars deny the significance of the monument and some even doubt its authenticity. The "Nazareth inscription," captioned the "Ordinance of Caesar" has been for this reason or that assigned to practically every Roman emperor from Augustus to Hadrian. It concerns the crime of violation of tombs and carries with it the imperial decision that one found guilty be meted the death penalty. By those who assign the re-script to Tiberius, it has been construed as a witness to the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth which came from the emperor at Rome in answer to a report from Pilate, which included reference to the rumor that the disciples of Jesus had stolen His body from the tomb (Matthew 28:13). [Cf. Jacques Zeiller in Recherches de Science Religieuse (1931), pp. 570-576; J. H. Oliver in Classical Philology 49 (1954), pp. 180-182; J. Carcopino in Revue Historique 167 (1931), pp. 34-35; E. Stauffer, Jesus, Gestalt and Geschichte (1957), p. 11.] By those who connect the rescript with Emperor Claudius, the inscription is dated between 44-50 A.D., after the death of the puppet king Herod Agrippa, and is interpreted as "the first secular comment on the Easter story, and legal testimony to its central fact," [E. M. Blaiklock, Out of the Earth (The Witness of Archaeology to the New Testament) (1957), p. 39.] issued when Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2) because of rioting in the ghetto "at the instigation of one Chrestos." [Seutonius, Claudius 25:4, “Chrestos” is taken as a scribal error for Christos, and the cause of the Rome riotings, the Jewish opposition to the Christian proclamation of an empty tomb. Blaiklock, op. cit., pp. 32-39.]

     Less than four miles northwest of the village of Nazareth lay Sepphoris, which Herod Antipas rebuilt splendidly, but which had been destroyed previously by the Romans assisted by the Nabataeans under King Aretas as a result of its having been seized and made a center of rebellion after the death of Herod the Great., It remained loyal to Rome in the Jewish War and was spared destruction. The University of Michigan conducted excavations there in 1931, uncovering a fort and a theatre, probably dating from the reign of Herod Antipas. [Leroy Waterman, Preliminary Report of the University of Michigan Excavations of Sepphoris, Palestine, in 1931, 1937, pp. 28 f.] Undoubtedly Jesus had many times walked in the vicinity when the city was held by Judas or later among its ruins, or when it became a brilliant city under Herod Antipas and perhaps the Galilean capital until Tiberias was built.

2. Cana and Other Cities of Galilee

     Another Galilean village made famous by the Presence of Jesus was Cana. There He began His miracle-working ministry (John 2:11) in converting the water into wine at the wedding celebration. There also He pronounced the word by which the son of the nobleman of Capernaum was healed (John 4:46-54). Nathanael was from Cana (John 21:2). The descriptive phrase "of Galilee" is appended to this Cana, apparently to distinguish it from another in Coelesyria mentioned by Josephus. [Antiquities XV, 5, 1.] Josephus also alludes to Cana of Galilee. [Life, 16, 71.] The preferred site by most scholars is Khirbet Kana about eight and a half miles to the north of Nazareth, [See Wright and Filson, Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible, rev. ed. (1956), p. 123, Plate XII, A; XIV C. See also L. H. Grollenberg, Atlas of the Bible (1956), p. 146, and Kraeling, op. cit., p. 254, Map V.] from which the Plain of Achotis descends to the Sea of Galilee.

     However, the traditional location of the village is Kefr Kenna, a site less than four miles northeast of Nazareth on the road to Tiberias. This latter place has been partially excavated and is amply watered and shaded by fig trees. As yet there is no archaeological evidence available to rule out Kefr Kenna, nor has Khirbet Kana been proved to be the site. Only additional research can settle the question of identity for certain.

     Another village of Galilee is Nain, where Jesus raised to life the only son of a widow (Luke 7:11-17). It is still called Nain (Nein ) and is located five miles south-southeast of Nazareth in the northwest corner of Jebel Duhy (Little Hermon) and two miles west southwest

of Endor. It is a tiny hamlet, almost a cluster of ruins, with ancient sepulchral caves on the east side of the village. Its elevation (1690 feet) gives the hamlet a superb view of the Plain of Jezreel (Esdraelon) on the south and southwest and of Mt. Tabor on the northwest.

II. THE SEA OF GALILEE AND ITS CITIES

     When Jesus left Nazareth and took up residence in Capernaum, He was moving out of His native highlands into a region along the lake shore 696 feet below sea level. But high plateaus surround the lake and frequently slope declivitously down into it, so that there were magnificent vistas of sky, land, and water. But Jesus was also moving into a region at the north and northwest sections of the Lake that was the center of a teeming population, where His ministry was desperately needed.

1. The Sea of Galilee

     This beautiful body of fresh water enclosed by high hills is an integral part of the Jordan River which feeds it with water from snowcapped Hermon and the Labanons and then exists from its southern end to continue its serpentine journey southward to the Dead Sea. The lake is almost thirteen miles long and seven and a half miles wide at its broadest expanse opposite Magdala. Its greatest depth is 200 feet.

     It lies in a depressed cup almost 700 feet below the Mediterranean Sea and enjoys a semi-tropical climate. Not far distant to the north are the perpetual snows of Lebanon. Sudden and violent storms, reflected in the gospel stories (cf. Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25) often rush down from the mountain as the cold and warm air collide. The Lake abounds in fish, and fishing was an important industry, reflected so graphically in the vocation of Jesus' disciples (cf. Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:10, 11). There was also a fish preserving industry on the Lake, and Pliny mentions the city not referred to in the Bible named Tarichaea ("pickle town") where fish were salted and dried and shipped to distant points in the Graeco-Roman world.

     The warm sunny climate, combined with health-giving sulphur springs in the environs of Tiberias along the Lake, have lured the sick and afflicted for centuries. Jesus' numerous physical healings were wrought in a region which in some sense was a health resort and which accordingly contained a larger number of sick people. This may be a fact in the prominence of the healing element in the Galilean ministry (Mark 1:32-34; 6:53-56).

     In the northwest corner of the Lake, the rim of mountain wall flattens into the rich plain of Gennesaret and likewise the more severe heights on the east reaching 2,000 feet above the shore give way to the fertile district of El Batila in the northeast section where the rushing Jordan enters the Lake. But in the stony hills cultivation is arduous and the seed falling upon stony ground, growing up and soon withering, as Jesus records in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15), finds ready illustration.

     The New Testament presents the Sea of Galilee as dotted with busy and populous towns in Jesus' day. These included Capernaum, Bethsaida, Chorazin, Magdala, and Tiberias.

2. Capernaum, Where Jesus Resided

     This town lies on the northwestern shore of the Lake of Galilee in the territory of Zebulon and Naphtali (Matthew 4:13-16; Luke 4:31). It was a bustling fishing port, situated about two and a half miles southwest of the spot where the Jordan enters the Lake. The remains of the stone quays along the water front can still be seen. The site of Tell Hum where extensive ruins exist (cf. Jesus' prediction of the city's destruction, Matthew 11:23) is now generally recognized as the location of the ancient city rather than Khan Minyeh several miles south along the Galilean shore beyond 'Ain et-Tabgha ("Seven Springs"). On a pilgrimage in the sixth century A.D., Theodosius, in coming to Capernaum from Magdala, arrived at "Seven Springs" before he reached Capernaum, showing that Tell Hum rather than Khan Minyeh marks the ancient site.

     The busy fishing emporium was also apparently a Roman military post. There the God-fearing Roman centurion sought Christ's healing touch for his ill slave (Matthew 8:5-13). Capernaum was also a toll-collecting station, to gather tax revenue from caravans passing along the great trade route from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast and Egypt. Here in the Capernaum toll house Jesus called to discipleship Matthew (Levi), a Jew in the employ of the Roman revenue bureau (Matthew 9:9). The tribute money which Peter found in the mouth of the fish and which at Jesus' direction he paid to the internal revenue officials at Capernaum (Matthew 17:2427), illustrates the importance of the city in Rome's system of taxation.

     Jesus conducted a far-reaching ministry of healing in His Capernaum headquarters (Matthew 9:1), including a paralytic (Mark 2:113) ; a demoniac (Mark 1:21-28, Luke 4:31-37) ; a nobleman's son (John 4:46-54); Peter's mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14-17; Mark 1:2931), and many others (Matthew 8:16, 17; Mark 1:32-34; Luke 4:23, 40, 41). Despite His teaching and works, the citizens of Capernaum were unrepentant and Jesus prophesied the destruction of the city (Matthew 11:23, 24; Luke 10:15) .

     The great discourse on the bread of life (John 6:24-71), which followed the feeding of the five thousand, as well as many other discourses, was spoken in the Capernaum synagogue or elsewhere in the town (Mark 9:33-50).

     Excavations in Capernaum have yielded ruins of one of the finest white limestone synagogues in Palestine. This structure has been restored by Franciscans.

     [H. Kohl and C. Watzinger, Antike Synagogen in Galila (1916), pp. 4-41; E. L. Sukenik, Ancient Synagogues in Palestine and Greece (1934), pp. 7-21.]

     According to prevailing custom, it was oriented toward Jerusalem. Rectangular in shape, the interior was seventy by fifty feet. It was colonnaded on three sides and had a balcony for women. Contrary to traditional Jewish dislike for any type of pictorial representation of living beings (cf. Exodus 20:4; Deuteronomy 5:8, which were construed as forbidding all such likenesses), the Capernaum synagogue in its decorative motif illustrates a more liberal policy, with centaurs, eagles, lions, palm trees, vines, and even boys carrying garlands exhibited in the ornamentation. [Sukenik, op. cit., pp. 61-64. the Jews violently opposed Herod’s gold eagle decoration and on the Jerusalem temple l(Wars I, XXXIII, 2f.; Antiquities XVII, vi. 2), and clamored for the destruction of Herod Antipas’ palace at Tiberias because it was decorated with animal pictures (Josephus, Life, 1).]

     Uncertainty has prevailed concerning the date of the Capernaum synagogue, some scholars dating it before the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. [G. Oralfi, Capharnam et ses Ruines (1922), pp. 74-86; B. Meistermann, Capharnam et Bethsade (1921), p. 289.]

     But in the light of the wholesale destruction of Jewish places of worship by the Romans in the Jewish-Roman War in the First Century and the second century rebellion of Bar Kokhba, the edifice is likely to be dated in the late second or third centuries, but no doubt similar in plan and perhaps built on the very spot where the synagogue in which Jesus taught stood. Other synagogues have been discovered at Chorazin, Bethsaida Julias, Meiron, Kefr, Bir'im, and at Beth Alpha in the Jezreel Valley. All date probably no earlier than the second century, that at Beth Alpha, famous for its mosaic work, being assigned to the sixth century. [e. L. Sukenik, The Ancient Synagogue at Beth Alpha 91932).]

3. Chorazin, the Object of Jesus' Predicted Woe

     Another town in the region of the Lake of Galilee, and like Capernaum the scene of many mighty works of Jesus, was Chorazin. Like its sister cities in the area, it remained largely unrepentant in spite of Jesus' ministry and received our Lord's stern warning of calamity (Matthew 11:21-23; Luke 10:13-15). The ancient site is to be located scarcely two miles to the north of Capernaum (Tell Hum) at Kerazeh, which was pointed out as the site by Rev. G. Williams in 1842. The Chorazin synagogue has been known for two hundred years with its black basalt ruins and its "Moses' seat" where its distinguished teachers of the law sat (Matthew 23:2). Like the Capernaum synagogue, that at Chorazin was liberally ornamented with fruit motifs (grape-gathering and grape-pressing) and animal representations (centaurs in conflict with lions). [E. L. Sukenik, Ancient Synagogues, pp. 21-24; Kohol and Watzinger, Antike Synagogen, pp. 41-58.] The extensive ruins of Chorazin are situated a little distant inland in a side valley branching off from another one which descends to the lake.

4. Bethsaida, the Home Town of Peter, Andrew, and Philip.

The name Bethsaida suggests "houses, i.e., place of (fish) catching" and readily connects with the fact that Jesus' disciples Peter, Andrew, and possibly Philip were simple Galilean fishermen (Mark 1:16, 17) and natives of a lake town where this occupation was pursued by many of its inhabitants (John 1:44; 12:21).

Edward Robinson locates Bethsaida in close proximity to Capernaum, as also does Alfred Edersheim. [Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah II, 3, 4.] The latter infers that Bethsaida was the fishing quarter ("Fisherton") of Capernaum, thus explaining the fact that Mark names Bethsaida and John Capernaum as the original destination of Jesus' boat and also the circumstances of how Peter and Andrew, who according to John were of Bethsaida, are said by Mark as having their home in Capernaum. [Edersheim, loc. cit.]

This explanation would posit two Bethsaidas, one on either side of the Jordan River as it empties into the Sea of Galilee, as in the case of Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas. Edward Robinson identified the western one with Tabgha, a fishing center with seven springs, located in Galilee proper.

     Bethsaida Julias was the contiguous city on the east side of the Jordan in Gaulanitis. It was originally a small town, but Philip the tetrarch, who in addition to Gaulanitis ruled over Trachonitis, Bata naea, and Panias, regions north and east of the Sea of Galilee from 4 B.C.-A.D. 34, rebuilt and greatly enlarged the place, raising it to the dignity of a city, renaming it Julia in honor of the daughter of Caesar Augustus. Since Julia was banished in 2 B.C., and Philip would scarcely have named a city for her after this unhappy event, the rebuilding of Bethsaida is to be reckoned as an activity of Philip at the very commencement of his reign (4-3 B.C.). [Cf. Josephus War I, xxi, 1; Antiquities XV, xi.]

     Bethsaida Julias is commonly located at et Tell, a mound 800 feet by 400 feet and which rises to 100 feet almost a mile inland in the rich surrounding plain. Another site about 50 yards from the shore called Khirbet el Araj has been identified with Bethsaida the fishing village. [Emil Kraeling, Rand, McNally Bible Atlas, pp. 388-389. for detailed discussion, see Dalman, Sacred Sites and Ways, pp. 161-183.] Archaeological research has not yet solved all the problems of exact location, but it is safe to assume that at least part of the village of Bethsaida was actually in Galilee, west of the Jordan in the vicinity where it empties into the Lake.

5. Tiberias, Capital of Herod Antipas

     This city, built on the western shore of the Lake of Galilee by Herod Antipas as his new capital, was named in honor of the then-reigning emperor, Tiberius (14-37 A.D.). [Josephus Antiquities XVIII, 2 3; [Josephus Antiquities XVIII, 2, 3; Wars II, 9, 1. See Dalman, op. cit., p. 176 f., 181f.] The place still exists with some ancient ruins visible and is called Tabariya by the Arabs. It is about twelve miles from the northern end of the Lake and about three miles from its southern extremity. It is pleasantly located in a stretch of undulating plain rimmed in by steep mountain ridges. So important did it become as a capital city that its name began to be applied to the Lake, which became known as "the sea of Tiberias" (John 6:1; 21:1).

     Uncertainty prevails as to the precise year the city was founded by Herod Antipas. On tenuous evidence from Josephus, the year A.D. 26 or thereabout is commonly suggested, merely because the Jewish historian alludes to Tiberias just after his taking note of the arrival of Pontius Pilate as procurator of Judaea (A.D. 26-36). But a better case archaeologically (coins and literary allusions) can be made for an earlier date (A.D. 18) on the occasion o the Emperor's sixtieth birthday and the twentieth anniversary of his holding the tribunica potestas. [Jack Finegan, Light From the Ancient Past rev. ed., (1959), p. 303, M. Avi-Yonah in Israel Exploration Journal 1 (1950-1951), pp. 160-169.] This earlier date assuredly fits in better to the allusion to the city (6:23) and the Lake under this name (6:1; 21:1) in John's gospel.

     The city was one of nine towns around the Lake which had more than 15,000 population, but initially had to be populated by foreigners and indigents, Jews at first refusing to live in it because Herod Antipas had to remove many graves in order to make room for it. Jesus' is not recorded as having visited the city, probably because it had so few, if any, Jews in it, and having been so newly founded when His ministry was in progress. Early it became noted for its moral laxness as a hot bath resort visited by wealthy Greeks and Romans. Foreign customs prevailed, moreover, to such an extent as to give offense to Jews of stricter persuasion.

     After the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, however, the situation changed, and Tiberias gradually became a virtual Jewish metropolis and a center of rabbinic learning. After the middle of the second century it became well-known as the seat of the Sanhedrin and the noted schools from which the Jerusalem Talmud (including the Mishnah and Gemara) came. From the sixth to the ninth centuries A.D., it became the center from which the Masoretic Hebrew Bible was edited, with "Tiberian" vowel pointings and traditional standardized text.

6. Magdala, the Home o f Mary Magdalene

     This village on the west side of the Lake of Galilee is probably to be identified with Mejdel, three miles northwest of Tiberias and situated between it and Capernaum at the southern end of the Plain of Ginnesar (Gennesaret). After feeding the 4,000 somewhere in the northeastern regions of the Lake, Jesus got into the boat and went to the region of Magdala (AN.) - "Magadan" (R.S.V.). The parallel passage, Mark 8:10, has "the district of Dalmanutha." The latter place name is entirely unknown, as well as Magadan, and both names seem to be the result of textual corruption, and are probably to be traced back to Magdal (i.e. Magdala) and Magdal Nuna

(Nunaiya), i.e., "Magdal of fish" and identified as the same place. [Cf. Jack Finegan, op. cit., p. 303.] Some would suggest the possibility that it be identified with the fish-drying and fish-packing town which Josephus designates by its Greek name Tarichaea. [War II, xxi, 4.] At any rate, the important Palestinian Syriac gospel, a text which preserves native Palestinian tradition, has Magdal (Magdala). This is the apparent true reading, which became Magadan and then Dalmanutha by a series of scribal blunders in the hands of copyists to whom these names were foreign and meaningless. [Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas, p. 388.]

     Magdala owes its chief interest to New Testament students as being the home of one of Jesus' most-devoted converts who ministered to Him of her substance (Luke 8:2) in gratitude for deliverance from "evil spirits and infirmities" (Luke 8:2; Mark 16:9). The epithet "Magdalene" or "Mary Magdalene" (Magdalene, a feminine substantive denotes, a "woman from Magdala") has this surname, in no sense to characterize her as a sinner, from which the current use of the word Magdalene has arisen, but merely to differentiate her from five other Marys mentioned in the New Testament , - Mary, wife of Cleopas, Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany, Mary, the mother of Mark, and Mary of Rome (Romans 16:6).

     Mary of Magdala was one of the faithful women at the cross (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; John 19:25), observed the Lord's burial (Matthew 27:61), went to the sepulcher to anoint Jesus' body (Mark 16:1), found the stone rolled away, and told Peter and John that the body of Jesus had been taken away (John 20:1, 2). She was the first to whom the risen Christ appeared (Mark 16:9; John 20:1117), and she reported His resurrection to the other disciples (John 20:18).

III. CAESAREA PHILIPPI AND THE DECAPOLIS

     After healing the blind man in the vicinity of Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26), Jesus and His disciples went northward "into the villages of Caesarea Philippi" (Mark 8:27). It was in this region where pagan Pan was revered that Jesus confronted His disciples with the momentous question of His Messiahship and Person (Matthew 16:13-16; Mark 8:27-33; Luke 9:18-20).

1. Mt. Hermon and the Transfiguration

     In coming into the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus and His disciples enjoyed the magnificently scenic region of Mt. Hermon, whose snowy majesty towered over them 9,101 feet above sea-level. Often they had seen its cool heights more than a hundred miles away through the shimmering heat of Jericho and the Jordan Valley or reflected in the waters of the Lake of Galilee.

     Hermon was the "sacred mountain," sometimes called "BaalHermon" (Judges 3:3). It formed the northernmost boundary (Joshua 12:1) of the country beyond the Jordan (Joshua 11:17) which Israel was to conquer from the Amorites (Deuteronomy 3:8). It is called Mount Sion, i.e. high mountain, being by far the highest of all mountains in or near Palestine, and was sacred to the deities of the Canaanites and the religious center of primeval Syria. Its Baal sanctuaries gave it fame before the Exodus (Joshua 11:17). Pan worship-flourished in the Graeco-Roman period, and Hermon became the center of the Druse religion in the tenth century A.D.

     Significant in this paganistic environment was Peter's confession of Jesus' Messiahship. "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). Was Jesus one of "gods many and lords many" of the pagans or was He the One living God manifested in humanity? Peter's confession takes on added significance in the background of Hermon and the region of Caesarea Philippi.

     One of the solitary recesses of Hermon, rather than the summit of Mount Tabor, is believed by many to be the scene of the Transfiguration. Its nearness to Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13) would argue for the case that the "high mountain" of Matthew 17:1, Mark 9:2, and Luke 9:28 is to be identified with this lofty peak, but proof for such a contention, of course, is lacking.

2. Caesarea Philippi and the Power o f Ancient Paganism

     The name Caesarea Philippi, that is the Caesarea of Philip, distinguishes this city in the Lebanon region from Caesarea in coastal Palestine. Both were named to honor a reigning Roman emperor. Caesarea Philippi is situated in the foothills of Hermon near the main source of the Jordan at the Paneion grotto, where abundant water issues from a cave (Mugharet Ras en-Neba) and where the pagan cult of Pan was centered.

     Near this sacred spot Herod the Great built an exquisite temple of marble and dedicated it to Caesar Augustus. Philip, the son of Herod the Great, who ruled the region northwest of the Sea of Galilee from 4 R.C. to A.D. 34, rebuilt and enlarged the town on this site and changed the name Panias, which had been given it in honor of the nature-cult god, Pan, to Caesarea in honor of the then-reigning Caesar, Tiberius. The epithet Philippi commemorated Philip the tetrarch's building the city. Later Agrippa 11 rechristened it "Neronias" in honor of Nero (54-68), but the old pagan name Panias has outlived both the names Philip and Agrippa II gave it, for it still clings to the present-day village, in the form of Banias [A simple substitution of the labial “p” for the labial “b.”] and demonstrates the persistence and power paganism exerted over its devotees and over ancient culture and civilization.

     Ancient Caesarea's acropolis is apparently buried under medieval towns and walls on the height above the present village. No trace remains even of the huge hippodrome where the victorious Titus com pelled 2500 captive Jewish warriors to massacre each other as a spectacle for Agrippa II, Bernice, and himself. Only future archaeological research can locate the position of the magnificent Temple Herod the Great built to honor Augustus, which may lie beneath the Moslem shrine of Sheikh Khudr (St. George).

3. Baalbek and Its Famous Ruins in the Beqa

     Farther north of Caesarea Philippi, deep in the mountainous belt of the Lebanon, the "white mountain," consisting of two ridges with the steep channel of the Beqa running between them, lies the awe inspiring remains of Baalbek. This brilliant city of Syria with its magnificent ruins is a mute reminder of the present-day traveler of the splendor of ancient paganism. Situated in the scenic valley between Labanon and Antilebanon some forty miles north of Damascus, the ancient town was irregular in form and was surrounded by a wall two miles in circumference.

     Baalbek was known as Heliopolis, "The City of the Sun," in the Graeco-Roman period, and its chief ruin is the Temple of the Sun (Baal-Jupiter), built in the era of Antonius Pius (A.D. 138-161) and Septimius Severus (A.D. 193-211). This massive edifice measured 310 by 175 feet, and some of the blocks employed in its construction are sixty feet long and thirteen feet thick. Its 54 Corinthian columns, of which six are still standing, were 68 feet high and 22 feet in circumference.

     South of the Temple of the Sun is the exquisite Temple of Bacchus, one of the most magnificent examples of ancient architectural art in Syria. Although it is smaller than the Temple of the Sun, it is of colossal size (225 by 110 feet) and larger than the Parthenon at Athens. Nineteen of its 46 columns still stand. The quarries from which these great temples were hewn are in the immediate of Baalbek and the small village that adjoins the ruins today. The art of Greece and the building genius of Rome were lavished on Baalbek from Augustus to Caracalla.

     Although Jesus and His disciples never visited this ancient center of sun-worship, it was a cultic center such as they did visit at Caesarea Philippi on the border of Palestine and Syria. Under Julius Caesar, Baalbek became a Roman colony, and was garrisoned by Augustus. Under Constantine, its pagan temple became Christian churches, but sank into decay under pillaging by the Arabs in 748 and Tamerlane in 1401, with a violent earthquake completing its destruction in 1759. The Germans undertook important excavations in the early twentieth century, O. Puchstein publishing Fiihrer durch die Ruinen von Baalbek in Berlin in 1905.

IV. PHOENICIA AND THE DECAPOLIs, FRINGE AREAS

OF JESUS' MINISTRY

     Galilee on the west and north was bounded by Phoenicia. Mark recotmts that after ministry in the Capernaum region of Galilee (Mark 6:56; 7:17), Jesus made a journey to "the region of Tyre and Sidon" (Mark 7:24). This was a natural course of action since Phoenicia dipped down in close proximity to Upper Galilee, and in not more than a day's journey from Capernaum via Safed and Gischla (ei Jish) Jesus could be in Phoenician territory. No doubt Christ had good reason at this time to withdraw from the region of Herod Antipas' sway, inasmuch as that unscrupulous monarch had just ordered the execution of John the Baptist.

1. The Region of Tyre and the Healing of the

Syrophoenician Woman's Daughter

     This instance of non-Jews receiving the benefits of Christ's earthly ministry may have taken place in the border districts with partly Jewish and partly Gentile population, but more likely it occurred near Tyre itself, if not actually in the city (Mark 7:24-30; Matthew 15:21-28).

     Tyre lay about 25 miles almost due west of Caesarea Philippi on the Mediterranean shore about 28 miles north of Ptolemais. It was much nearer Galilee than Sidon, which was 20 miles farther north on the coast. Mark also relates that when Jesus left the regions of Tyre and Sidon, "he came to the Sea of Galilee through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis" (Mark 7:31). This probably means that Jesus took the eastward road from Tyre to Caesarea Philippi and from there traveled south through Philip's kingdom of Gaulanitis to the Decapolis, which bordered on the Sea of Galilee along the entire south-eastern part of the Lake.

     Nothing more is related of Jesus' Phoenician visit than deliverance of the demon-possessed girl. Inhabitants of these heathen cities, Jesus on occasion pointed out, were under much less responsibility than the places around the Sea of Galilee, which constantly witnessed His miracles and heard His preaching (Matthew 11:21, 22; Luke 10:13, 14).

     The Gospel took hold at this historic town at a later date and the apostle Paul spent seven days at Tyre on his way to Jerusalem toward the end of his third missionary tour (Acts 21:3-6).

2. Sidon, Sister City of Tyre

     How long Jesus sojourned in Phoenicia or whether He actually visited its two most ancient and historic seaports is uncertain. At any rate, Phoenicia is designated conspicuously in the gospel narratives as "the region of Tyre and Sidon" (Matthew 15:21; Mark 7:24).

     Sidon was located on a promontory that slopes to the Mediterranean and re-emerges in a small island that was connected with the mainland by a bridge. About twenty miles north of the city lies modern Beirut (ancient Berytus). Oriented seaward, Sidon's long and checkered history is one of extensive commerce, wealth, and proficiency in arts and sciences. It is the oldest Phoenician emporium, famous and rich long before Tyre emerged into prominence. Modern Saida in the Republic of Lebanon marks its ancient location.

     In the days of Herod Agrippa I (A.D. 41-44), the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon for some reason displeased this monarch (Acts 12:20), although he adorned the city of Sidon architecturally and it enjoyed prestige under Roman rule. On his way to Rome, Paul was permitted to visit some friends of his at Sidon (Acts 27:3).

3. The Decapolis and the Outreach of Jesus' Ministry

     Matthew states that "great multitudes of people ... from Decapolis" followed Jesus (Matthew 4:25). The demoniac of Gadara began to broadcast the fame of Jesus "in Decapolis" after his deliverance (Mark 5:20). Upon his return from the Phoenician country of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus "came to the sea of Galilee through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis" (Mark 7:31).

     The Decapolis was a confederation of Hellenistic towns (originally ten in number) all except Scythopolis (ancient Bethshan, present Beisan, just west of the Jordan at the entrance to the Plain of Esdrae lon) located in Transjordan southeast of Galilee, South of the tetrarch Philip's Gaulanitis, east of the northern half of Herod Antipas' Peraea, west and north of Aretas' sprawling desert kingdom of Nabataea. Pliny, a contemporary Roman historian, lists these cities as Damascus, Philadelphia (Amman), Raphana, Scythopolis, Gadara, Hippo, Dion, Pella, Galasa and Canatha. [Natural History V, 16 Loeb Classical Library II, p. 277.]

     Interest for the New Testament student lies particularly in the town of Gadara, for Matthew (8:28, R.S.V.) notes that it was "in the country of the Gadarenes" [Cf. Josephus, Life, 42:44; Theodore Zahn, Das Land der Gadarener, Gerasener, Gergesener Neue Kirschliche Zeitschrift 13 (1902), pp. 923-945. G. Delman, Palestinajahrbuch 7 (1911), pp. 20f.] that the demoniac was healed.

     In Mark and Luke's account, the deliverance of the demoniac and the episode of the swine rushing over a cliff into the sea are said to have occurred in "the country of the Gerasenes" (Mark 5:1; Luke 8:62 R.S.V.). Since in all these references other ancient authorities vary between "Gerasenes," "Gadarenes" or "Gergasenes," it is obvious the place name has been corrupted in transmission at the hands of scribes ignorant of Palestinian sacred sites and to whom the place name meant nothing geographically. [Just as Magdala was corrupted to Magadan and Dalmanutha (mark 8:10, cf. Matthew 15:39).]

     Origen was of the opinion that the name Gadara was not the original name in these passages and adopted the reading Gergesenes. [Commentary on John VI, 41. Jerome does not support his suggestion, however, by manuscript evidence.] If his contention is correct, then Gergesa would be a town of uncertain location on the eastern side of the Lake of Galilee. [See R. G. clap, Journal Biblical Literature 26 (1907), pp. 62-83, F. G. Burkitt, ibidem, pp. 128-133.] It has been suggested that Gergesa is to be located at present-day Kersa, a tiny place on the eastern shore of the Lake of Galilee just below the Wadi es-Semak, where the topography of steep hills jutting into the Lake fits the story. [Cf. Wright and Filson, the Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible, plate XIV, p. 90. Jack Finegan, Light From the Ancient Past rev. ed., p. 309.]

     Despite Origen's objection, the name Gadara may be correct. This Decapolis town included in Pliny's list (now Umm Qeis) is located five miles southeast of the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee beyond the Yarmuk River, and there is no reason to believe that the city's territory did not extend to the Lake shore. These progressive Hellenistic cities, enjoying a large degree of autonomy, grew rich and prosperous, with considerable landed interests and control around them.

     Moreover, having been subjugated by Alexander Jannaeus (10376 B.C.) before being liberated from Jewish authority by Pompey (6463 B.C. ), they contained a sizable Jewish population and considerable indoctrination in Jewish thought and customs, which no doubt was one reason why Jesus' ministry extended to them as fringe areas in His work (cf. Matthew 15:24).

     After liberation by Pompey, these cities progressed in Greek thought and culture and developed economically, being merely subject to the legate of Syria, but being largely free to develop their cultural and material aspirations.

4. Gerasa (Jerash) and the Ministry of Jesus

     One of the most splendid cities of the Decapolis, as revealed by modern archaeological excavations, is Jerash (Gerasa). The Revised Standard Version in Matthew 8:28 correctly connects the ministry of Christ to the demoniac with Gadara, but also anomalously and certainly incorrectly connects it with Gerasa (Jerash) in Mark 5:1 and Luke 8:26 ("the country of the Gerasenes"). The reading followed is obviously not the correct one, i.e., "Gadarenes" or "Gergasenes."

Gerasa (Jerash) is situated in an impossible location to be geographically connected with events which took place near the Galilean Lake. In fact, it lies fifty miles south of the Sea of Galilee on one of the tributaries of the Jabbok. Moreover, it is quite arbitrary to suppose another Gerasa near the Lake, so that there is no evidence that Jesus ever visited the city. However, Yale Univeristy and the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem conducted excavations there in 1928-1930. In 1930-1931 and 1933-1934 Yale University and the American Schools of Oriental Research continued archaeological work. As a result of these excavations, a brilliant city has been brought to light. Although most of the architectural remains date a trifle later than the New Testament era, the city was splendid in Jesus' day.

     One of the interesting finds was a triumphal arch with an inscribed welcome to Emperor Hadrian on the occasion of his visit to the city in A.D. 130. [Carl H. Kraeling, ed., Gerasa, City of the Decapolis (1938), p. 401, inscription no. 58.] The excavated ruins display all the architectural refinements of a Hellenistic-Roman city with theatres, temples, forum, and spacious colonaded streets.

V. SAMARIA AND THE WELL OF SYCHAR

     Between Galilee and Judaea lay the religiously and politically inhospitable district of Samaria, through which ran the most direct route to Jerusalem. This road, requiring only three days of travel, was used by Galilean pilgrims in going up to the sacred feasts of Jerusalem, as is known from Josephus. [Antiquities XX, vi, 1.] Such journeys through Samaritan territory appear prominently in the gospel accounts of Jesus' movements in Palestine (Luke 9:51-56; 17:11-19; John 4:1-43).

1. A City o f Samaria Called Sychar

     John's gospel reports that in traveling from Judaea to Galilee Jesus arrived at "a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the portion of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph" (John 4:5 cf. Genesis 33:19). This village in modern times has been customarily identified with Askar, a short distance southeast of Shechem in the Plain of Shechem on an important road to Scythopolis (Bethshan), and situated at the southeast foot of Mt. Ebal. Askar, however, is a mile northeast of the traditional Well of Jacob, which distance makes it improbable that it is the correct identification, since Jacob's Well was said to be at the city (John 4:6).

     According to Jerome, [Quaest. In Gen. 66, 6; epictetus (ed. H. Schenkl, 1894) 108, 13. Sychar is called “Shechem” in the old Syriac Gospels.] Sychar (Sychar) is a corrupted form of Suchem, i.e. Shechem. Recent excavations tend to demonstrate Jer ome's correct conclusion, since Shechem was situated at Balatah, rather than at Nablus as used to be thought, the former site being nearer Jacob's well, and being occupied until A.D. 67, as Ernst Sellin's excavations between 1913 and 1934 have shown, [See Revue Biblique 37 (1928), p. 619; Emil Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas, p. 391; W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (1957), p. 803.] when it was destroyed by Vespasian, who built his new city Neapolis (Nablus) farther up the valley and left the old Shechem in ruins in A.D. 72. Today Nablus is inhabited by a remnant of the Samaritans.

     Shechem was the metropolis and chief center of the Samaritans, located in the important pass between Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim, thus controlling traffic north and south, and situated on the most direct route from Galilee to Jerusalem. It was the strategic stronghold of Samaritanism and an eminently fitting place for Jesus and His disciples to stop and refresh themselves on their journey northward.

2. Jacob's Well and Jesus' Convert

     Jacob's well at Sychar (old Shechem) was known since A.D. 333 and by A.D. 400 a church had been erected over it. It lies a half-mile east of Balatah (Sychar, old Shechem) on the highroad from Jerusa lem to Galilee and the main road from Sebaste to Peraea. It is the first roadside well on the trip from Jerusalem to the north and a natural resting place for the traveler's midday meal. [Stephen Caiger, Archaeology and the New Testament, sec. ed. 1948, p. 98f.] Lying at the foot of Mt. Gerizim, the sacred mountain of the Samaritans, one can look up at the towering summit three thousand feet above and see the woman of Samaria pointing out the hill to Jesus as she said, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain" (John 4:20). But she was to find the true object of worship in the Messiah who was talking to her and the true water of life, illustrated by the well, which although cluttered with debris, is still over seventy-five feet deep (cf. John 4:11).

Chapter 7—Christianity is Born and Expands Beyond Judaea

     The Christian Church came into existence in Jerusalem as a result of the events of the day of Pentecost narrated in Acts 2. Gospel privilege based upon a crucified, risen, and ascended Messiah was introduced to Jews only, or at the most to proselytes of Judaism. The first seven chapters of the Acts give the history of this Jerusalem church, tracing its progress through persecution. Only indirect hints are given of the spread of the church to Judaea in general. But Luke assumes this wider outreach of the message in the announced scope of his historical sketch (Acts 1:8).

     With Stephen's martyrdom, however, a decimating and climactic persecution flared up against the Jerusalem church. The evident direct target for the severe measures of repression taken by the persecutors was the Hellenists or Greek-speaking Jews in the church, of which group Stephen had been the leader. However, all the believers in the city were compelled to flee, "except the apostles." From this moment onward until the destruction of the city by the Romans in A.D. 70, the Jerusalem church seems to have consisted predominantly, if not almost entirely, of "Hebrews." After the Emperor Hadrian re-founded the city as the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina in A.D. 135, the Jerusalem church then established there was a Gentile-Christian body and had no continuity with the Jewish-Christian church of the apostolic era.

     The reason "all" the believers "were scattered abroad ... except the apostles" (Acts 8:2) is evidently that the latter clung to their posts out of a rigid sense of duty and because the extreme hostility generated by Stephen's witness was not aimed so directly at them as at the leaders of the Hellenists in the church. The Diaspora, moreover, was providential. While the apostles remaining in the city assured the perpetuation of the witness there, the general scattering was the means of the expansion of Christianity "in all Judaea and Samaria ... " (Acts 1:8) in accordance with our Lord's pre-ascension commission to His disciples. The words of an apocalyptic writer of the second half of the first century offer a parallel. "I will scatter this people among the Gentiles, that they may do good to the Gentiles" (II Baruch 1:4).

     The principal leader in the violent Jerusalem persecution was Saul of Tarsus. Vested with authority from the Sanhedrin and imbued with an inveterate zeal for ancient Hebrew traditions, he saw the new faith as a dangerous threat to Judaism. He viewed the followers of the new sect not so much as misguided fanatics to be treated with a measure of pity but as deliberate impostors to be mercilessly eradicated. This he undertook to do on the basis that the protagonists of the new religion were foisting a blasphemous falsehood on their adherents in declaring that God had resurrected from the grave as Messiah and Lord "one whose manner of death was sufficient to show that the divine curse rested on him." [F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of the Acts (Grand rapids, 1954), p. 175.]

I. THE INTRODUCTION OF THE GOSPEL TO SAMARIA

     Two episodes comprise this section. The first involves Philip's preliminary ministry in Samaria (Acts 8:4-13) and the second Peter's opening of gospel opportunity to the Samaritans (verses 14-25). The latter episode cannot correctly be understood apart from the fact that the Samaritans were brought into the new spiritual era introduced to the Jews at Pentecost (Acts 2) and like them, through Peter's apostolic mediation, became recipients of the gift of the Spirit with all the blessings involved. [For a discussion of the theological aspects of Peter's ministry in Samaria, see Merrill F. Unger, The Baptizing Work of the Holy Spirit (Wheaton, Illinois, 1953), pp. 65-69.]

1. The District o f Samaria

     After the division of the Kingdom of Israel subsequent to Solomon's death in the tenth century B.C., the so-called Northern Kingdom, comprising the Ten Tribes which seceded from Judah and Benjamin, became known as Samaria. The name is derived from the capital city which Omri founded in the second quarter of the ninth century B.C., calling it Shomron (Samaria) from the name of the strategic hill he bought on which to locate the town. The boundary of Samaria, which occupied central Palestine, extended from Galilee on the north to Judaea on the south, the southern limit marked by an uncertain line which ran through the weak buffer territory of Benjamin. The eastern boundary ran to the Jordan, and the western limit apparently did not reach the Mediterranean, for Accho belonged to Judaea.

     Until the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722-721 B.C., the history of Samaria was mainly that of the Ten Tribes. With the capture of the city by the Assyrians, the independent history of the district began. The principal inhabitants were carried off by the Assyrians and numerous nationalities were imported and the population mongrelized. From this period began the intense animosity of the Jews toward the racially hodge-podge Samaritans, reflected so poignantly in the New Testament (John 4:9; Luke 9:52, 53).

     The refusal of the Jews to accept the proffered aid of the Samaritans to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem under Sanballat, the Persian-supported governor of Samaria at the time of Zerubbabel, the governor of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 6), accentuated the hatred between Jew and Samaritan. The increased antipathy eventually led to the erection of a rival temple on Mt. Gerizim and the organization of a schismatic sect with headquarters in the vicinity of Shechem at Nablus. The Maccabean John Hyrcanus invaded Samaria about 128 B.C. and destroyed the temple on Gerizim. About a decade later, the capital city was razed by sons of Hyrcanus.

     After the religious cleavage, the regime of Ezra and Nehemiah excluded the Samaritans from offering at the Jerusalem temple, and a rigid boycott of intercourse with them was enforced. This sad rift continued even in Jesus' day, so that centuries of virulent hostility had crystallized the enmity reflected in the declaration of the woman of Samaria, "The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans" (John 4:9).

     In 63 B.C. Samaria came under Roman domination and Pompey included it in the province of Syria. In 40 B.C., as a result of the Parthian threat to Jerusalem, the Romans gave most of Palestine to Herod, including Samaria, Herod ruling as a subservient king from 37-4 B.C. After Herod's death, Samaria, along with Judaea and Northern Idumaea, passed to Herod's son, Archelaus. Augustus, however, deposed him in A.D. 6 and put Samaria under the rule of a Roman procurator. This was the status of the country in the days of Jesus and the apostles.

2. The City of Samaria

     According to Acts 6:5 (Codex Vaticanus ), Philip in his evangelizing efforts "went down to the city of Samaria." The less attested reading is "a city of Samaria" (Codex Bezae). The meaning, despite critical objection, [Cf. Kirsopp Lake and Henry J. Cadbury, The Beginnings of Christianity IV (London, 1933), p. 89; F. F. Bruce: The Acts of the Apostles (London, 1951), p. 183.] is apparently found in the more difficult but better attested reading, "the city of Samaria" (meaning "the chief city of the country or district of Samaria"). The usage is confessedly unusual, but most certainly refers to Sebaste (modern Sebastiyeh ), which in pre-Herodian times was known as Samaria, rather than to Gitta, Simon Magus' birthplace according to Justin Martyr, or to Neapolis (ancient Shechem, modern Nablus), the headquarters of orthodox Samaritanism.

     [Cf. Charles W. Carter and Ralph Earle, Acts in The Evangelical Bible Commentary (Grand rapids, 1959, p. 112). Emil G. Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas (new York, 1956), p. 416.]

     Kraeling suggests the reason for the vagueness of the writer of Acts in designating Sebaste "may be due to his reluctance to put the Apostles in this scene, where worship of the late emperor Augustus was the order of the day." [Op. cit., p. 416.]

     The city of Samaria suffered greatly during the Maccabean wars, losing its fortifications and its strength. It was not until the Roman governorship of Gabinius from 57 to 55 B.C. that the walls were re stored. In gratitude to its benefactor, the city was called Gabiniopolis and its loyalty to Rome was fostered. In 39 B.C. when Herod was fighting for the Romans against Antigonus, the Samaritans assisted him. In 30 B.C. the city was officially given to Herod by Caesar Augustus, and the wily client-king opportunely saw his chance both to strengthen his hold on the country and at the same time to advertise his gratitude and devotion to the emperor. Accordingly Herod began an ambitious program of beautifying and adorning the city in honor of Augustus, renaming it Sebaste (Augusta) and settling six thousand of his retiring war veterans there.

Herod also greatly enlarged the city, so that it stretched for two and a half . Roman miles in circumference.

     Excavations by the Harvard University expedition under the direction of George A. Reisner and Clarence Fisher (1908-1910) and resumed by the British archaeologist J. W. Crowfoot (1931-1935) have resurrected the Hellenistic-Roman city as well as the more ancient city of Old Testament times. [J. W. Crowfoot, Kathleen Kenyon, and E. L. Sukenik, The Buildings at Samaria (London, 1942), pp. 31-37. For a historical account, see Josephus, who devotes a whole chapter to Herod's buildings—Wars I, xxi, Antiquities XV, viii, 5 translated by H. St. Thackeray and Ralph Marcus (London 1926-1943).]

     Herod erected a stout wall around this new city with defensive towers dotting it. The strategic location and centrality of the place were not overlooked by the wily king as an ideal site for another of his fortress cities which were planned to rivet his rule on the country. Perhaps the most ambitious undertaking of Herod was a grandiose temple erected to Emperor Augustus. This lavish structure was constructed on a podium so as to be conspicuous from afar, and was reached by an elegant flight of steps leading up from a large forecourt. The temple was rectangular in shape as well as the court in front of it. The remains of this edifice attest to its magnificence as a monument worthy of honoring the emperor of the world at that time.

     The forum, a characteristic feature of a Hellenistic city, was located east of the temple of Augustus and was apparently the work of Herod. But the finest ruin of the Herodian period is the spacious stadium, enclosed with a stone wall and a roof supported by Doric columns. It was regulation size, 638 feet long and 190 feet wide, comparable in size to the track used in the Olympic games in Greece. The stadium at Sebaste offers another attestation to Herod's devotion to Greek athletics, known also from his activities in this area at Jerusalem and Caesarea. In the latter city Herod supported the Olympic games and offered' the handsomest rewards at the 192nd Olympiad. [G. Ernest Wright, Biblical Archaeology (Philadelphia, 1957), p. 219.]

3. The Ministry of Philip and Peter

     Philip's spiritual labors were attended with great success, especially in demon-expulsions and miracles of healing (Acts 8:5-8). However, there was opposition from a Satan-controlled occultist and demon-trafficker named Simon, who, however, professed conversion under Philip's preaching. Numerous legends have been handed down in early Christian writings concerning this person whose birthplace traditionally was said to be Gitta (modern Jett ), some thirteen miles northwest of Sebaste (Samaria).

     Simon belonged to a class, all too common in that era, consisting of Jews trading on the mysterious religious prestige of their race and imposing on the credulity of the heathen, boasting in the exercise of magical powers manifested in incantations, spells, and charms. [For an excellent characterization of Simon the Magician, see W. M. Ramsay, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the new Testament 4^th ed., pp. 117-131.] This instance of Simon of Samaria is paralleled by Bar-Jesus of Paphos in Cyprus (Acts 13:6-11) and offers another striking example in the Book of Acts of the clash of a young and virile Christianity with magic. [Cf. Ramsay, op. cit., pp. 106-116.]

     Under Philip's preaching the Samaritans "received the word of God" (Acts 8:14), i.e., truths concerning "the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ" (verse 12). Their baptism (verse 12) showed they believed in the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus as the Messiah. One thing remained. They needed to be brought, as a mixed racial entity between Jew and Gentile, into the full spiritual privileges of the new age inaugurated in Acts 2. This was accomplished by the Jerusalem apostles dispatching "Peter and John" to pray for them that "they might receive the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:14, 15). Peter was sent to be the apostolic intermediary, as in all the initial introductions of the full gospel privilege of the new age, to Jew (Acts 2:13), to Samaritan (Acts 8:14, 15) and to Gentile (Acts 10:44), according to the declaration of Jesus Himself (Matthew 16:18, 19). John was delegated by the Jerusalem church to be an apostolic witness of what was to transpire. It is noteworthy that this pivotal event in the outgoing of the Gospel providentially occurred in such a splendid, influential, and strategic city as Hellenistic Sebaste.

     The city was a place eminently fitted for the far-reaching spiritual event which took place within its walls, just as the similarly significant city of Caesarea was to be divinely chosen as the scene of the introduction of gospel opportunity to the Gentiles (Acts 10). But in both cases, the Christian Gospel thus introduced in a strategic center of population and culture within an ethnic group, soon spread to others outside in other centers of population within that group. "So then after giving their testimony and speaking the word of the Lord they (the apostles Peter and John) returned to Jerusalem and brought the good news to many villages o f the Samaritans" (Acts 8:25, cf. 11:1922).

II. THE CONVERSION OF THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH

     The message of a crucified and risen Saviour with the consequent spiritual blessings of the new gospel age having been opened to the Jews (Acts 2) and the racially and religiously mixed Samaritans (Acts 8:1-25), an account of Philip's ministry follows closely in the incident of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). The latter personage falls into the category of those who, like the Samaritans, either racially or religiously, or both, had affinities with the Jews and their religion, and who were not pure Gentiles.

     This is why the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch is catalogued after the official introduction of gospel privilege to the Samaritans and in relation to Philip's ministry, and not that of Peter and John. The incident furnishes an illustration of the norm of the salvation experience established for the new age. For this reason, in contrast to apostolic mediation by Peter witnessed by John, Philip's ministry and message alone are sufficient, and there is a conspicuous absence of apostolic imposition of hands and "receiving the Holy Spirit," or the giving of the Holy Spirit as a gift, as in the case of the official introduction of the Gospel to a people as an ethnic and religious group. In the case of the eunuch there was simple faith in Jesus the Messiah as the Son of God (Acts 8:37), followed by baptism as an outward attestation to the inward exercise of faith and the consequent salvation experience.

1. The Road From Jerusalem to Gaza

     Philip was divinely directed to "rise and go southwards in the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza" (Acts 8:26). Appended to the divine directive is the explanation, "This (either the road or the city being grammatically meant) is desert." The R.S.V. construes the latter, "This is a desert road." The AN. chooses the former, "Gaza, which is desert," and would be a reference to the ruins of the older town destroyed by the Hasmonaean king, Alexander Jannaeus, in 93 B.C., and which became known as Old Gaza or Desert Gaza after the Roman Governor Gabinius, who in 57 R.C. erected the new city of Gaza nearer to the Mediterranean.

     New Gaza, the Hellenistic town, according to Josephus, [Antiquities XIV, 4, 4.] was partially destroyed, but not until A.D. 66. It is distinguished by the ancient geographers from the older city, [Diodorus Siculus XIX, 80, Arrian, Anabasis II, 26 1, Strabo XVI, 2, 30. Cf. W. J. Pythian Adams, Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Funds, 1923, pp. 30f., George Adam Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, pp. 186 ff.] and was located on the great caravan route connecting with Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Europe, being an important merchandise mart and the last town in Palestine on the way to Egypt.

     Since there were several roads that lead south from Jerusalem to Gaza, one going by the way of Hebron and another farther to the west, and God knew well the road the Ethiopian eunuch would take to return to his native land, exact directions were necessary so that Philip might know the correct route to follow. One early tradition names the road south to Hebron, turning off at Bethzur southwestward to the plain. Here tradition, illustrated by the Madeba map, located the place where the eunuch was baptized. Another view held Philip turned off the Hebron road earlier at Bethter and traveled via Beit Jibrin, placing the baptism at a fountain near the former place.

     Kraeling, understanding "go toward the south" in a broad general sense, places the route westward and slightly northwestward to Emmaus and then southwestward toward Azotus. Since water is not to be found south of Azotus, in the dreary rocky wastes through which the road winds, Kraeling suggests a spot for the baptism two miles north of Azotus, near the mound of the old Philistine city of Ashdod, where the highway reaches the source of the Nahr Sukrer, today the only water available on this part of the caravan route to Gaza. [Kraeling, op. cit., p. 418.]

2. The Ethiopian Nobleman, Treasurer of Candace,

Queen of the Ethiopians

     As Philip obeyed the divine directive, he overtook "an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, minister of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who had come on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and was returning, and was seated in his coach and reading the prophet Isaiah" (Acts 8:27, 28).

     Although the word used for the vehicle in which the important Ethiopian official was traveling often means a war chariot or racing chariot (harma), it was probably more a wagon or carriage, yet certainly befitted the man of high station who rode in it, and was drawn by horses rather than being a mere "ox-wagon," as Lake and Cadbury suggest. [Op. cit., p. 96.] It cannot be imagined that the vehicle was not the finest and most comfortable the craftsmanship of the age could furnish, and it need not be assumed the conveyance necessarily had to move slowly to facilitate reading. Probably, as a proselyte of Judaism, the Ethiopian was simply following the stipulations of the rabbis that the sacred Scriptures should be read on a journey, and that they (particularly the Law) should be read aloud. [Lake and Cadbury, op. cit., p. 96.] Such an exercise suited him admirably as he endeavored to avoid the boredom of a long journey, especially through desolate country.

     The Ethiopian to whom Philip ministered was a treasurer under Candace. This is a title, like the term "Pharaoh" among the Egyptians, and not a personal name. George Reisner has identified the pyramid tombs of reigning Candaces of Ethiopia at Meroe in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan north of Khartoum, dating from the third century B.C. till the middle of the fourth century A.D. [G. A Reisner, “The Pyramids of Meroe and the Candaces of Ethiopia” in Sudan Notes and Records, 1922; F. L. Griffith, Meroe, the City of the Ethiopians, 1911. Notes and Records, 1922, A. H. Sayce, “The Meroitic Hieroglyphic Inscriptions” in Proceedings of he Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1909.] Both Greek and Latin writers take note of a dynasty of Ethiopian queens bearing the title of Candace.

     The theory behind the line of queens is that the king of Ethiopia was venerated as the child of the sun and regarded as too exalted to administrate the secular duties of royalty. These functions were carried out for him by the queen mother, bearing the dynastic title Candace.

     [Bion of Soli, Aethiopica 1; cf. also Strabo Geography XVII, 1, 54; Dio Cassius, History LIV, 5, 4, Pliny, Natural History VI, 186; Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History II, 1, 13.]

     The ancient kingdom of Ethiopia which had the line of Candaces, or reigning queens, corresponds to present-day Nubia, and the Ethiopians were Nubians inhabiting the Nile district from Aswan at the first cataract of the Nile south to the vicinity of Khartoum, its two chief cities being Meroe and Napata.

     [The Ethiopians (Nubians) have been confused with the Abyssinians, who represent the ancient Axum in the mountains east of the Upper Nile. But ethnologically and geographically, Ethiopians (Semitic in language) and Abyssinians (Hamitic ) are distinct (cf. L. Reinisch, Die Nuba-Sprache, 1879. F. Praetorius, "Ueber die hamitischen Sprachen-Ostafrika's" in Beitraege zur Assyriologie, II (1894), pp. 312 ff., E. A. Budge, The Egyptian Sudan, 1907.]

     The Ethiopian treasurer is said to have been "a eunuch," that is, a castrated male. The inhuman practice of self-mutilation and the mutilation of others in this manner was rife throughout the ancient world. Men thus deformed were placed under serious religious disabilities by the Mosaic law, being excluded from public worship (Deuteronomy 23:1), in part because such mutilation was frequently practiced in heathenism in reverence to pagan gods, and in part because a maimed creature of any description was considered unfit for the service of Yahweh (Leviticus 22:23-25).

     It is, accordingly, providential that in this illustrative example of gospel privilege going out to those who were racially and religiously related to the Jews and their religion (like the Samaritans) or simply religiously related (like the eunuch), since he was apparently a non-Jew and a proselyte of the gate who had simply embraced Judaism, the grace now offered in Christ overleaped all barriers and disabilities imposed by the law of Moses, and granted full salvation to one who, although of noble position, had been excluded from the congregation of the Lord's people by a legal disability.

     Eunuchs were commonly employed by the kings of Judah and Israel, aping their pagan neighbors, as guardians of the royal harem (II Kings 9:32; Jeremiah 41:16) and in military and other official posts (I Samuel 8:15; I Kings 22:9; II Kings 8:6; Jeremiah 29:2; 34:19; 38:7). The courts of the Herods were normally featured by the presence of eunuchs, as Josephus states. [Antiquities XV, 7, 4,] With the Ethiopian court ruled by queens, it is little wonder to find an important official of the queen a eunuch.

III. SAUL OF TARSUS AND His CONVERSION NEAR DAMASCUS

     The book of the Acts is an account of the expansion of Christianity through the witness of God-chosen human instruments from Jerusalem to "all Judaea and Samaria and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). The first eight chapters present the radiation of the gospel message from Jerusalem to "all Judaea and Samaria." This involves the official introduction of gospel privilege to the Jews (Acts 2), with the history of the conversion of many Jews at Jerusalem (Acts 3-7), and to the Samaritans (Acts 8:1-25), with the illustration of the wider outreach to Jewish proselytes, such as the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40).

     The rest of the book of the Acts is concerned with the official introduction of the Gospel to Gentiles (Acts 10:1-48), and with this introductory process completed and the norm of salvation established, the rest of the book is taken up essentially with the extension of the salvation message "to the end of the earth."

It is significant that the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who was destined to be the great exponent of the Gospel "to the end of the earth," is introduced in chapter 9, immediately after the completed official opening of the Gospel to Jew, Samaritan, and Jewish proselyte, and just before the account of the introduction of gospel grace to pure Gentiles. He who was to become "the apostle to the Gentiles" is seen already being prepared for his task while God was at the same time preparing the way for those who would hear the apostle's message.

1. Tarsus, Birthplace of Saul

     After the conversion of "Saul of Tarsus" (Acts 9:11), his filling with the Spirit in Ananias' house, and his initial ministry in Damascus and Jerusalem, the Christian brothers conducted him to Caesarea to send him by ship "to Tarsus" that he might escape death at the hands of the Jews who were plotting to kill him (Acts 9:30). Saul was sent to Tarsus to escape danger evidently because it was his birthplace (Acts 22:3), and he enjoyed the citizenship of this free city (Acts 21:39). From Tarsus he was later fetched by Barnabas to assist in teaching the large number of Gentile converts in the church at Antioch (Acts 11:25, 26).

     Tarsus was located in the New Testament era in the Roman province of Cilicia in southeastern Asia Minor across the Gulf of Issos from Antioch's seaport, Seleucia. Cilicia was famous for its wool sheared from Taurus-ranging flocks and loomed into a textile called cilium. Although rimmed on the north and west by the Taurus Mountains, access from the west was through the renowned Cilician Gates which narrowly cut through the lofty mountains and gave entrance to the rich plain which formed the heart of the province and the setting for Tarsus, the most important metropolis of the country. Through the Cilician Gates moved the armies and the commercial caravans of antiquity. Paul himself passed through this artery of traffic as he went to found and establish the first Christian churches in Asia Minor and Europe, and his home town Tarsus in his day was a busy emporium swarming with traders, travelers, and military men. Today, remains of the old Roman road connecting Tarsus with the Cilician Gates can still be seen. It in turn connected with the ancient trade road from the Euphrates, joining the road from Antioch and points south fifty miles east of Tarsus.

     In addition to being strategically situated on this network of highways by land, Tarsus was ideally located on the sea lanes as well. Although an inland city built on the banks of the Cydnus River ten miles from the Mediterranean Sea, the swift-flowing stream branched out into a lake just below the city, forming a natural harbor, easily reached by Mediterranean sea trade and thoroughly safe for international shipping. As a result of this unique waterway, the city enjoyed a prosperous maritime commerce in addition to its land trade.

     With such an ideal location, there is little wonder the site was very early inhabited and that the founding of the city is wrapped in legend. The town is mentioned on the Black Obelisk as a conquest of the Assyrian emperor Shalmaneser in the ninth century B.C. Persia ruled the city through satraps, and in Xenophon's day (fourth century B.C.) the city was renowned and thriving. Alexander the Great’s advent in 334 R.C. left a permanent Hellenistic stamp on the place to temper its earlier Oriental character.

     Under the Seleucids, Greek influences were fostered. Antiochus Epiphanes IV, about 170 B.C., constituted Tarsus an autonomous Greek town and settled a colony of Jews there to stimulate the economic growth of the city. To them he granted equal civil rights with Greeks.

     When Roman power took over in 64 R.C., Tarsus became the seat of the governmental administration of the province of Cilicia. It was probably when Antony decreed full Roman citizenship on all the Tarsians (including the Jews) that Saul's family received this important benefit, which stood the apostle in good stead when later this fact changed the attitude of Roman governmental officialdom toward him and gave him right of appeal to Caesar (Acts 22:28-30). These privileges were confirmed by Augustus, so that Tarsus became a favored town and its citizens proud of its civic-mindedness and progress. Paul, with eminent justification, could say to the Roman tribune when he was arrested in Jerusalem, "I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city" (Acts 21:39).

The Greek culture and intellectual life of the city were also strong factors substantiating Paul's pride in his home town. Tarsus was the seat of a famous state-supported university and had a reputation for the keen interest of its native students for learning and philosophy, in this particular emulating even the more famous Athens in Greece and Alexandria in Egypt. Whereas the latter cities had a heavy influx of foreign students, native Cilicians crowded the halls of the Tarsian university. [Cf. Sir William Ramsay, The Cities of St. Paul (reprint Grand Rapids, 1949), pp. 228-235.]

     Famous philosophers of Tarsus included the Stoics Antipater, Archedemus, Nestor, Athenodorus surnamed Cordylion, friend and confidant of the younger Marcus Cato and his slightly later namesake who was the tutor of Augustus and the later reviser of the Tarsian constitution and restorer of its democratic processes. Another philosopher was Nestor, who tutored famous Romans. The grammarians Artemidorus and Diodorus and the tragic poet Dionysides are included in Strabo's list of distinguished Tarsians.

     Precisely what effect Paul's boyhood in Tarsus had on the later ministry of the apostle or just how long he studied in his native town is impossible to say. At Tarsus he learned the trade of Cilician cloth manufacture which later he engaged in to support himself in his missionary endeavors throughout the Graeco-Roman world (Acts 18:3; 20:34; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 11 Thessalonians 3:8). But certainly this was only one element that providentially fitted into his great future ministry. Tarsus with its world trade, its oriental traditions, its cosmopolitan learning, its Hellenic culture, its autonomous government, its Stoic and Cynic philosophers who graced its busy agora or sauntered along the Cyndus River in erudite discussion, was bound to have exerted a far-reaching effect on one of its citizens designed to be the most famous and useful of all the great men it produced. Uniting Jewish nationality with membership in a Greek state and Roman citizenship, with prodigious learning in Judaism, his conversion to Christianity and the divine revelation of its distinctive message were the climaxing events that made Saul of Tarsus the peculiarly equipped personality for the magnificent and colossal task divinely assigned him.

2. Damascus and the Beginning of Saul's Ministry

     At the time of Saul's conversion and escape from the city, Damascus may have been temporarily under Nabataean rule, for "the governor of King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes" (II Corinthians 11:32). However, as a free city and a member of the Decapolis, a chain of ten autonomous cities including Bethshan (Scythopolis) on the west side of Jordan, and Pella, Dion, Kanatha, Raphana, Hippos, Gadara, Philadelphia, Damascus, and Gerasa (Jerash) on the east side of the Jordon, Damascus like its free sister cities had the right to coin its own money. Moreover there are extant coins of the city from the reign of Augustus, Tiberius, and Nero, but none from the time of Caligula (37-41 A.D.) who may possibly have handed over the city to her neighbors, since "such an act on the part of the paronoiac emperor is quite possible….[Guiseppe Ricciotti, Paul the Apostle, 1953, p. 30. John Davis, A Dictionary of the Bible l(4^th ed., rev., 1954), p. 52.]

     On the other hand, the Romans would not likely have ceded so important a free city to Aretas IV (9 B.C..-40 A.D. ), especially since they had planned a punitive expedition against him when he con ducted a successful war against his son-in-law Herod in 36 A.D., because the latter had divorced his daughter in order to marry Herodias. [Josephus, antiquities XVIII 5, 1-3, Cf. Mark 6:17-29; G. E. Wright, Biblical Archaeology (Philadelphia, 1957), p. 226.] But the erratic Caligula may have sided with Aretas, for in 40 A.D. he ceded to Herod Agrippa I the tetrarchate that had belonged to Herod Antipas.

     But since "the governor" was an "ethnarch," the ruler of an ethnic group in a city, numerous scholars adopt essentially the position of C. S. C. Williams that "rather than to suppose that Aretas was in possession of the city over which his representative was placed or that there were so many more Arabs than Jews there that Aretas appointed its governor, it is easier to assume that the ethnarch waiting for Paul was outside the city, perhaps a neighboring sheikh, hoping to catch Paul as he emerged." [The Acts of the Apostles in Harper’s New Testament Commentaries (New York, 1957), p. 126. Cf. E. Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas (new York, 1956), p. 426. Lake and Cadbury, Beginnings of Christianity V, 193; H. J. Cadbury, The Book of the Acts in History, 1955, pp. 19-21.]

     The problem of Aretas' relationship to Damascus at the time of Paul's escape, however, cannot be solved fully, but from Galatians 1:17 it is known that Paul's stay in Damascus was punctuated by his trip to Arabia. It is also certain that his withdrawal to Arabia did not last beyond the third year of his conversion (Galatians 1:18), apparently in the year 39, before Aretas' death in 40 and after Caligula's accession. Under this theory, Paul fled the city when it no longer belonged to the Romans but to Aretas.

     Paul's early associations with Damascus have highlighted this ancient city, so famous in the Old Testament period as well as in the New Testament era. But the poverty of the city's antiquities is remarkable, since it has been continuously occupied for millennia and therefore unexcavated. Some of its walls, however, are ancient, and several of the Roman gates are well preserved. The "Street Straight" still bisects the city from the eastern to the western gate. The Church of John the Baptist of the fourth century A.D. still preserves an important Christian inscription, although the edifice was turned into a mosque in the eighth century and has been burned several times. According to R. A. S. MacCalister, the inscription reads: "Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations." [As quoted by Camden Cobern, the New Archaeological Discoveries and Their Bearing Upon the New Testament (New York, 1917), p. 545.]

3. Saul’s Sojourn in Arabia

     Although the reference to the trip to Arabia is clear from Galatians 1:17, the geographical designation is far from precise. Did the apostle go to some spot in Aretas' sprawling kingdom of Nabataea, stretching northeast, east, and south of the Decapolis? At this era the Nabataean kingdom of Aretas was far from being a desert but was a prosperous, irrigated region of hundreds of thriving towns, beautiful temples and high places, established by the marvelously enterprising people known as the Nabataeans. Their kingdom lay astride the important trade routes between Arabia and Syria. Well-known high places include that at. Petra, first discovered by George L. Robinson in 1900, and that at Jebel et-Tannur, situated southeast of the Dead Sea, excavated by Nelson Glueck in 1937. [For a survey of the Nabataeans and archaeological discoveries, see Nelson Glueck, The Other Side of the Jordan (New Haven, 1940), Chapter VI, “The Civilization of the Nabataeans,” pp. 158-200. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 131 (Oct., 1954), pp. 6-15.]

     However, since Arabia from Old Testament geographical representations suggests an isolated desert region conducive to receiving spiritual revelations similar to those vouchsafed to Moses (Exodus 3:1), to the nation Israel at Sinai (Deuteronomy 4:10) and to the prophet Elijah (I Kings 19:1-21), a locality in the more distant and vast peninsula of Arabia may be meant. This area,, about one-third as large as the United States, is bounded on the west by the Red Sea, on the south by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Fertile Crescent, the ancient rim of desert-skirted civilization, and on the east by the Persian Gulf. Somewhere in the depths of its illimitable solitudes, perhaps at Horeb, the very mount of God, the newly converted Saul of Tarsus was given the far-reaching spiritual truths to be taught and preached in the new age that was in the course of being opened to Jew (Acts 2), Samaritan and Jewish proselyte (Acts 8), and Gentile (Acts 10).

IV. CAESAREA AND THE PIVOTAL EXPANSION

OF CHRISTIANITY

     Heretofore, the Gospel based upon the finished redemption of a crucified, risen, and ascended Saviour had been introduced to Jews (Acts 2) and the racially and religiously mixed Samaritans (Acts 8:5-25). One more instance of such official apostolic introduction to a distinct ethnic group remains (Acts 10:1-48). After this pivotal event in the extension of gospel privilege to the Gentiles and the spread of gospel witness "to the end of the earth" (cf. Acts 1:8), Luke represents the Holy Spirit as received with neither delay, apostolic mediation, imposition of hands, nor any other circumstance or condition other than simple faith in Christ.

1. Cornelius the Roman Centurion

     "The range of the apostolic message has been steadily broadening, and now the time has come for it to cross the barrier which separated Jews from Gentiles and be presented unambiguously to Gen tiles." [F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of Acts (Grand Rapids, 1954), p. 214.] Cornelius was a very common Roman name since Publius Cornelius Sulla in 82 B.C. granted freedom to 10,000 slaves who were enrolled in the gens Cornelia to which he belonged, and whose family name these freedmen acquired. As a centurion (corresponding roughly to a "captain"), Cornelius was a man of considerable importance, commanding approximately a hundred men ("century"), which was one-sixtieth of a Roman legion of 6,000 men. Centurions like Cornelius and Julius (Acts 27:1) may have been separated from the legion to which they were properly assigned, in order to discharge special duties. Ordinary duties of a centurion included inspection and drilling and commanding men under him, but other duties, corresponding to a non-commissioned officer, were sometimes delegated to him.

     Cornelius belonged to one of the auxiliary cohorts (Greek speira) in Judaea. Inscriptional evidence demonstrates the presence of such an auxiliary band in Syria about A.D. 69 entitled Cohors II Italica civium Romanorum, that is, "second Italian cohort of Roman citizens." [Cf. H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae (Berlin, 1892-1916), no. 9168.] Commanders of this rank were required to be good, valorous, level-headed leaders, and formed the essential strength of the Roman army.

     In addition Cornelius was one of those Gentiles known as "God-fearers. " Like numerous other non-Jews, he was drawn to the simple monotheism of Judaism and the sound morality of the Jewish way of life, but shied away from proselytism involving circumcision and the keeping of the Jewish law, as well as baptism in the presence of witnesses. His fear of God was manifested in his regular prayers to the God of Israel and his charitable donations to the Jewish people.

     That he as the first Gentile to be admitted to gospel privilege was a God-fearer is highly important. Such God-fearing Gentiles, who, however, commonly attended the synagogue, and who kept the Sabbath and abstained from certain foods, later form the first converts and the nucleus of the newly-formed churches in one community after another in Paul's great missionary tours.

2. Peter's Ministry in Lydda and His Preparation

for Gentile Evangelism at Joppa

     According to Acts 9:32-43, the apostle Peter conducted an important ministry in the coastal area of Palestine, apparently itinerating among the Christian assemblies already founded there. At Lydda he healed a paralytic named Aeneas who had been bedridden for eight years, and the knowledge of this miracle was the means of numerous converts in Lydda and all over the coastal plain of Sharon (Acts 9:3235), which extended more than fifty miles north from Lydda and Joppa to Mount Carmel south of Haifa. This well-watered garden area of Palestine contained not only the cities of Lydda and Joppa, but Antipatris, Appolonia, Caesarea, and Dor as well. Over its coastal road and its expansive sandy beaches moved the caravan traffic from Arabia, Egypt and the Tigris-Euphrates world, and flowed religious and cultural influences into other parts of Palestine.

     Lydda, about eleven miles southeast of Joppa, and lying on the Jerusalem to Joppa road, is found as Lod in Old Testament times (I Chronicles 8:12; Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 7:37), and was famous in Crusader times as the traditional site of the martyrdom of St. George, who was adopted as the patron saint of England through Richard Coeur de Lion and venerated as the patron of. Syrian Christianity.

     The Seleucids ceded Lydda (Lod) to Jonathan Maccabaeus in145 B.C. Although Pompey stripped the city of its Jewish rights, Caesar restored them, and it became the capital of a Judaean district. The ancient name of the town survives in present-day Ludd, where a modern airport is located and the impressive ruins of the Crusader Church of St. George are the only reminder of the older phases of the city, whose remains apparently lie buried beneath the present settlement.

     From Lydda Peter was called to come to Joppa where he miraculously restored the charitable and beloved widow Dorcas to life and where he resided for an extended period "with one Simon a tanner" (Acts 9:36-43), whose house was on a street skirting the Mediterranean Sea (Acts 10:6) . In Old Testament times Jaffa was the port of Palestine, when it was the only harbor between Mt. Carmel and Egypt. But it was never really satisfactory, notably lacking a breakwater, so that Joppa longshoremen became famous for their dexterity in safely landing cargoes through rough surf. From its port the fleeing Jonah took ship for Tarshish (Jonah 1:3). The city is very ancient, appearing as Japho in the Old Testament (Joshua 19:46), in the lists of conquests of Thutmose III at Karnak, in the Amarna Letters as the chief center of Egyptian provincial government around 1400 B.C., and as Yapu in the Assyrian records. From the time of the Maccabees the city was possessed by the Jews and Rome confirmed this status. Under the Herodian regime it was included in Herod's realm, and it remained fanatically Jewish until the campaign of Vespasian in A.D. 68. In fact, the city stoutly resisted pagan contacts and persisted in Judaistic traditionalism and as a pharisaical center highly suitable for the place of the divine revelation of "clean" and "unclean" things vouchsafed to Simon Peter as an indispensable preparation for his ministry to the Gentiles in Caesarea (Acts 9:43-10:33).

     At the time of Peter's residence there and his reception of the vision which broke down his Jewish and pharisaical prejudices, the city had lost much of its importance as a maritime emporium, for Caesarea had been developed by Herod the Great as the chief harbor and had become the virtual capital of Palestine. Today Joppa (Jaffa ) exports the famous Jaffa oranges cultivated in the Plain of Sharon.

3. Caesarea and the Outreach of the Christian Gospel to the Gentiles

At the time of Peter's ministry to Cornelius' house and the opening of gospel opportunity to the first representative Gentiles, the city of Caesarea was one of the most cosmopolitan and important centers of Palestine, and as fitting a place for the vastly significant event that transpired there under Peter's preaching as Joppa had been for the revelation vouchsafed to Peter in preparation for that event. The brilliant city, built by Herod the Great between 25-13 B.C., became the seat of the Roman government in Judaea, and there were naturally many Roman officials and army contingents stationed in the city. It thus had a large proportion of pagans in its population,, as well as a large segment of Jews. Having been made a fine seaport by Herod the Great, Caesarea had ready access to all parts of the Roman world and was an ideal city for the spread of the gospel witness to far-flung places by virtue of the continual flow of land and sea traffic, since it also lay astride the important road north and south connecting with Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Arabia. The choice of this elegant Hellenistic city for the introduction of Christianity to pagans was indeed providential.

     When Herod dedicated the city in 12 B.C. in honor of Caesar Augustus, he renamed it Caesarea, having built it on an earlier site called "Straton's Tower." Foremost among Herod's constructions was a huge sea mole, 200 feet wide and which stood in 120 feet of water, the remains of which are still visible. [For a detailed account of the construction of Caesarea and its harbor, see Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities XV, 9, 6 and the Jewish War I, 21, 5-8.]

     The Link Expedition to Israel in the summer of 1960 sponsored by the American-Israel Society and Princeton Theological Seminary, with financial assistance also given by the American Philosophical Society and Life Magazine, began a chapter in underwater archaeology or "aqueology" in its preliminary explorations of the harbor and Herodian installations at Caesarea. [Charles T. Fritsch and Immanuel Ben-Dor, “The Link Expedition to Israel, 1960” in the biblical Archaeologist XXIV, 2, May 1961, pp. 50-59.]

     The circular breakwater which enclosed the harbor has been charted and the entrance on the northern side has been found and carefully explored by the divers. Among many objects found was a coin apparently depicting the ancient port of Caesarea and issued to commemorate "some important occasion at Caesarea in the first or second century A.D." [Fritsch and Ben-Dor, op. cit., p. 56.] Upon the coin's face is the representation of the entrance to a port flanked by round stone towers surmounted by statues. Arches border the jetty on either side of the towers, and two sailing ships are on the point of entering the harbor. "Two letters, KA, may well be the abbreviation for the word Caesarea." [Fritsch and Ben-Dor, loc. cit.]

     The main part of Caesarea with its sumptuous public buildings was enclosed by a semicircular wall, and contained the temple to the divine Caesar which faced the harbor and could be seen far out to sea, a theatre, a forum, a stadium, and an amphitheatre. Israeli archaeologists located the amphitheatre by means of aerial photography. The arena, oval in shape, was somewhat larger even than the Colosseum in Rome itself, being more than 300 feet long and 200 feet wide and was the scene of bloody gladiatorial contests in 10 R.C. when Herod publicly inaugurated the town. In 70 A.D. hundreds of Jewish prisoners were slaughtered in such combats staged by Titus in the same arena.

The Hellenic-Roman character of Caesarea is further accentuated by the stadium for athletic games and the theatre where Greek and Latin dramatic productions were given to a cosmopolitan population where the spirit and fashions of Rome were copied. Here, if anywhere, pagan culture and customs had been introduced and planted on the soil of Palestine. The introduction of the Christian Gospel in such a city is highly significant as it poised itself for extension "to the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). It is because of this unique significance that Luke highlights the story of Peter's ministry in Caesarea (Acts 10:1-11:18).

V. HEROD AGRIPPA I AND THE DISPERSAL OF THE APOSTLES

     In the persecution which erupted at the martyrdom of Stephen, "all" the believers were scatterred "except the apostles" (Acts 8:1). In the events of chapter 12 of the Acts, the apostles themselves are violently dispersed by a new and fierce persecution against the church at Jerusalem.

l. Herod Agrippa 1, the Last King o f the Jews

     "About that time Herod the king laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword; and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also" (Acts 12:1-3, R.S.V.).

     This decisive persecution was doubtless of as great providential import as was that incident upon the death of Stephen. However, since Luke is featuring the extension of the Gospel to the west, be is silent concerning what happened to the other apostles (apart from Peter and James) as well as concerning the expansion of the church eastward and southward of Judaea (except the incident of the Ethiopian eunuch).

     But the question arises, how did “King Herod” have the authority to imprison Peter and put James to death? Luke does not explain this circumstance but history and archaeology furnish an answer.

     In 41 A.D. the Herodian dynasty enjoyed a return to power in Judaea and Samaria in the person of Herod Agrippa I, son of Aristobulus, and grandson of Herod the Great and Marianne. Under Caligula he began his rise to power, being given authority over the northern tetrarchies which Herod Antipas, Philip, and Lysanias had ruled. Claudius placed Herod Agrippa also over Judaea and Samaria. From A.D. 41-44 he practically ruled the same domain as his grandfather, Herod the Great. It is he who is the "King Herod" of Acts 12:1, who had full authority to execute James, the son of Zebedee and brother of John, and to imprison Peter.

2. The Death of Herod Agrippa I at Caesarea

     By divine intervention Peter escaped the clutches of Herod Agrippa I. What the fate of the other apostles was is not related, nor is the region to which they actually fled, if they actually fled, mentioned. Eusebius, the early church historian, was of the opinion that the Twelve Apostles were scattered throughout the world during this period after the martyrdom of James, but Luke narrates only Peter's departure (Acts 12:17), probably to Antioch, and it is quite conceivable the other apostles and Peter returned soon after Herod's death, since it is certain that the Jerusalem church was by no means obliterated or that its numerous members all fled, inasmuch as Herod's ire was apparently not directed particularly at them. This is certainly the truth, despite the fact that the history of the Jerusalem church is not further pursued in the Acts (which, if this had been the case, would have been contrary to the scope of the book announced in 1:8), and is only noted as it interacts with the Antiochene church or with the life and ministry of Paul. The Apostolic Council of Acts 15 is evidence enough of the strength and importance of the mother church at Jerusalem after Herod Agrippa's death.

     After Peter's escape Herod Agrippa went to Caesarea. He evidently made the trip to participate in the quadrennial festival in honor of the Roman emperor, which would have taken place in 44-B.C. His short kingship over the Jews ended ignominiously with his decease in that year when he arrogated to himself divine honors (Acts 12:20-23) in addition to his crimes in persecuting Christians in order to ingratiate himself into Jewish favor.

Chapter 8—Antioch—the Birthplace of Christian Missions

     The city of Antioch on the Orontes (Acts 13:1-4) possesses remarkable importance in apostolic church history as the location of a strategic Gentile church which projected the first great missionary activity of Christianity. The church at Jerusalem, Jewish in its background and circumscribed in its vision, apparently had never initiated missionary movements beyond its immediate environment, except by dint of fierce persecution that scattered it after Stephen's martyrdom (Acts 8:1-4). Refugees from persecution-ridden Judaea fled to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch with the Christian evangel (Acts 11:19).

     The crowning goal of the new missionary endeavor was the Syrian capital and metropolis, Antioch. At first the Gospel was preached to Jews only and with limited results. When some men of Cyprus and Cyrene undertook Gentile evangelism, there was instant and phenomenal success at Antioch. A large church soon came into existence in the city, and in contrast to the church at Jerusalem, the church at Antioch spontaneously assumed missionary responsibility that was to place it in the vanguard of evangelistic advance into areas unreached by the Gospel. Rightly it can be said that "this city could claim in a more real sense even than Jerusalem to be the mother of the churches of Asia Minor and Europe ... and the birthplace of foreign missions." [Bruce M. Metzger, “Antioch-the Orontes,” in the Biblical Archaeologist XI, 4, Dec. 1948, p. 70.]

     Luke, the historian, specifically notes the gifted nature of the Antiochene church and its spiritual ministrations that envisioned it for missionary advance. Among the talented prophets and teachers enumerated are Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaean the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul, whom Barnabas had fetched from Tarsus (Acts 11:25, 26; 13:1). Teaching, fasting, and prayer are listed as the featured activities of the assembly at Antioch that eventuated in the call of Barnabas and Saul for large scale missionary undertaking (Acts 11:26; 13:2-4). The spiritual vitality of this church, strategically located in the third city of the Empire, is indicated by the theological terminology employed by the sacred historian. "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work unto which I have called them" (Acts 13:2 Greek). "So they being sent forth by the Holy Spirit left for Seleucia" (Acts 13:4) and from this, the seaport of Antioch, set sail on the first missionary journey, which was to prove so momentous for the Western world in all subsequent centuries.

I. ANTIOCH THE BEAUTIFUL

     The splendid, sprawling city of Paul's day was third in size in the Roman Empire, being exceeded only by the capital on the Tiber and Alexandria in Egypt. [Cf. Josephus War III, II, 4. The only other city in the Orient which could be compared to Antioch was Seleucia on the Tigris. Cf. Emil G. Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas. (new York, 1956), p. 427.] Even though the apostle was accustomed to the magnificence of Greek towns, he himself being a native of the brilliant town of Tarsus in Cilicia, which he proudly declares was "no mean city" (Acts 21:39), yet he and Barnabas, who also was used to Hellenistic cities, must have thrilled every time they climbed the last hill on their return to this city, and saw it stretched out majestically in a scenic valley on the banks of the Orontes River at the foot of Mt. Silpius. The whole countryside formed an unforgettable panorama. The noble Lebanon chain runs northward and the Taurus range skirts southward. At this point the Orontes bends and breaks through the mountains, about twenty-three miles from the Mediterranean, to form nature's fine setting for the city that was destined to be the focal point for the spread of Gentile Christianity, and the place where converts were numerous and distinctive enough to be first called "Christians."

     [Rather "got the name of Christian" (Acts 11:26), possibly as a derisive epithet, Emsince the Antiochenes were notorious for scurrilous nicknaming. They dubbed Emperor Julian the Apostate "the Butcher" because of his sacrificial offerings at the shrine of his deities and "the goat" because he wore an unstylish long beard in imitation of his revered philosophers. However, "Christian" may have been an official name of Jesus' disciples given by Roman officials at Antioch (cf. Eric Peterson in Miscellanea Giovanni Mercati, Vol. I (1946) pp 355-372; cf. Pompeiani, Sullani and other party names). Even Herodiani (Matthew 22:16) may be legitimately traced to Roman influence (C. J. Ellicott in A New Testament Commentary, Vol. II, New York, 1883, p. 75). Tradition also ascribes the origin of the term "Christianity" to Bishop Ignatius of Antioch (i.e. Christianismos as opposed to Judaismos) in expressing the whole system of faith and life of a Christian (Ellicott, in. loc.)]

1. The Early History of Antioch

     Antioch had over three centuries of history and development to prepare it providentially for its significant role in apostolic history and Christian missions. Founded in 300 B.C. by Seleucus I Nicator (312-280 B.C.), its site was allegedly pointed out by an oracle of the god Zeus Kasios, and named after Seleucus I's father Antiochus. [Kraeling, op. cit., p. 427.]

     Seleucus I is famous as an ancient city-founder.' His craze and prodigality in this activity resulted in his founding no fewer than thirty-seven towns, which he dubbed after his own name or those of his relatives.5 [Cf. Victor Schultze, Altchristliche Staedte und Landschaften III, Antiocheia.] According to the Chronicle of John Malalas, a Byzantine monk of Antioch in the sixth century A.D., Seleucus I Nicator named Antioch after his son Antiochus I Soter, rather than his fathers Since Seleucus I built fifteen other Asiatic cities named Antioch, Antioch-on-the-Orontes was often called "Antioch-by-Daphne," a famous suburb lying southwest of the city.

     Under the reign of Antiochus I Soter (280-261 B.C.), Antioch became the Seleucid Empire's western capital and for two and a half centuries continued in the role of a center of imperial government. Antiochus I on the east added a second quarter to the original city. Seleucus 11 Collinicus (246-226 B.C.) constructed a third area on the island in the Orontes River. Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.) built a fourth section on Mount Silpius. Strabo in his Geography described the city as "a Tetrapolis" since it consisted of "four parts" with "each of the four inhabited areas ... fortified both by a common wall and by a wall of its own."7 Substantial portions of the city wall of Antioch, especially on Mount Silpius, encircling Ephiphaneia, the area constructed by Antiochus Epiphanes, have been recovered and are clearly discernible today.

     Enjoying a strategic location commercially, by land with easy access for Eastern caravans and by sea through its seaport, Seleucia, Antioch grew under its Seleucid rulers as successive kings vied with each other to adorn it with numerous architectural monuments. In 83 B.C. the city came under the sway of Tigranes of Armenia for almost two decades till Rome took it over.

2. Antioch Under Roman Rule

     n 64 B.C. Pompey came into control of the Syrian capital and initiated a new era in the development of the city. He exhibited great favor to the inhabitants and aided in repairing damage resulting from a recent earthquake. Julius Caesar in 47 B.C. was acclaimed by the metropolis on a visit and granted it internal autonomy. He donated the Caesarium, an important public building, and was afterwards held in revered memory by the citizenry. Augustus added further adornments and made his son-in-law, Agrippa, governor of the province of Syria, whose capitol was Antioch. Agrippa in turn erected the celebrated Agrippianon, a sumptuous public bath, and built a district which came to be known as the quarter of the Agrippites. Herod the Great embellished the town with a colonnaded street and a paved highway to the suburb of Daphne. [Josephus Wars I, XXI, 11; Antiquities XVI, V, 3.] Emperor Tiberius likewise graced Antioch with a marble-paved thoroughfare running in an east-west direction through the southern section of the city. He notably reared a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus and built other shrines. But perhaps the most interesting feature of "Antioch the Beautiful"—"The Queen of the East"—was its distinction of being the only ancient city known to have possessed a regular system of street lighting. Jerome of the fourth century A.D. by a chance allusion to the lighting of the street lamps at Antioch makes this known to us. [Dialogue Against the Luciferians, 1.]

3. Antioch o f Paul's Day

     Paul and Barnabas were familiar with the Old City of Seleucus I Nicator in the western sector and often must have walked along its three-century-old streets and its ancient encircling walls, as well as the handsomely colonnaded avenue that ran through the city from east to west. Also well-known to them was Antiochus IV's beautiful quarter of Epiphaneia to the south with its stout outer walls skirting Mount Silpius and the Acropolis. Within Epiphaneia but near the wall separating it from the Old City was the busy Agora, where Paul, if he did what he did in Athens, reasoned with the crowds which resorted there.

     The view from Mount Silpius with the Acropolis to the east, Caesar's baths to the west, and the large amphitheatre to the north must have been inspiring even to one who recognized his "citizenship" to be "in heaven" (Philippians 3:20). No doubt Paul, Barnabas and other leaders in the church carried on personal evangelism here or held open air meetings in the poorer and more populous sections of the old city, or taking the familiar street through the Daphne Gate on the west with the thronging crowds on a special holiday, preached the Gospel to the masses of pagan worshipers and pleasure seekers around the temples and gardens of the famous suburb.

Paul and Barnabas must have frequently crossed the bridge that spanned the Orontes and led to the sector known as the New City, where the Roman governor of the province of Syria resided in the splendid palaces built by Seleucid kings. They also traveled the road running northward from the Old City, turning in a northwesterly direction after it crossed the Orontes toward Antioch's seaport Seleucia.

4. Daphne and Antioch's Morals

     The laxity of Antiochene morals became proverbial in the third city of the Empire. As a melting pot of Oriental and Occidental cultures and religions, the more undesirable features of both traditions were unhappily perpetuated. The material prosperity of the city and the motley complexion of its large population were features that tended to luxurious living and moral degeneracy.

     Chrysostom says that Antioch had "a citizenry (demos) reaching the number of 200,000."10 If the term demos did not embrace slaves, women and infants, as is possible, the population about A.D. 300 was about 500,000 and may have run as high as 800,000, if the population of the suburbs was not reckoned by Chrysostom. [Cf. Wm. F. Steinspring, The Description of Antioch in Codex Vaticanus Arabicus 286 (unpublished dissertation Yale University 1932), pp. 2, 3 of commentary.]

     Such a concentration of diverse ethnic elements offered a superb challenge to the efficacy of the Christian Gospel to transform human life. This was especially true since the city was notorious in the ancient world for its laissez-faire living and vice. "In no city of antiquity," declares Mommsen, "was the enjoyment of life so much the main thing and its duties so incidental, as in ‘Antioch-upon-Daphne,' as the city was significantly called." [Theodore Mommsen, The Provinces of the Roman Empire from Caesar to Diocletian, Eng. Trans., 2^nd ed., vol. II, 1909, p. 128.]

     The pleasure gardens and parks of the suburb of Daphne became the symbol of Antioch's depravity. Situated on an elevated area southwest of the city proper, the playground of Antioch was superbly located on a plateau more than 300 feet above the average level of the metropolis. It was dotted with cypress groves, handsome villas, temples, and a theatre constructed in a natural bowl overlooking the Orontes valley.

     Wealth, dissolute practices of effete Oriental cults, and lust for pleasure combined at Daphne to make it a hotbed of vice of every description. "Daphne morals" became a byword and a terse definition of human dissoluteness. The celebrated Roman satirist Juvenal could take no sharper thrust at his own degenerating city of Rome than to assert that the Orontes had flowed into the Tiber, inundating the imperial city with the depravity of the Orient. [Satire III, 62.] Gibbon in his celebrated Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire depicts in lively fashion the beauty and debauchery of Antioch's dissolute suburb. [Chapter XXIV.]

     It was providential that the Gospel of grace should call out a large and spiritually vitalized church in such a sophisticated and morally corrupt city. Thereby was demonstrated the power of the Christian Gospel to transform multitudes, weary with the inanity and moral turpitude of pagan cults. Moreover, the strategic importance of the location of this great city is proved by the fact that it became the birthplace of foreign missions. The church founded in its polluted atmosphere was destined not only to become the mother of the churches of Asia Minor and Europe, but also in a sense the mother of the churches of the entire Western Hemisphere.

5. Antioch and Its Jewish Population

     Although there was a substantial Jewish community in Antioch, having equal political privileges with Greeks with its rights engraved on bronze tablets, there is reason to believe its prestige diminished sharply as a strong Gentile church was established, since there was much less hindrance to the new faith from Jews in Antioch than was true elsewhere.

     Besides Greek dislike of Jews because of their hatred of idolatry and annoying separatism, the Maccabean War on Hellenism in Palestine had furnished additional reasons for anti-Semitism. In addition, a Jewish uprising in Antioch in 39 A.D., when Paul was probably there, further reduced Jewish influence. A quarrel ensued between partisan groups in which the Jews were somehow involved. Many of them were killed and their synagogue was destroyed. A detachment of Jews under Phinehas of Tiberias invaded and terrorized the city. The Emperor Caligula crushed the uprising and severely punished the Jews. As a result, their power in Antioch was seriously curtailed.

     These events, unfortunate as they might be; were obviously providential. The mother church of Christian missions was in a measure freed from fierce Jewish persecution and, what was more important, was relieved of the peril of infiltration by legalism. The Gospel of grace was enabled to expand and be propagated in distant regions and remain safe on the home base.

II. EXCAVATIONS AT ANTIOCH

     Present-day Antakiyeh is a mere village in comparison to the splendid metropolis of antiquity. Covering only a small portion of the ancient city's area, with only a fraction of its population (about 35,000), the modern site, however, offers exceptional advantages for archaeological research. Unlike many ancient sites encumbered by contemporary occupation, Antioch has been largely accessible to the archaeologist's spade.

1. Pre-War II Excavations

     Work was begun at Antioch in 1932 by Princeton University in conjunction with the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Worcester Art Museum and the Musees Nationaux de France. The results of these researches were published in several volumes. [Antioch-on-the-Orontes, Publications for the Committee for the Excavations of Antioch and Its Vicinity, I, The Excavation of 1932, ed. By G. W. Elderkin, 1934, II, The Excavations of 1933-1936, ed. By Richard Stillwell, 1938, III, The Excavations 1937-1939, ed. By Richard Stillwell, 1941.]

     These excavations uncovered the circus, one of the largest in the Roman Empire. The Acropolis was located and turned out to be on Mount Stauris instead of on Mount Silpius. The island city which had been lost to modern view under the accumulated silt of the Orontes was brought to light, as well as the wall of Justinian dating back from the sixth century A.D. Numerous baths, Roman villas, cemeteries, and a stadium of Byzantine times were also found.

2. Floor Mosaics at Antioch

Of all the wealth of material recovered at Antioch for the study of the art and culture of the Graeco-Roman world, the most striking are the gorgeous floor mosaics dating from apostolic days to the sixth century of the Christian era. Several of these have been interpreted as representing scenes of the cult of Isis, one of the popular mystery religions of the ancient Near East which spread to all parts of the Roman world. One of these is fragmentary and, according to Doro Levi, depicts the "Voluntary Death," the climax and essence of the sacred initiation into the mysteries of Isis, the Queen of Heaven. [“Mors Voluntaria, Mystery Cults on Mosaics from Antioch,” Berytus, Vol. II, 1942, pp. 19-55; Antioch Mosaic Pavements, Vol. I, pp. 163-164; for the reproduction of the mosaic, see Berytus, Vol. VII, 1942, plate 1.]

     Another mutilated mosaic from the same house as the Mors Voluntaria, according to Doro Levi, also represents another solemn celebration belonging to the Isis cult. [Doro Levi, “Mors Voluntaria,” op. cit., pp. 32-34 and Antioch Mosaic Pavements, Vol. I, pp .163-164; for the reproduction of the mosaic, see Berytus, Vol. VII, 1942, plate 1.] This is the Navigium Isidis marking the resumption of Mediterranean sailing after the winter storms. The festival was held on March 5 when the image of the goddess was transported from her shrine to the seaside, where a new vessel was launched with priestly ceremonies and appropriate vows for the ship's protection by the goddess. The middle part of the mosaic portrays two ships against the background of the sea and other details suggesting connections with the cult of Isis, whose owner was evidently a devotee.

     The Mosaic of the Phoenix, now in the Louvre, is an extraordinarily well preserved Mosaic, more than forty feet long and thirty-three feet wide. It consists of a border of rams' heads enclosing a huge mass of roses with a phoenix perched on a rock in the center with a halo about its head. [See Antioch-on-the-Orontes, Vol. I, p. 84; Jean Lassus, La mosaique du phenix, provenant des fouilles d’Antioche (Paris, 1938, Presses Universitaires de France, plate 5, p. 42.]

     This striking piece of art recalls the popular ancient myth that this fabulous bird after living for five or six centuries would immolate itself on a funeral pyre and rise again to youthful vigor from its own ashes. Early Christians connected the fable of the phoenix with bodily resurrection and pagans used it as a general symbol of eternity or renovation, as does its representation on coins and medals of the Roman emperors.

     A mosaic from the sixth century retrieved from a building north of St. Paul's Gate in Antioch bears resemblance to a phrase in I Kings 16:4 and is apparently the only biblical allusion in all the inscriptions which have been edited.

3. The Charonion

     On a limestone cliff northeast of the city, the bust of Charon, the ferryman over the River Styx, was chiseled out in bold relief. Sixteen feet in height, this large carving was in plain view from many parts of the city. According to John Malalas, who reports a tradition of the sixth century A.D., the image was executed in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163 R.C.) to ward off a dangerous plague that struck the city. [Bruce Metzgar, “Antioch-on-the-Orontes,” in Biblical Archaeologist, XI, Dec. 1948, 4, p. 75.] The figure is now badly weather-worn, but in the days of the founding of the Antiochene church was a striking landmark of the queen city of the East, familiar to Paul and Barnabas and other members of the Antiochene assembly. [See Schultze, op. cit., p. 21.]

4. The Goddess Tyche of Antioch

     The memory of this patron deity of Antioch is preserved in the fine marble replica now in the Vatican. The original statue dates from the founding of the city in 300 B.C., and portrays the graceful goddess sitting relaxedly on a rock with a youth (the Orontes) swimming at her feet. According to Pausanias, [VI, 2, 7.] the original was done by Eutychides, a pupil of Lysippus. Antioch's goddess of fortune was appropriated by other towns of the East. At Dura on the Euphrates she is practically identical with the goddess at Antioch, except that the Euphrates is represented by the swimming youth under her feet.

5. Christian Churches in Antioch

     Christianity left an indelible impress upon Antioch architecturally. More than a score of Christian edifices have been identified. At Kaoussie, one of the city's suburban areas, a cross-shaped edifice of the fourth century was cleared. Epigraphic evidence dates the original building in A.D. 387.

     [Jean Lassus in Antioch-on-the-Orontes, II, The Excavations 1933-1936, pp. 5-44. Jack Finegan, Light From the Ancient Past (Princeton, 1946), pp. 446-448, Biblical Archaeologist XI, 1948, 4, p. 69, fig. 1.]

     Another famous church was the great octagonal edifice of Constantine, after which several other churches of this region were apparently designed. It had a great gilded dome. [Howard Crosley Butler, Early Churches in Syria, Fourth to Seventh Centuries (Princeton, 1929), pp. 192-193.]

6. The Chalice of Antioch

     This sensation-creating silver cup was found by some workmen digging a well at Antioch in 1910.

     [H. Harvard Arnason, “This History of the Chalice of Antioch?” Biblical Archaeologist IV (1941), pp. 49-64, Vol. V (1942) pp. 10-16.]

     Gustavus A. Eisen in 1916 gave a report of it in the American Journal of Archaeology [Vol. XX, pp. 426-427.] which precipitated widespread interest and discussion. He made the sensational claim that its engraved figures represented the earliest portraits of Christ and the apostles and that the outer chalice belonged to the latter part of the first century.

     [Floyd V. Filson, “Who Are The figures on the Chalice of Antioch?” Biblical Archaeologist V (1942) ,pp. 1-10.]

It was only a step from this bold conclusion to imagine that the inner cup was the original communion cup of Christ.

     It was natural that such exciting claims should call forth a voluminous literature. Other scholars and experts on Christian art denied Eisen's extravagant conclusions, assigning the chalice anywhere from the second to the sixth centuries. It is scarcely a forgery, as a few have contended, but represents a product of early Christian art.

III. SELEUCIA PIEIUA SEAPORT OF ANTIOCH

     In the account in Acts the mention of Seleucia in connection with Paul and Barnabas' first missionary trip is prominent. Having been commissioned by the church at Antioch, "they… departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus" (Acts 13:4).

1. Location of Seleucia Pieria

     In Paul's day Antioch's seaport, which was situated five miles up the Orontes from the Mediterranean, was an important city. It was built largely on a long rolling spur of a mountain called Musa Dagh, which dominates the mouth of the Orontes and towers over the sea south of the Gulf of Alexandretta. It formed an impressive fort and not only served as the gateway to Antioch and the seaport of the Syrian capital, but guarded the metropolis from invasion from the Mediterranean.

     The city's walls extended downward to enclose the harbor, which is now largely a swamp. Two giant moles jutting out into the sea constitute the remains of the ancient important harbor.

2. Founding o f the City

     John Malalas in his Chronicle places Seleucia in the list of the numerous towns built by Seleucus I Nicator. According to this sixth century tradition, Seleucus constructed a city at the trading post of Pieria on the Mediterranean. He called the city Seleucia after himself and then proceeded to found the city of Antioch itself. [Matthew Spinka, Chronicle of John Malalas, Books VIII-XVIII translated from the Church Slavonic (1940) VIII, MI (pp. 13-15).

3. Seleucia Pieria and Archaeology

     From 1937-1939 archaeological work at greater Antioch was extended to include Seleucia Pieria. During these campaigns of the Princeton University expedition, numerous private dwellings were studied, the market gate., a Hellenistic temple, and notably a Christian "Martyrion" or Memorial Church dating from the fifth century A.D. [W. A. Campbell, “the Martyrion at Seleucia Pieria,” Antioch-on-the-Orontes III, pp. 35-54.]

     The edifice showed three periods of construction, the earliest belonging to the original structure which seems to have been wrecked in the great earthquake of 526. This edifice had an inner quatrefoil surrounded by an ambulatory with a now-famous animal mosaic. Various animals and birds adorn this distinctive work of art with a scene of peace, with hyena and lamb walking together and the ibex and the lioness at peace, recalling in measure the millennial scene in Isaiah 11:6-9. The church was important since it was prominently located near a main colonnaded street and is of imposing size.

     Through the Antioch Gate and up the north side of the Orontes, the highway led to the capital. As one stands before the ruined remains of this Gate, "one must think of how often Paul must have passed through here, not only on his arrival with Barnabas, but in the course of his later goings and comings." [E. Kraeling, op. cit., p. 427.]

Chapter 9—The Cities of St. Paul’s First Missionary Tour

     Paul and Barnabas set sail for Cyprus from Antioch's port, Seleucia Pieria, in the year 45 A.D. It is highly probable that the two pioneer missionaries started at the commencement of the navigation season (the first week in March) since their destination was the 130-mile trip southwest to Salamis on the east coast of the island. Had they set out later, the westerly winds which blow throughout spring and summer would have compelled them to resort to a circuitous course skirting the Cilician coast and then, with the aid of land breezes and ocean currents, to head south to the north coast of the island.

     Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean, about 148 miles long and from 15 to 40 miles wide, was the fatherland of Barnabas. Its principal physical features are a mountain range along a large part of the northern coast and a parallel range occupying a considerable portion of the south, with a broad tract of plain, known as the Mesaoria, between, extending on either end to the sea. As a native, Barnabas knew the island well, and doubtless his love for his homeland was one of the factors in deciding to head in that direction. He was still the leader and desired his native country and his relatives and friends there to hear the Gospel.

I. CYPRUS AND ITS CITIES

     In choosing Cyprus as the starting point of their missionary endeavors, Paul and Barnabas (with John Mark, the author of Mark's gospel, as helper) were entering a country with a long pagan cultural history. The island first appears in history in the fifteenth century B.C. when it was listed among the conquests of the great Thutmose III of Egypt. [James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt (1906-07), sections 493, 511 (Isy is Cyprus).] By the twelfth century B.C. Phoenician colonists had established themselves in the land, introducing their art and their religion in the form of Astarte. When Greek colonists followed, the licentious cult passed into the worship of Aphrodite, who specialized in sex and war, and whose temples were places of legalized vice in the form of sacred prostitution.

     In the heyday of Assyrian power, Cyprus was under the rule of the giant of the Semites," as Assyria was called. In 550 R.C. it once more reverted to Egypt, then came under Cambyses II in 525 R.C. and annexed to the Persian Empire. Under Ptolemy Soter it again reverted to Egypt as a dependency toward the end of the fourth century B.C. In this condition it remained till it was constituted a Roman province in 57 B.C. [Encyclopaedia Americana, Vol. 8, (1951), pp. 369-370.]

1. Christianity Comes to Salamis

     The missionaries landed in the fine harbor of the largest city on the island at that period. Salamis was situated on the fringe of the fertile plain, the Mesaoria, opening up to the interior and giving access to the western part of the country. The city was some three miles distant from present-day Famagusta, but today its harbor has become filled with silt. Of its ancient remains, a large acqueduct is extant, sufficient to supply a city of 100,000 people. At the southern end of the spacious limestone forum was a Temple of Olympian Zeus.

     Large numbers of Jews resided in Salamis, as well as in all the cities of Cyprus, especially after Herod the Great leased the copper mines from Augustus. [Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XVI, 129. “The name Cyprus is derived from cuprum, Latin for copper,” Olaf Moe, The Apostle Paul, translated by L. A. Vigness (Minneapolis, 1950), p. 196.] This situation is reflected in Luke’s brief notation of Paul and Barnabas’ ministry in Salamis, “And when they were at Salamis, they proclaimed the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews…” (Acts 15:5). So numerous was the Jewish population that a number of synagogues existed in the city.

     The success of the gospel witness in Salamis is not indicated by Luke. Christianity, however, took hold in the island. Barnabas is traditionally claimed to have suffered martyrdom at Salamis, and a church memorializing this event was built there. At the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., three bishops were representatives from Cyprus, demonstrating that a strong church was established on the island.

2. Gospel Progress at the Pagan Center of Paphos

     Quitting Salamis, the missionaries are said to have "gone through the whole island unto Paphos. . ." (Acts 13:6). Since Paphos was located on the western coast, the journey involved traversing the entire island. Three routes were open. The northern route by a road along the coast, a southern route through the cities of Citium and Amathus, or the central route through the east-west plain (the Mesaoria) to Soli on the northwestern coast, where American engineers have rediscovered and reopened ancient copper mines that made Cyprus famous in antiquity. [Edgar J. Goodspeed, Paul (Philadelphia, 1947), p. 40. Cyprus does not appear to have been densely populated. Pliny lists only fifteen centers of population (oppida) (Natural History V 35, cf. 31).] From Soli the coast road led southwest to Paphos.

     Although the Cyprus campaign began in Salamis, the largest city, it was soon shifted to Paphos (present-day Baffo) near modern Ktima on the western shore of the island, a much more famous town in antiquity for political and religious reasons. Favored by Rome, undoubtedly because of its fame as a cultic center, it became the governmental capital of the Roman province of Cyprus and the residence of the proconsul, who had the rank of a praetor. [Dion Cassius LIII, 12, 7:13:3, 15 LIV, 4, 1, sect. 324.]

     Augustus rebuilt the city a short distance from its original site after it had been leveled by an earthquake. This was New Paphos, officially designated Sebaste. [Dion Cassius LIV, 23, 7.] It appears in a third-century inscription under the appellation Sebaste Claudia Flavia Paphos, a holy city and mecca of the Cyprian states. By Jerome's time, it lay in ruins. [Vita Sancti Hilarionis, 17 in Migne, Patres Latinii 23, 52.]

     Among the earthquake-ridden ruins of Old Paphos, less than seven miles to the southeast, was the ancient temple of Aphrodite dating to pre-Hellenic times. It was still highly renowned when Paul and Barnabas came to New Paphos with the purifying message of God's grace. Pagans from all over Cyprus, as well as from outside the island, flocked to this cultic mecca to honor the goddess of love and reproduction with sensuous and immoral rites. Tacitus recounts the visit of Titus to this temple during the Jewish war and comments particularly on the image of the goddess housed there. [Historiae, II, 2, 3.]

     Providentially the Gospel was to win a notable trophy in pagan Paphos, but not without first running head-on into the demon-energized religious forces entrenched there. Sergius Paulus, the pro consul, like many officials in the ancient world—Babylonian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Persian, Greek and Roman—had a magician or diviner attached to his establishment. [For a discussion of the demonic forces inspiring such professional occultists see Merrill F. Unger, Biblical Demonology (3^rd edition, Wheaton, Ill., 1955) pp. 107-142.] In this instance, he was not a pagan but a Jewish occultist, who had two names—Bar-Jesus, his Jewish patronymic, and "Elymas," an appellative name or title, specifying his pretensions to wisdom and supernatural powers. Luke interprets the appellative as meaning "the magician" (ho magos) in Acts 13:8. It is derived either, as is commonly thought, from the Arabic 'alimun ("wise," "learned"), or, according to a more plausible form, the Aramaic 'alima', "powerful." [Franz Delitzsch, Zeitschrift fuer die Lutheranische Theologie, p. 7. Others connect with the Semitic root ‘alam “to bind” referring to magical powers over the occult (Guiseppe Ricciotti, Paul the Apostle, trans, by A. I. Zizzamia [Milwaukee, 1953], p. 254, n. 6).]

     The sinister character of Elymas is disclosed when he "withstood" the missionaries, "endeavoring to turn aside the proconsul from the faith" (Acts 13:8), as well as Paul's scathing denunciation of him and his work (Acts 13:9-11). Whereas the fate of Elymas is not narrated, except the temporary blindness that befell him, the proconsul was apparently genuinely converted to Christianity. His position as a patrician and a high official of the Roman Empire were not impediments to embracing the faith, as it was not at this time (c. A. D. 45) material whether a provincial magistrate became Christian, was initiated into the mysteries of Isis, or espoused a Pythagorean sect. Christianity had not yet become a religio illicita.

3. Paphos and the Question of the Proconsulship

     The author of the book of Acts indicates that the official designation of Sergius Paulus was that of "proconsul" (Acts 13:7). It was once claimed that Luke blundered in employing this term (anthupaton) instead of "propraetor" on the ground that Cyprus was an imperial province.' [Cf. A. T. Robertson, Luke the Historian in the Light of Research (New York, 1930), p. 182. Ricciotti, op. cit., p. 252, n. 2.] So it was, but in 22 B.C. it had become a senatorial province. At Soli, a city on the northwestern coast of Cyprus, a Greek inscription was found which contains the phrase, "under Paulus the proconsul." The inscription is dated in the thirteenth year of Claudius (A.D. 52-53) and without any reasonable doubt refers to the Sergius Paulus whom Paul introduced to Christianity.

     [This important monument was discovered and published by the American consul on Cyprus, L. Palma di Cesnola. Cf. Cyprus, Its Ancient Cities, Tombs and Temples (London, 1877), p 425. D. H. Hogarth, Devia Cypria, pp. 114, 115. For Luke's accuracy in the intricate detail involved in distinguishing Roman provinces in general, see A. T. Robertson, op. cit., pp. 180-182.]

     The Proconsul is also presented by Luke as a "man of understanding" (Acts 13:7). Pliny the Elder makes mention of a Sergius Paulus, possibly the same person, who is cited among the authors used by him in the writing of his history, and well agrees with the representation in Acts. [Natural History II, 113 and begging of Book VIII. A Latin inscription (C. I. L. vol. VI, no. 31545) mentions a Sergius Paulus, who may be the Cyprian proconsul. Cf. Edgar Goodspeed, op. cit., p. 228.]

     As a patrician of culture and intellectual acumen, Sergius Paulus had leisure to gather around himself at the governor's mansion in quiet Paphos a coterie of magicians, astrologers and occultists of the day. His inquiring mind made these learned men of the day welcome, since they enjoyed much prestige in that age, as numerous Roman authors attest. The same spirit of openmindedness made Paul, Barnabas, and young John Mark welcome to his circle. However, the Gospel which the proconsul was to hear from their lips was a harbinger of the fact that although "not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called" (I Corinthians 1:26), yet some are. Sergius Paulus was among the first, and to mark this signal attestation of his call and harbinger of success among the Gentiles, the apostle abandoned his purely Jewish name Saul for his un-Jewish name Paul, and thenceforth becomes the leader. No longer is the designation "Barnabas and Saul" (Acts 13:2), but "Paul and his company" (Acts 13:13).

II. PISIDIAN ANTIOCH AND GOSPEL PENETRATION

OF THE GREEK WORLD

     When Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they headed for Asia Minor. Crossing the 180 miles of water, they landed on the shores of the Pamphylian Sea, apparently not at Attalia, from which, however, they embarked on their return trip to Antioch (Acts 14:25). On the west of them was Lycia, on the east Cilicia, to the north the mountainous opening to the heart of Asia Minor, the gateway to Europe and the Western world.

     For a millennium after Alexander the Great's conquests, Asia Minor, the land bridge between Oriental and Occidental cultures, was a strategic part of the Greek world. Hellenistic civilization had absorbed its older non-Greek population. Hittites, Celts, Armenians, Carians, Lydians and others were prepared by Greek culture for the coming of Christianity through the intrepid missionaries of the cross, Paul and Barnabas.

1. Perga, Stepping-Stone to Pisidian Antioch

     Paul and Barnabas' first objective was Perga, which was not directly on the sea, but some nine miles from the coastal city of Attalia at the mouth of the Cestros River. It was the chief city of Pamphylia and had its own port on the right bank of the Cestros River, where the missionaries landed. It was in the fever-infested coastal region and the center of the worship of the Asiatic nature goddess Artemis, "the queen of Perga." Frequently this deity, corresponding to Diana (Artemis) of the Ephesians (Acts 19:27), is represented on the coins of Perga [Goodspeed, op. cit., p. 42.] as a huntress, with bow in hand and stags at her side. These coins, attesting the independence and importance of the city, were minted from the second century B.C. until the third century A.D., and refer to Perga as a metropolis.

     The ruins of Perga, now called Murtana, are distinguished for their completeness. Scarcely any other city Paul visited has been better preserved, looking like a place inhabited or recently abandoned. The walls, tower-flanked, show the city to have been quadrangular-shaped. Broad streets intersecting each other divided the town into quarters. From the southern gate a street flanked with porticoes led up to the center of the citadel.

     At a higher elevation was the acropolis. Here the earliest city was constructed and "for a length of almost a thousand yards and a depth of six hundred and fifty, battlemented walls stand perfect, with turrets seventy paces square, in many cases as high as when first built." [Goodspeed, loc. cit. For a report on the 1957 excavation, se Turk Arkeoloji Dergisi (1958), pp. 14-16.] In later times the city extended to the south of the acropolis where most of the ruins exist.

     At the foot of the acropolis are the remains of a spacious theatre, seating more than ten thousand, as well as a large stadium. The agora and numbers of baths are visible, as well as many tombs outside the walls. The city probably did not present an essentially different aspect when Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark made some momentous decisions there in one of the first century inns or caravanseries of the metropolis.

     Paul and Barnabas' decision was to leave the low-lying coastlands for the highlands to the north and to press on into the heart of Asia Minor. The reason may have been particularly dictated by circum stances of health, since malaria prevailed along the coast, and Paul may have become ill (cf. Galatians 4:13), but whatever human factors lay behind the move, it was clearly superintended by divine leading. The Gospel was being carried to its predestined goal into Western Asia and thence on into Europe.

     On the other hand, John Mark's decision to quit the tour at Perga and to return home evidently had some inexcusable factors in it, at least in Paul's mind (Acts 15:38). It may well be that the dangerous country to the north between Perga and Pisidian Antioch discouraged the younger missionary. The 100-mile trip was through a rugged stretch of country which was notoriously infested with robbers. This is supported by numerous ancient literary sources [Strabo XII, 6, 7; Xenophon Anabasis I, 1, 11; 9:11; III, 2, 14, Arrian I, 27, 28. Polybius V: 72-77. Cf. W. J. Conybeare and J. S. Howson, The Life and Letters of St. Paul, Vol. I, New York, 1877, pp. 62-164.] and by modern archaeological evidence as well. Sir William Ramsay has adduced a number of inscriptions from the Pisidian area referring to the banditry and lawlessness of this region, as well as the armed soldiery that was necessary to guard the peace of the country. [The Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 23-24; Journal of Roman Studies, 1912, pp. 82, 83.]

     In addition to "perils by robbers," the hazardous journey to Pisidian Antioch and beyond presented "perils of waters" (cf. II Corinthians 11:26). No district in Asia Minor is more singularly subject to flash floods than the streams of the mountainous tract of Pisidia, particularly the Eurymedon and the Cestris, and the missionaries' journey to Pisidian Antioch was never very far from either. [Conybeare and Howson, op. cit., I, p. 163-164.] Whether or not John Mark was daunted by these dangers is problematical. That such perils did not appall Paul and Barnabas is certain. Their future history-making successes lay beyond these severe testings and were divinely appointed prerequisites to them.

2. Pisidian Antioch, Important Strategical Center of Asia Minor

     No safe, well-paved and well-traveled Roman road led north from Perga to Antioch. But once the rigors of the steep and narrow mountain trails were behind them, and Antioch lay visible in the fertile tableland, affectionately called the "olive-clad Anthian plain" by the inhabitants, the missionaries at last found themselves in a center of radiating influence, through which a great east-west traffic artery ran across the highlands of Asia Minor. Westward it connected with Apamaea, Colossae, Laodicea, Magnesia, Ephesus, and the Greek world on the Aegean. Eastward it gave access to Lystra, Derbe, and through the Cilician Gates led on to Tarsus, Issus, and Antioch-on-the-Orontes. In bringing the Gospel to Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas were planting Christianity in the communication nerve center and heart of Asia Minor. The perils and hardship incurred to attain this were to prove strategically worthwhile.

     Pisidian Antioch was one of the sixteen cities which Seleucus Nicator (312-280 B.C.) had founded, and like its more famous sister-metropolis on the Orontes in Syria, named in honor of his father Antiochus. It is now commonly referred to as "Pisidian" Antioch because subsequently in the late third century, during the reign of Diocletian, it was made the capital of a newly-created province named Pisidia. When Christianity was introduced to Antioch, however, it was a part of the Roman province of Galatia, in the district called Phrygia (as distinguished from other ethnical divisions of the province such as Lycaonia). [Cf. Ramsay, The Cities of St. Paul (London, 1907), p. 254; The Church in the Roman Empire, p. 26f.] The recovery of Phrygian inscriptions from the area unmistakably points to its Phrygian occupation.

     The Antioch sector of Phrygia was incorporated into the province of Galatia for military reasons. Any plan that envisioned controlling the wild tribes of the Pisidian mountains could not omit this important strategical city on the northwest. Seleucus realized this when he founded the town, as did Mark Antony when he bequeathed the city to Amyntas, the last king of Galatia. Amyntas himself realized the same thing, when in 39 B.C. he was entrusted with the task of quelling the turbulent highlanders of the area, with the result that he incorporated the Antioch sector into his kingdom of Galatia.

     The Romans took over Antioch when Galatia became a province in 25 B.C. Augustus, too, realized the strategic significance of the city when he constituted it the chief of his military colonies in the region, with the official name Colonia Caesarea Antiochia. Greek authors correctly call it "Antioch toward Pisidia" or "Pisidian Antioch," as in Acts 13:14, [Strabo, XII, 6, 4. Luke customarily, as here, writes as a “Greek rather than a Roman, cf. Robertson, op. cit., pp. 180-182.] linking it by a military highway called the Royal Road with the sister colony of Lystra, 120 miles to the southeast. According to legend preserved in Paul and Thekla, Paul and Barnabas traversed this road on their way from Antioch to Iconium (Acts 13:51). [Cf. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 27-36. Emil Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas l(New York, 1952), p. 433.]

3. Pisidian Antioch in Paul's Day

     From its foundation as a Roman colony, Latin became the official language of Antioch. It was well Romanized by the time of Paul's visit and continued to be until the Greek spirit revived in the third century. The apostle, however, doubtless had a Greek-speaking audience in the synagogue when he spoke on two successive Saturdays to large congregations.

     Jews were an important element of the population, and they figure prominently in the narrative in Acts (Acts 13:14, 50). The missionaries' success in reaching the proselytes aroused the animosity of the Jewish leaders, who saw their influence being undermined. Trouble was bound to result as these proud Jews, many of whom could undoubtedly trace their lineage back three and a half centuries to the original Jewish colonists settled there by the Seleucids, found their prestige threatened by a new faith they were not prepared to receive.

     An inscription of Apollonia, a neighboring city, dating probably from the first or early second century A.D., adds archaeological proof that there were Jews in Antioch. This is a funeral monument to a Jewess named Deborah whose ancestors held numerous offices in Antioch, and who married a Gentile official named Pamphylus. The public proclamation of this intermarriage "proves both the prominence of Deborah's family and the breaking down of Jewish exclusiveness." [Camden M. Cobern, the New Archaeological Discoveries and Their Bearing Upon the New Testament (4^th ed., New York, 1920), p. 532. Ramsay, Cities of St. Paul, p. 256.]

     Besides the Jews in the synagogue at Antioch there were numerous proselytes of Judaism (Acts 13:17, 26, 43), doubtlessly composed principally of Greeks, but also containing a native Phrygian as well as a Roman element. The Roman stratum, while related to the military administration of the city, consonant with its position as a Roman colony, was not numerous but was influential in the synagogue. [Cf. A. T. Robertson, “The Roman Colonies were small editions of Rome itself…military outposts to hold in subjection the surrounding country” op. cit., p. 184. Cf. Souter “Colony,” Hasting’s Dictionary of the Apostolic Church.] To this class of governing coloni evidently belonged "the devout women of honorable estate," and "the chief men" (Acts 13:50). These latter apparently were the husbands or relatives of the women who, while not converts to Judaism themselves, could readily 'be induced by the Jews to expel Paul and Barnabas from the area when the message of the Gospel was rejected. As a political and social aristocracy, the coloni were not so much affected by missionary influence as the humbler classes were, but as the principal burgher group, the Jews would naturally go to them for help, especially when they had synagogue connections.

4. Pisidian Antioch and Evangelism of the Gentiles

     Paul's experience at Pisidian Antioch marked a decisive step in his evangelistic methods. Hitherto in Cyprus and apparently in Syrian Antioch. [Cf. Ramsay, The Cities of St. Paul, pp. 308-309. Had the door of gospel opportunity stood open in Syrian Antioch already, it would have been unnecessary and incorrect for Paul and Barnabas to declare that God had opened such a door on the first missionary tour. Cf. Acts 13:27.]

     Gentiles had been addressed indirectly in the synagogue through the Jews. Now, however, the apostle turns from the gospel-rejecting Jews and preaches the Gospel to the Gentiles directly outside the synagogue. Paul had precluded this important advance by addressing Jews and Greeks as equal in his first Galatian sermon (Acts 13:38). Luke emphasizes the significance of this forward movement by the attention which he gives to this detailed discourse that was to result in the opening of the door of gospel opportunity to the Gentiles immediately and not, mediately through the Jews.

     The climactic events at Pisidian Antioch were expedited by the freer relations that existed between Jews and Gentiles in the Seleucid colonies of Phrygia where Hellenic education adapted itself to Oriental peoples. Each city was an experiment in the amalgamation of the Oriental and the Occidental. Only such a spirit of sympathy and cordiality as existed in Antioch between Jew and Gentile rendered it possible that almost the whole citizenry crowded together to hear a Jewish stranger speak (Acts 13:44) and that Gentiles in large numbers believed the message proclaimed (Acts 13:48).

5. Pisidian Antioch and Archaeology

     The site of Antioch was discovered in 1833 by the British chaplain at Smyrna, Francis V. J. Arundell. It is situated on the right bank of the River Anthios on the lower slopes of a scenic mountain now called Sultan Dagh. The present-day ruins are not far from the Turkish town of Yalovach and lie in complete desolation on a plateau which ranges from fifty to two hundred feet above the fronting plain skirted by the River Anthios.

     On coins the river-god Anthios is pictured as sitting down, resting his left arm on an urn from which the water flows. [Ramsay, op. cit., pp. 248-249; fig. 27, p. 316.] Above the river the ancient city's ruins show that it was stoutly fortified to withstand the war-like Pisidian mountain tribes. Remains of an aqueduct from Roman times, which brought water from the Sultan Dagh, are to be seen, although even in time of siege, water could be fetched from the Anthios, since the river flows not far from the city walls.

     From 1910-1913 Sir William Ramsay excavated the sanctuary of Antioch's chief deity, Men. The sacred area measured 241 by 136 feet and was enclosed by a five-foot-thick wall. The huge altar within the sacred precinct measured sixty-six by forty-one feet. Many engraved tablets were found and emblems of Men with horned bull's head. [Journal of Hellenistic Studies, 1921, p. 111f. For a discussion of the god Men, cf. H. R. Hall, Ancient History of the Near East 1913), pp. 330-331. A. B. Cook, Zeus, A Study in Ancient Religion, vol. I, index under Men (1914).] The soil under the sanctuary was found to be replete with bones and teeth of sacrificial animals. In one part of the sanctuary the throne of the deity was located, who was paired with Artemis (Diana), a Hellenized form of Cybele.

     The discovery of this sanctuary is important because the Phrygian mysteries celebrated here were well-known to early Christians (Colossians 2:18) [Cf. Cobern, op. cit., pp. 537, 538, Sir William Ramsay, Annual of the British School at Athens (1911-12); pp .37-71.] and exerted a far-reaching influence upon the religious life of the Graeco-Roman world.

     Among the more significant inscriptions found at Antioch is that which is engraved, "To Lucius Sergius Paullus, the younger," an important official at Antioch, whom Ramsay contends was the son of the proconsul at Cyprus. [Cobern, op. cit., pp. 538-540; Ramsay, The Bearing of the Recent Discoveries on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament (2^nd ed., 1915A), pp. 150-172.]

     Later excavations at Pisidian Antioch by the University of Michigan [David M. Robinson, American Journal of Archaeology (1924), pp. 435-444.] have led to the uncovering of remains of the Roman city established by Augustus. Two splendid squares built on different levels are identified, the Square of Augustus and the Square of Tiberius, connected by a flight of steps adorned with three archways of the propylaea built in honor of Augustus. Lavishly adorned with sculptured reliefs of captive Pisidians, the archways depict Augustus' triumphs on land, while the frieze of Tritons, Poseidon, dolphins and other marine symbols, with which they are also decorated, represent the imperial triumphs at sea.

     A temple of the Roman age, ornamented with a superb representation of bulls' heads garlanded with leaves and fruit, symbolizing Men, the local god who granted bounty, graced the Augustan Square in honor of the emperor. Architecturally and artistically these buildings and sculptures rank very high in Graeco-Roman art. [Cf. David Robinson, The Art Bulletin 9 (Sept. 1926-June 1927).]

     Other discoveries include numerous terracotta pipes for distribution of the water brought by the aqueduct, gaming boards with which idle Romans amused themselves, an edict from Domitian's time, a triple gateway from the third century A.D. and a huge Christian basilica from the fourth century. [Jack Finegan, Light From the Ancient Past, Princeton, 1946), p. 262.]

III. ICONIUM, A CITY OF GALATIA

     Driven out of Pisidian Antioch by mob violence instigated by unbelieving Jews, the missionaries took to the Royal Road toward Lystra, but turned aside to visit Iconium first (present-day Konia). This was a journey of somewhat more than one hundred miles, but not nearly so rigorous as the ardent trip from Perga to Pisidian Antioch had been.

     The city to which Paul and Barnabas took the Gospel was a garden spot, situated in the midst of orchards and farms, but surrounded by deserts. Very similar in elevation, topography, and beauty to Syrian Damascus, Iconium must have looked inviting to the travel-worn soldiers of the cross after traversing the desolate tablelands along their route.

1. Location of Iconium and the Accuracy of Luke

     Until the work of Sir William Ramsay in the first decade and a half of the twentieth century, the historical reliability of the Acts as a bona fide work of Luke was widely denied. An important detail of this critical suspicion existed in the matter of Luke's clear implication in Acts 14:6 that Iconium was in Phrygia, as distinguished from Derbe and Lystra which are said to be "cities of Lycaonia." Despite the fact that Xenophon [Anabasis I, 2, 19.] and Pliny [Natural History V, 41 al. 32.] agree with Luke in listing it among Phrygian cities, the fact that Cicero [Ad familiares XV, 2.] and Strabo [XII, 6, 1.] assign it to Lycaonia, caused criticism to side against she genuineness of Lukan authorship and accuracy.

     In 1910 Ramsay recovered the now well-known inscribed monument which demonstrated that Iconium was such a thoroughly Phrygian city that the Phrygian tongue was still employed in dedicatory notices as late as the middle of the third century A.D. [Ramsay, the Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament (2^nd ed. 1915), pp. 5-47; (4^th ed. 1920), pp. 53-63.] Numbers of other inscriptions from Iconium and its environs substantiate the fact that racially the city could be described as Phrygian and administratively as Galatian. When Paul visited the city, it was one of the important centers of population in the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia.

     Emperor Claudius conferred on the city the title of Claudiconium, which appears on its coins, but not until the time of Hadrian was it raised to the rank of a colony. In Paul's time it was still Hellenic-Phrygian in its complexion.

2. Paul's Ministry at Iconium

     There was an important Jewish element in Iconium as at Pisidian Antioch, attracted there by its commercial prosperity. The fields of highland flax and the flocks of sheep and goats on the Taurus ranges furnished abundant raw materials to sustain the weaving shops of the city. Here Paul had little difficulty, it may be imagined, in finding work in one of the weaver's shops operated by a fellow Jew, thus earning his livelihood by his craft, as was his custom.

Iconium, too, owed its bustling business activity to its location on the main trade route connecting Ephesus with Syria and the Mesopotamian world, as well as its orchard industries and farm produce. The city doubtless had a large and influential synagogue. There Paul began his spiritual labors, which were so successful "that a great multitude both of the Jews and of Greeks (Jewish proselytes) believed" (Acts 14:1), and the missionaries' ministry, encouraged by success, was continued a "long time" (Acts 14:3).

     Aroused by jealousy of the great success of the Gospel, a group of those who rejected the new message united to stone Paul. Paul and Barnabas were compelled to escape to Lystra in Lycaonia. Once they crossed the boundary into Lycaonia, they were safe. The inscriptions show that Iconium's magistrates were supreme during their term of office and could whip and expel without trial any suspected criminals, if the people who gave them their office desired it or at least did not object to it. The missionaries' only recourse was to flee for their lives.

IV. LYSTRA AND DERBE IN LYCAONIA

     Already two important cities of the Roman province of Galatia-Antioch and Iconium—had witnessed the stirring impact of the Christian message. Two more towns of the same province yet remained to experience Paul's powerful evangelism-Lystra and Derbe. Later when the apostle addressed his well-known letter to "the churches of Galatia" (Galatians 1:2), he is claimed by many scholars to have referred to them (and if so, correctly so), since they were all in the same Roman province of Galatia. [Edgar J. Goodspeed, The Story of the New Testament (1916), p. 9. W. Ramsay, A Historical Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians; Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible II, pp. 81-89. today this so-called “South Galatian” theory is popular. (The New Schaff-Herzog Ency., 1955, pp. 854, 855).]

     The Roman province was named from the smaller northern district of Galatia which it included, which in turn took its name from the Gallic tribes which settled it in the first quarter of the third century B.C. When Rome took over the extensive domains at the death of the last Galatian king, the territory was made a Roman province. When Paul wrote, many scholars contend he had the churches of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe in mind, rather than some other unknown churches in Galatia proper, as others contend. [James Moffatt, An Introduction to the Literature of the new Testament (3^rd ed., 1918, pp. 90-101). Today in France and in Germany the “North Galatian” theory is popular (The New Schaff-Herzog Ency., 1955, pp. 854, 855.]

l. Archaeology and the Location of Lystra

     The site of Lystra was uncertain until 1885 when J. R. Sitlington Sterrett, under the Wolfe Expedition to Asia Minor, identified its ruins near the modern town of Katyn Serai, some twenty-one miles south west of Iconium, thus confirming the earlier conjecture of Leake (1820), who had placed its location there. The identification was certified by an inscribed Roman altar, still standing erect in its original position. The stone, three and a half feet high and a foot thick, bore

the Latin spelling of the city's name Lustra, with a notice that it had become a Roman colony under Augustus. [J. R. Sitlington Sterrett, An Epigraphical Journey in Asia Minor, 1888.]

     The development of Lystra was attributable to its selection as the seat of a Roman colony, which required the construction of a Roman road to connect it with the other coloniae, such as Antioch and Derbe. This road had been constructed primarily for military reasons, but running near the real commercial center Iconium, it was however never more than a secondary road commercially, as Lystra was not an important trading or manufacturing center. There were few if any Jews resident there, and no synagogue is mentioned, as at Antioch and Iconium.

2. Paul's Ministry at Lystra

     As a result of Paul's healing the life-long cripple, the native Lycaonians (Acts 14), not Greeks or Romans, regarded Paul and Barnabas as pagan gods visiting them in the semblance of men. According to their native cult (here appearing under a thin Greek guise), they called Barnabas "Zeus" and Paul "Hermes." Ovid's well-known tale, located in near-by Phrygia, names the same two divinities as appearing to Baucis and Philemon.

The accuracy of detail of this part of the Acts narrative, however, is not only demonstrated from literary sources, but from epigraphic evidence as well. One inscription recovered in the vicinity of Lystra in 1909 lists by name several "priests of Zeus." Another relates how two devotees of the local cult "having made in accordance with a vow at their own expense (a statue of) Hermes Most Great together with a sun-dial, dedicated it to Zeus the sun-god." [For the inscriptions from Lystra, see J. R. Sitlington, Sterrett, The Wolfe Expedition to Asia Minor, and Cronin, Journal of Hellenistic Studies (1904).]

     The appearance of persecuting Jews from Antioch and 1conium and the brutal stoning of Paul by the populace further illustrates the uneducated and superstitious nature of the Lycaonians, and that they and their religious and social institutions are accurately set forth to be saliently distinguished from the educated Greek and Roman society of the colony.

3. Paul at Derbe

     From his near-death experience in Lystra, Paul pushed on with Barnabas to Derbe, the last city in distinctively Roman territory on the road leading from Southern Galatia to the East. Here commerce flowing westward into the province had to pay customs. Hence Strabo calls Derbe a "custom station." [XXX, 569. For a complete account of Derbe, see Ramsay’s The “Cities of St. Paul, pp. 385-404; G. Ricciiotti, Paul the Apostle (Milwaukee, 1953), pp. 24; 270-271.] This city owes its visit from Paul to its strategic importance and position on the great Roman road connecting east and west. Roman milestones have been found along the line of its route. The Emperor Claudius honored the city, and its coins have been found bearing the legend "Claudio-Derbe."

     The location of Derbe was approximately identified by J. R. Sitlington Sterrett, and more accurately placed at Gudelisin, a large mound with late Roman remains, by Sir William M. Ramsay. As yet, however, no absolute evidence has been forthcoming, and only further excavations can verify the present identification. [Ramsay, The Cities of St. Paul, p. 452, p. 18. Emil G. Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas (1956), p. 434.]

     At Derbe Paul "preached the gospel ... and made many disciples" (Acts 14:21). But he and Barnabas did not extend their endeavors beyond this significant boundary into the kingdom of Commagene, under Antiochus, who, although a Roman vassal, was independent. Paul's labors were confined to the centers of Graeco-Roman culture, and his strategy did not comprehend a dubious field where kings "were protectors of certain cults and by virtue of their powers could act drastically." [Kraeling, op. cit., p. 435.] The cult of Mithras prevailed in Commagene and the statue of this deity on the top of Nemrud Dagh in the Taurus has been recovered. [Cf. Kraeling, op. cit., pp. 364, 435. For inscriptions of the late Roman period from Derbe, see J. R. S. Sterrett, Wolfe Expedition to Asia Minor, nos. 18-52.] Paul manifested careful planning and concentration of effort in his missionary work in Asia Minor and was guided by principles that pointed his endeavors toward an immediate as well as long-range realization of success. That Paul was successful at Derbe is indicated in the Lukan narrative, as well as by the fact that he does not mention Derbe among the towns where he had suffered persecution (11 Timothy 3:11).

4. The Return Trip to Syrian Antioch

     Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps through Asia Minor, revisiting, organizing, and confirming the churches established. The only new evangelistic activity mentioned is their preaching the Word in Perga (Acts 14:25), which they evidently did to make up for not doing so on their outgoing journey. Thence they went to Attalia, [Stalia of the Middle Ages, present-day Adalia.] a seaport founded by Attalus II Philadelphus (159-138 B.C. ), and possessing a wealth of archaeological remains, including ancient city walls, towers, and a Hadrianic gateway and aqueduct.

     At Attalia the missionaries apparently found a ship waiting to sail, which left them no time for preaching. Weary but rewarded with assurance of success in their momentous tour, Paul and Barnabas welcomed the sight of Syrian Antioch and the fellowship of the mother church there.

Chapter 10—Christianity Prepared for World-Wide Proclamation

     Paul's phenomenal success in preaching the Christian Gospel among the Gentiles of Galatia on his first missionary journey furnished him and Barnabas with ample material for a glowing report to the church at Antioch upon their return from their evangelistic labors. Luke, the historian, specifically stresses the fact that when they arrived home "and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all things that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith unto the Gentiles" (Acts 14:27). The "door of faith" opened to the Gentiles was not merely a typical Pauline metaphor, [Corinthians 16:1; II Corinthians 2:12; Colossians 4:3; Galatians 2:9; also John in Revelation 3:8.] describing the far-reaching impression the testimony the returned missionaries made on the Antiochene Christians. It was an announcement that the Christian message, apart from the ceremonies of Judaism and the legalism of the Mosaic system, had been divinely authenticated as the medium of salvation to the nations. It was a summary declaration that in the practical arena of life, Christianity had been demonstrated to be an international religion, completely severed from the legal requirements as well as the narrow isolationism of the Hebrew faith, and reaching out to the numberless multitudes and boundless regions of the vast pagan world extending to "the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

     Although Paul had seen the divine authentication of Christianity's regenerating efficacy apart from the legalism of Judaistic religion, as he and Barnabas settled down again to their work of evangelization among the vast non-Jewish population of Antioch itself (Acts 14:28), they were shortly to witness a subtle and dangerous attack on the autonomy of the new faith they had proclaimed with such singular success. The very city that had first witnessed the disciples called "Christians" (Acts 11:26) was to witness the struggle of Christianity with Judaism (Acts 15:1, 2).

I. THE NEW FAITH LIBERATED FROM LEGALISM

"Certain men" (Acts 15:1) recognizable in the large number of priests in Jerusalem who "were obedient to the faith" (Acts 6:7) and converted Pharisees (Acts 15:5) came down from Judaea to Antioch with the avowed purpose of destroying the autonomy of Christianity and making it dependent upon Judaism.

1. The Problem of a Judaized Christianity

     The Jewish visitors from Judaea taught specifically that Gentiles could not be saved unless they were "circumcized after the custom of Moses" (Acts 15:1). The teaching was tantamount to saying that Gentiles virtually had to become Jews to be saved and was diametrically opposed to the message Paul and Barnabas had proclaimed to their Greek converts in Syrian Antioch, Cyprus, and Galatia. "If it was permitted to go unchallenged, all their work would be undone, and their converts left in confusion and dismay." [Edgar J. Goodspeed, Paul (Philadelphia, 1947), p. 54.] In addition, the whole divine authentication of the Christian message on the first missionary tour would be set aside, unless this error, specious as it was from a purely Jewish standpoint, was answered.

     Palestinian Jews were willing to open the door to the Gentiles, but only halfway. They would admit only those who, in addition to faith in the Messiah, submitted to Jewish rites, particularly circumcision. With them the question of religion and race were merged. As descendants of Abraham, they worshiped the one true God, Yahweh. Did not this fact retain all its ancient meaning? But those who were not Abraham's descendants could compensate with a substitute. Let them in addition to faith in the Messiah receive circumcision as the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant. Let them also submit to other legal rites, since Jesus Himself, they argued, faithfully observed the Mosaic Law and asserted that He had not come to set aside but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). [Cf. Clarence Tucker Craig, The Beginning of Christianity (New York, 1943), pp. 171-172.]

     Against this plausible line of reasoning stood the case of the opening of the Gospel of faith to the Gentile Cornelius and his family (Acts 10). But the Palestinian Jews dismissed this obvious instance of the conversion of uncircumcised pagans as an exception, which was clearly by special divine command, in which Peter had to justify his part in the incident before a general Jewish meeting (Acts 11:1-18). [Craig, op. cit., p. 173.]

     On the ground of special divine revelation corroborated in his personal experience and public ministry, Paul opposed the Judaistic thesis with all his resources. He and Barnabas "had no small dissension and debate" with the legalists (Acts 15:2 R.S.V.) He was willing to grant that the Christian Church, although in a sense Spirit-begotten in the womb of orthodox Judaism, and for a certain length of time identified with it in faith and practice, nevertheless from the start possessed its own life and individuality, was distinct from it, and clearly directed toward complete independence.

     It was Peter who saw the infant Church, begotten at Pentecost (Acts 2), reach its full prenatal development (to continue the figure) and come to the birth with the admission of Gentiles at Caesarea (Acts 10), at Antioch (Acts 11:21, 22), and in vast numbers on Paul's first missionary tour (Acts 13:1-14:28). It was Paul, however, who dared to cut the last tie binding the Christian Church to Judaism—the umbilical cord of Mosaic rites and ceremonies. In this sense he may be said to have "delivered" the Church, making possible its own autonomous life. Thus with incalculable consequences for the history of the human race, the apostle set Christianity on its own course as a universal, international, world-engirdling spiritual movement, transcending all racial, social, economic, religious, and political barriers, and offering spiritual regeneration to everyone who believes.

2. The Council at Jerusalem

Although the apostle at Antioch took his momentous stand for Christianity versus Judaism, the battle had barely begun. Others besides Paul and the leaders and members of the Antiochene church had to see the all-importance of the issue at stake. Since neither side would yield, it was essential to get a decision from the highest authorities of the whole Church, which were the "apostles and presbyters" of the mother church at Jerusalem. [Guiseppe Ricciotti, Paul, the Apostle, trans. By Alba I. Zizzamia (Milwaukee, 1952), p. 276.]

     At a congregational meeting, the church at Antioch commissioned Paul as one of a number to attend the council, but this corresponded to a revelation he himself had had in the matter (Galatians 2:1, 2). The group of delegates to the first Church Council of history traveled by land through Phoenicia and Samaria "declaring the conversion of the Gentiles," thus causing "great joy to all the brethren" (Acts 15:3). This was likely at the end of the year 49 or the beginning of the year 50.

     The church at Jerusalem to which the Antiochene delegation reported was composed of three groups. The highest in authority were apostles, consisting of James, the brother of the Lord, Cephas (Peter), and John, the future evangelist. Paul calls these "pillars" (Galatians 2:9). The presbyters, who worked with the apostles, were next in authority, with the general congregation of believers composing the rest.

     Peter was the first to give his views, which were practical and realistic. He decided in favor of the liberation of Christianity in three points. First, the evangelization of the Gentiles, apart from admixture of Mosaic legalism, which had initially begun under his own hand (Acts 10). Second, these earlier pagan conversions were on the same charismatic plane as that of the converted Jews, though they did not observe the Mosaic system (Acts 11:17). And finally, Peter described the law as an intolerable yoke, which no Jew had borne in its entirety, and against it he set the grace of the Messiah, which alone was efficacious to bring salvation to both Jew and Gentile (Acts 15:7-11).

     The legalists found scarcely more comfort in the decision of James, their hoped-for champion, who enjoyed great prestige among pious Jews because of the singular austerity of his life. Although his speech revealed his deep devotion to Judaism, it essentially agreed with Peter and disappointed the hopes of the Judaizers. His discourse and that of Peter formed the basis of a "decree" directed toward the solution of the pressing problem of the relation of Judaism to Christianity as proclaimed and practiced by the believers of Gentile origin in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia (Acts 15:23-29).

     The decree specified that converts from paganism were not to be required to submit to circumcision or other precepts of the Mosaic law. This epoch-making document denying the claims of the Judaizing element was dispatched to Antioch with "Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas" who were chief men among the Jerusalem believers (Acts 15:22), the latter being chosen as Paul's companion on his second missionary tour.

3. Christianity Freed From Mosaic Legalism

     The church at Antioch greeted the returned messengers and the Jerusalem decree with much rejoicing. Gentile believers recognized it as a signal victory for the Christian faith, and although it did contain some concessions to Christian converts from Judaism, these were seen to be of a transitory nature and based on the principle of mutual love and deference to their Jewish brethren. These included abstinence from "meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication" (Acts 15:29).

     The flesh of animals sacrificed in pagan ritual was abhorred because the Jew believed that one eating it partook of the idolatrous sacrifice in which it had been offered. Since idolatry was practically universal outside Jewish circles, it was often extremely difficult to avoid such meats, sold in the markets as they were with other foods, inasmuch as pagan buyers attached no significance whatever to their source, providing the commodity was fresh. Pagan converts on the basis of Christian charity (Romans 14:1-23; 1 Corinthians 10:23-33) and out of respect for Jewish believers were to avoid these foods in the agapes in a Christian community, so as not to cause offense to their weaker brother. When the occasion of stumbling was removed, so also was the precept [Ricciotti, op. cit., p. 279. These injunctions, however, have persisted in the Church. The martyrs at Lyons in the year 177 declared they could not eat blood (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History V, I, 26). Echoes of the belief extend to the Middle Ages.]

     The use of blood of animals in culinary recipes or the eating of animals strangled and not previously bled [Cf. Craig, op. cit., p. 173. As distinguished from “things strangled” from the preceding rule, “this forbade the separate use of blood…as an article of food. Dishes so prepared were common in the cuisine both of Greek and Romans…” (E. H. Plumptre in The Acts of the Apostles, ed. By C. J. Ellicott, New York, n.d., pp. 214, 248-249.).] was abominated because Semitic peoples had the belief from dim antiquity (cf. Genesis 9:3, 4), which is reflected in the Mosaic injunctions (Leviticus 17:10-14), that the blood was the life, the seat of the soul. In eating the blood "one absorbed the soul of the animal with all its brutish qualities." [Ricciotti, op. cit., p. 297. According to rabbinic law, these first three injunctions were included in the seven precepts of Noah’s sons and were binding upon non-Israelites residing in Israelite territory (Sanhedrin, 56b.).]

     The first three prohibitions of the Jerusalem decree deal with customs offensive to a Jew and are not per se illicit to a Gentile believer. The fourth, however, is directed against fornication, and is in its very nature immoral and prohibitory to any Christian believer—Jew

or Gentile. It is mentioned in the decree because of its extremely widespread practice and corrupting influence in ancient polytheistic society where it was often associated with pagan worship, and not only looked upon as natural and permissible [Cicero defended the practice explicitly (Pro M. Coelio, 20). Other ancient writers either attest its prevalence or speak of it lightly, such as Terence, Adelphi, 101; Seneca, Controv., 2, 4 (12); Horace, Satires, 1, 3, 31; Petronius Arbiter in the entire Satyricon.] but even abetted in the name of religion, for example, in the case of the harlot-priestesses of Aphrodite at Corinth and Paphos. In such instances of sinful indulgence, the man not only committed social immorality but also identified himself with the cult of the woman who was its avowed devotee, and thus was guilty of an aggravated iniquity in the eyes of every Jew. [Plumptre, op. cit., pp. 243-244. Ricciotti, op. cit., p. 280; Craig, op. cit., pp. 173; 302, 307; Olaf Moe, The Apostle Paul, trans. By L. A. Vigness (Minneapolis, 1950, p. 236.]

     Numerous scholars have held that the decree, despite its emphatic condemnation of the Judaizers, was "a compromise." [See Sir William Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen (New York, 1896), p. 172, following Lightfoot and others.] Sir William Ramsay declares that "it seems impossible that Paul could have accepted a decree which declared mere points of ritual to be compulsory." [Ibid.] Yet it seems difficult to see how this could be true when Paul and Silas on the second missionary tour delivered the very decisions of this decree to the churches of Galatia "for observance" (Acts 16:4), when he himself consistently taught the principle of love in the matter of things permissible in themselves, but which might cause another believer to stumble (Romans 14:1-23; I Corinthians 10:23-33) and when this aspect of his conduct was especially true in dealing with Jews in order to win them to Christ. When a matter of principle was concerned, as with Titus, Paul was unbending and would not have him circumcised (Galatians 2:3), while in the case of Timothy where the law of love in the interests of unity and peace came into play, the action was reversed (Acts 16:3).

     In a real sense the Jerusalem decisions expressed the apostle's dealing with his own kinsmen according to the flesh during his entire ministry, while in his working with Gentiles, the decree was to him the magna charta of Christian liberty and marked the complete emancipation of Christianity from Judaism. But the apostle was realistic in his dealings with his Hebrew brothers, knowing the ritual and ceremonial chasm separating them from unadulterated Christianity. Having been a Jew himself and knowing his own dilemma, which was resolved only by a special revelation of Christian truth, he was able to sympathize with his countrymen and make some concessions to them in the spirit of the Jerusalem decree. [Cf. Adolf Schlatter, The Church in the New Testament, trans. By Paul L. Levertoff (London, 1955), pp. 130-138.] According to Schlatter, "the chief result of the agreement between St. Paul and the Jerusalem Church was that in the church the Jews and the Gentiles were not assimilated, but each kept their own traditions unimpaired by any attempt at uniformity." [Ibid., p. 137.]

II. THE NEW FAITH TESTED BY DEFECTION

     The decisions of the Jerusalem Council were electric in their effect on the spiritual life and missionary zeal of the great Gentile church at Antioch. Not only was there rejoicing (Acts 15:31) that the confusion precipitated by the intrusion of legalism had been dissipated and the whole question of Gentile salvation settled by apostolic agreement, but a powerful incentive was given the church to continue Gentile evangelism into new regions. Accordingly, Paul presently proposes another missionary trip to confirm converts already made and to reach out after others.

1. The Beginning o f Paul's Second Missionary Tour

     This evangelistic effort, which was to be history-making in its import and which was to witness the planting of the Christian faith in Europe, began in sharp dissension. Barnabas, who had worked with Paul on his first journey through Cyprus and Asia Minor, now separated from his colleague over his (Barnabas') cousin John Mark, whom Paul refused to take on the second journey because of his failure on the first journey. Accordingly Barnabas sailed for his homeland, Cyprus, with Mark, while Paul chose Silas (Silvanus), a member of the mother church at Jerusalem, to assist him. They set out for Asia Minor—this time by land, through north Syria, crossing Mt. Amanus at the "Syrian Gates" into Cilicia. Along the route the party stopped at the communities in this region where Paul had ministered before he was fetched to Antioch by Barnabas previous to the first missionary tour, and "strengthened the churches" (Acts 15:41).

     Quitting Cilicia, undoubtedly from Paul's hometown of Tarsus, Paul and Silas traversed the formidable Taurus Mountains through the famed "Cilician Gates" (modern Glek Bogaz, 3575 feet above sea level), where they braved a beast-infested and robber-haunted wilderness, as they pressed on over the road (often blocked with landslides and impassable with snow in winter) [So Cicero informs us in one of his letters (Ad Atticum, V, 21, 14).] which connected Antioch and Tarsus with Derbe across the Taurus.

     From the heights of the Taurus, the missionaries could see the broad plain of Lycaonia, green with vegetation in spring when the trip was made, and soft with oozy mud. About ten, days of slow progress, in which travelers unfamiliar with the route might find themselves bogged down in the marshy soil, brought the group to Derbe, a frontier Roman town on the border of the province of Galatia and the kingdom of Commagene. [See Chapter IX.] While nothing is told of this present stopover at Derbe, a warm welcome was undoubtedly accorded the apostle by the church founded there on his first tour.

     From Derbe the missionaries went to the Roman colony of Lystra. [See Chapter IX. Cf. Souter “Colony” in Hasting’s Dictionary of the “Apostolic Church; A. T. Robertson, Luke, the Historian in the Light of Historic Research (New York, 1920), pp. 183-185.] Here the apostle invited the young man Timothy, who had been converted during Paul's previous visit to the city, together with his godly Jewish mother and grandmother (11 Timothy 1:5), to join the evangelistic party. The young convert had meanwhile distinguished himself by the propagation of the Christian message, so that he was highly esteemed "by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium" (Acts 16:2).

     Paul circumcised Timothy "because of the Jews" who were in this region (Acts 16:3). This act was performed for practical reasons of charity and peace, and was in no manner a denial of the position Paul had espoused at the Apostolic Council. In this case of Timothy the action involved only that which was permissible to a believer purely for traditional reasons, not as in the case of Titus, dealing with that which was claimed to be obligatory for salvation.

     Scholars who reject this notation of Luke as unhistorical in the specious contention that Paul, who unflinchingly refused to circumcise Titus, could not now circumcise Timothy, not only transgress in com posing history contrary to the documents, but fail to see that Paul subsequently on the same principle of charity (and not at all on the principle of doctrinal necessity) submitted to the Jewish ritualistic practices (Acts 18:18; 21:26) in accordance with I Corinthians 9:20"And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to them that are under the law as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law."

     Leaving Lystra Paul and Silas, now joined by Timothy, who was ordained (II Timothy 1:6) to become Paul's secretary and assistant, visited the churches established on the previous tour, including Iconium and Pisidian Antioch. Their main activity was instructing the new believers and communicating the decisions of the Jerusalem Council on the momentous issue of the relation of Christianity to Judaism. "So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily" (Acts 16:5).

2. The Epistle to the Galatians and the North Galatian Theory

     With the task of visiting the fields of former labors finished, the problem arose what new regions were to be opened up and pressed to the fore. Having preached in the south of Asia Minor, Paul obviously now intended to tackle the west coast, the region of the big Greek towns of Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamus. [Martin Dibelius, Paul, ed. And completed by Werner Georg Kimmel, trans. by Frank Clarke (Philadelphia, 1953), p. 75.] But divine intervention restrained him from the populous cities and Jewish colonies of proconsular Asia. Instead the apostle was directed to Phrygia and the Galatian region (Galatikē Chōra) (Acts 16:6), that is, following the North Galatian thesis, he was led to the districts of central Asia Minor, and, supplementing the intentionally abridged account given in Acts, "now preached there in towns of mixed Phrygian and Galatian population, such as Amorium, Pessinus, Orcistus, and Nacolta. . ."

     [Dibelius, ibid. For the Northern Galatian Theory, see James Moffatt, An Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament (3^rd ed., 1918, pp. 90-101 and in Encyclopaedia Biblica IX, p. 972; Paul W. Schmiedel, Encyclopaedia Biblica (1899-1903), cols. 1592-1616.]

     According to this theory, the author of Acts, anxious to present Paul's activity in Europe, skims over this sojourn in Asia Minor in a few words, [Ricciotti, op. cit., p. 292.] which however, must have occupied several months at least, through the remainder of the year 50 and perhaps the beginning of 51. During this period Paul's serious illness is placed, which is differentiated from the "sting of the flesh" (Galatians 4:13-15). This sickness is made the occasion for his enforced stop among the "real" Galatians and his evangelization of this people residing in the northern part of the Roman province of Galatia. [Ricciotti, op. cit., pp. 21-23. The population of Galatia proper consisted of Celtic (Gallic) invaders mixed with the earlier Phrygians and Greeks and a few Romans. Hence the name Gallogrecia (Strabo, XII, 5, 1), Graecogalia (Livy, XXXVIII, 17). The Galatians were only superficially Hellenized as they spoke a Gaelic dialect like that in Trier in Gaul as late as Jerome’s era in the early fifth century. (In Epistulam ad Galatos, lib. II, Praefatio in Migne, Patr. Lat., 26, 382).]

     It was to these real Galatians, it is contended, Paul's Galatian epistle was addressed, and not to the Christians of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe in the southern section of the Roman province of Galatia. These latter, according to the North Galatian hypothesis, could never be called "Galatians, because they were, and were called, Pisidians or Lycaonians, just as they spoke a Lycaonian dialect" (Acts 14:11). The inscriptions, moreover, are cited to prove that the administrative incorporation of Galatia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, etc. into the larger organization of the Roman province did not cancel out their separate nations. [Accordingly, the Emperor Augustus’ legate to the province Is not stated simply “Legate to Galatia,” but accurately if tediously “The Legate of Augustus as praetor (Corpus Inscrip. Lat., III, 291, supplement 6618.).]

     Further documentary evidence is cited by the North Galatian protagonists that at least in the second century A.D. the various regions which made up the Roman province had an assembly or koinon of its own. The koinon of Lycaonia and that of Galatia, for example, convened in Ancyra (modern Ankara) or Pessinus.

     It is further pointed out that the early interpretations which prevailed to the latter part of the nineteenth century maintained the epistle of Paul was written to the actual Galatians in the northern part of the province. In agreement with this it is held that Luke asserts that the Pauline party passed through the "Galatian region," meaning the region of the Galatian tribes and not the province as a whole, since the missionaries were journeying from Lycaonia and Pisidia, which were part of the province of Galatia, and accordingly were already inside the province. Arguments advanced against these solid reasons underlying the older interpretation are held to be specious and learned quibbles.

3. The Epistle to the Galatians and the South Galatian Theory

The findings of modern archaeology, notably the researches of Sir William Ramsay in Asia Minor before World War I, have given impetus to the view that Paul wrote the epistle to the Galatians either solely to the inhabitants of Southern Galatia without having visited Northern Galatia at all, or that he did visit northern Galatia, [Henry Clarence Thiessen, Introduction to the New Testament, 3^rd ed., (Grand Rapids, 1946), p. 216.] but "that the Epistle to the Galatians is primarily addressed to the Churches in South Galatia." [Ibid.] Archaeological discoveries have shown that it was entirely correct for Paul to address the believers in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe as "Churches of Galatia," meaning the Roman province by that designation [Cf. Ramsay, A Historical Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians; Frederick Rendall in The Expositor’s Greek Testament III, p. 128; E. J. Goodspeed, The Story of the New Testament (1916), p. 9.] and entirely right for him to refer to these people as "Galatians" (Galatians 3:1). Luke and Paul are both cited as designating the inhabitants of a city or district without making ethnographical distinctions, as between Romans, Greeks, Jews, etc. Illustrations cited are Pontians (Acts 18:2), Alexandrians (Acts 18:24), Asians (Acts 20:4), Corinthians (II Corinthians 6:11), Macedonians (Acts 19:29; II Corinthians 9:2, 4), Philippians (Philippians 4:15). The question arises, Why should Galatians 3:1 be an exception?

     Protagonists of the North Galatian theory are undoubtedly correct in insisting that Paul entered North Galatia on his second tour. However, not all advocates of the South Galatian theory agree with this fact apparently indicated by Acts 16:6 (cf. 18:23). In these two sole instances where Luke employs the term, "Galatian region," he does so in the original territorial sense.

     When, however, Paul employs the noun "Galatia," he uses it as the name of the Roman province, never as the territorial designation, except the two happen to be identical. Examples of his minute accuracy in the matter of Roman provinces are found in his use of the terms Asia, Achaia, Macedonia, Illyricum, Dalmatia, Judaea, and Arabia. [Thiessen, op. cit., p. 215. A. T. Robertson, Luke the Historian in the Light of Research (1920), pp. 181-182. Cf. Theodore Mommsen, The Provinces of the Roman Empire (Engl. Trans. 1909).] It seems unlikely that he would use the term "Galatia" (I Corinthians 16:1; Galatians 1:2; 11 Timothy 4:10) in any other sense.

     Moreover, it would be singular indeed for Luke to recount so fully the founding of the churches of South Galatia by Paul (Acts 13:14-14:23) and for Paul himself to say practically nothing about them, or, on the other hand, to write so pivotal an epistle as the Galatian letter to churches which are scarcely mentioned in the Acts.

     The reference to Paul's illness (Galatians 4:13), it is held by the advocates of the North Galatian view, is impossible to fit into the record of the apostle's ministry in South Galatia. But it apparently is unmentioned by Luke because it was not serious enough to interfere with Paul's preaching.

     On the basis of these various considerations it is perhaps best to assume that although Paul undeniably visited North Galatia on his second tour and made disciples there (Acts 16:6), his epistle to the Galatians is addressed, primarily at least, to the churches in South Galatia.

4. The Lapse o f the Galatians and the Galatian Epistle

     Sometime after the apostle's visit to Galatia on his second tour, the Christian Gospel underwent a period of serious testing. Liberated from legalism by the decisions of the Council of Jerusalem and by the apostle's own uncompromising stand both in the practice and proclamation of the message of grace, the new faith was to endure the trial of defection. This experience that seemed for the moment to presage tragedy was, however, divinely overruled to further the triumph of the Christian evangel in calling forth the epistle to the Galatians, which was to be the magna charta of Christian liberty.

     More than the decisions of the Jerusalem Council, the fiery and eloquent Galatian letter was to prove itself the Church's great emancipation proclamation of the freedom of Christianity from the slavery of Jewish legalism, becoming the battle cry for Christian liberty not only in the Church's infancy but later at the time of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century as well as time and time again.

     It is impossible to ascertain how soon the legalistic teachers came to Galatia after Paul had visited them, nor how long it took for the apostle to learn of the lapse of these churches. Theodor Zahn, considering it Paul's earliest epistle, is of the opinion that Paul wrote Galatians from Corinth on his second tour. [Introduction to the New Testament, vol. I, p. 196.] If this is true, the defection began soon after Paul's departure, and may have been instigated by Jewish believers from Judaea or those resident in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, where legalistic adherents had been singularly malicious.

     The common opinion is that Paul wrote the epistle on his third tour and that it belongs to the stylistic and doctrinal pattern of his other great epistles (I and II Corinthians and Romans) being first and dating from Paul's stay in Ephesus (54-57) [W. Sanday, “Galatians” in N. T. Commentary for English Readers II, ed. By C. J. Ellicott, p. 424.] or written after I and II Corinthians from Macedonia or Greece (57 or 58). [Cf. Sanday, ibid.; Thiessen op. cit., p. 218.]

     The legalists denied Paul's apostolic authority and the validity of his teaching of free grace. Hence Paul opens his letter by a vindication of his apostleship, his divinely received message, and his personal conduct (1:1-2:21). The heart of the letter is the defense of his doctrine of salvation by grace through faith by an exposition of Abraham's example and the purpose of the law in the light of the work of Christ (3:1-4:31). The remainder of the epistle is devoted to practical application (5:1-6:10), showing the proper use of Christian freedom in godly living. The whole letter constitutes a powerful refutation of the arguments of the legalistic teachers who sought to make Christianity a mere sect within Judaism.

III. THE NEW FAITH AND THE MACEDONIAN VISION

     Traversing Phrygia and the "Galatian country" (Acts 16:6), that is North Galatia, since they were not permitted by divine direction to go directly westward into proconsular Asia, the missionaries no doubt visited Pessinus and Ancyra (present-day Ankara, capital of Turkey). Ancyra was the chief city of North Galatia and the capital of the entire province. There Paul undoubtedly saw the white marble temple which the council of the three Galatian tribes had built in honor of Augustus and called the Augusteum. It may be that the apostle actually gazed upon the lengthy Latin inscription on its walls describing the life and public work of the Emperor, as he may have done at Pisidian Antioch and Appolonia, where fragments of other copies of the text have been recovered. [The unextant original composed by August himself was executed in A. D. 14. Cf. Res Gestae Divi Augusti., tr. F. W. Shipley, The Leob Classical Library (1924).]

1. Divine Direction Westward

     Hindered from a direct westward course into proconsular Asia, ostensibly to bring Northern Galatia under the Christian Gospel, the missionaries are now just as clearly

led westward by the Holy Spirit as they had previously been restrained from doing so. The passages which narrate the strategic course of the Gospel toward Europe are remarkable for their stress upon supernatural guidance and restraint - "Forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia . . .11 (Acts 14:6). "On reaching Mysia they tried to enter Bithynia but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them . . ." (v. 7). "During the night a vision appeared to Paul" (v. 9) at Troas, calling him to Europe.

     Bithynia, which the missionaries attempted to enter, lay north and northwest of Galatia. But their urgent task lay west and so they had to leave the evangelization of this fertile and attractive district to others (cf. I Peter 1:1) and to turn away from its inviting cities of Nicaea, Nicomedia and Chalcedon, two of which (Nicaea and Chalcedon) were to become famous in later church history.

     "Going alongside Mysia," Luke records, the missionaries were directed to Troas (Luke 16:8). Mysia formed the northwestern part of the Roman province of Asia since 190 R.C. It was closest to Europe and only the Propontis, the Hellespont, and the Aegean Sea separated it from that continent. In its borders lay ancient Troy (Ilion), Troas, Assos, and Adramyttium.

2. Troas and the Splendor of Ancient Troy

     Troas, to which Paul and his party were directed, lay on the Aegean Sea. It was an old seaport town, which before 300 R.C. bore the name of its founder Antigonus, and was called Antigona Troas. Afterwards the town became known as Alexandria Troas in honor of Alexander the Great, and for a time was the residence of the Seleucid kings. Later the city became free and struck its own coins, of which large collections have been found.

     In 133 B. C. Troas came into the possession of Rome. The city received every kind of privilege from the gens Julia because of the Homeric memories associated with the origins of the family. Julius Caesar planned in his time to make it no less than the capital of the Roman Empire. [Seutonius, Divus Julius, 79.] Augustus made it a Roman colonia and a free city independent of the provincial Roman governor of Asia, with its citizenry exempt from poll and land tax.

     The ruins of the ancient seaport (known today as Ekistanbul ) are extensive, giving mute evidence of the size and importance of the ancient city. But the site has long been used as a quarry and much of the architectural remains have been taken to Constantinople to construct a mosque and other buildings. Structures excavated are characteristic of the Roman period and include gymnasiums, baths, temple, theatre and an imposing aqueduct from the time of Trajan. The port from which Paul sailed for Europe was built by means of a mole with an inner and outer basin.

     Northeast of Troas Alexandria lie the ruins of Troy-Illium of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The place is now called Hissarlik and is situated a few miles from the southwestern entrance to the Dardanelles. In 1870 Dr. Heinrich Schliemann began excavations there to confirm his identification of it as Troy-Illium. His adventuresome and successful diggings, continuing with interruptions until 1890, not only demonstrated that the site was Troy-Illium but that it had been occupied by at least seven cities. [Cf. Schuchardt, Schliemann’s Excavations and Archaeological and Historical Studies (London, 1891) also his Schliemann’s Ausgrabungen. Schmidt, Schliemann’s Sammlung trojanischer Altertmer.] Later excavations by the University of Cincinnati have traced the sequence of successive civilizations on the same site from the most remote era down to Roman times and have revised some of Schliemann's conclusions. At least nine cities are now traced, the Homeric town being fourth from the top.

3. The Call to Europe

     At Troas Paul and his friends waited for divine direction. There they met Luke, a Greek physician, a member of that noble profession which Hippocrates, the father of medicine, from the Aegean island of Cos south of Miletus, had founded four centuries before. Goodspeed suggests that "perhaps Paul, now down on the seacoast after his journey over the uplands of Asia Minor, was stricken with malaria again and had to call a doctor." [Edgar Goodspeed, Paul (Philadelphia, 1947), p. 71.] Whatever the circumstances, the new addition to Paul's party was to be of much-needed help in numerous ways.

     At Troas Paul made one of the most momentous decisions of his career. Perhaps Luke, who seems to have been a native of Macedonia, had something to do with it, but the main reason for going to Europe was Paul's vision at night in which he saw a Macedonian "standing beseeching him, and saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us" (Acts 16:9).

     Unusual guidance was given for an extraordinarily significant step. Christianity was to be taken beyond Asia, where it had been born, into Europe, where it was to make such an incalculable contribution. Severely tried and tested by Judaistic attack, it had survived to be a regenerative force for all mankind, instead of a mere sect within Judaism. It was liberated for a vast ministry and the door was being opened as Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, now joined by Luke, set sail for Europe to take the Gospel of grace into a wholly new spiritual climate with results that could scarcely have been dreamed of by the small band of heralds of the cross.

33Edgar Goodspeed, Paul (Philadelphia, 1947) p. 71.

Chapter 11—The Churches of Macedonia

     On the journey to European Macedonia Paul's ship, Luke records, touched at Samothrace, an Aegean island. Here was the place where Demetrius Poliorcetes, "the taker of cities" in the fourth century B.C., set up the statue of the Winged Victory, which was discovered there in 1863, and has since adorned the Louvre in Paris as one of its most superb pieces. It may be that Paul saw this splendid monument of Greek art and religion. But if he did, "it meant to him only another evidence of the triumphant idolatry he was working to overthrow." [Edgar Goodspeed, Paul (Philadelphia, 1947), p. 73.]

     The 175-mile trip between Troas and Neapolis (modern Kavalla ) on the Macedonian mainland, was made without incident and required two days, including the stopover at Samothrace, about midway across. At Neapolis, the port of Philippi and the terminus of the great Egnatian Road, Paul and his group landed. Situated on a promontory with the Aegean on two sides, its position was important as a connecting link by sea with Asia Minor and by land with Europe. The latter connection was made by the Egnatian Way, which ran through nearby Philippi and thence across Macedonia to Dyrrachium (Durazzo) opposite Brundisium in Italy (across the Adriatic), where the Appian Way connected with Rome. In Neapolis a typical motley array of races and languages, characteristic of port towns, reigned. This was to be expected in a town that was the first point of contact for traffic that flowed between two continents.

I. GOSPEL PENETRATION OF EUROPE AND

THE CHURCH AT PHILIPPI

     From Neapolis the ten-mile journey inland to Philippi was made. Sir William Ramsay has advanced the attractive hypothesis that Luke himself was a Philippian, [St. Paul the Traveller and Roman Citizen, pp. 200f.] which, if true, would explain the emphasis laid on the importance of the city (Acts 16:12) and the vivid detail of the narrative of Acts 16:11-40.

1. History and Importance of Philippi

     The city took its name from Alexander's father, Philip II of Macedon, who was attracted there by the gold of nearby Mount Pangaeus, and transformed the ancient village of Krenides into a thriving fortress city. From this military base Alexander in 334 B.C. set out on his phenomenal career of world conquest.

     In 42 B.C. on the surrounding plains along the Gangites River the battle took place between the murderers of Julius Caesar and his avengers. In commemoration of the hard-won victory there, Octavius constituted the city a Roman colony, which made it "a miniature Rome in the Middle East." [M. S. and J. Lane Miller, Harper’s Bible Dictionary (New York, 1952), p. 549. “From both coins and inscriptions it is well proved” that Philippi “was a Roman colony,” Camben M. Cobern, The New Archaeological Discoveries (New York, 4^th ed., 1920), p. 545.] The Roman colonies were small replicas, in a sense, of Rome itself. Usually three hundred Roman citizens emigrated to found such a colony as an advance guard of the mother city to hold in subjection the surrounding country. Military roads were constructed to bind together the various colonies with themselves and with the mother city. [A. T. Robertson, Luke, the Historian in the Light of Research (New York, 1930), p. 183-185; A. Souter, “Colony” in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Apostolic Church.]

     To be constituted a Roman colony was a reward and an honor. It was a token that a city possessed special importance and was esteemed by the Emperor, and was deemed worthy to be the residence of Roman citizen-soldiers, who constituted the military and social aristocracy of the provincial town where they lived.

     It is interesting that Philippi alone is termed a colony by Luke (Acts 16:12), [Numerous other cities, however, are referred to by Luke that were colonies at the time, such as Troas (since 20 B.C.), Lystra (since 12 B.C.), Syracuse (since 21 B. C.), Puteoli (since 194 B. C.), Ptolemais (since before A.D. 47), Pisidian Antioch (since before 27 B. C.) and Corinth (since 27 B. C.)—total eight, including Philippi.] possibly because of his residence there and natural interest and pride in the city. [Robertson, op. cit., p. 184.] This was natural, since the colonies held themselves above the other cities. At any rate, his "pride in the city, his familiarity with its geography, and his vivid first-person narrative (16:10-17), all show that Luke had some personal connection with Philippi." [M.S. and J. Lane Miller, p. 549.]

     Moreover the city was granted the jus italicum, which gave it tax exemptions and numerous privileges. As a colony it was a free city, but other towns, which were not colonies, were frequently given the status of "free cities," as they were called, and had self-government within the Roman province where they were located. It was not Roman policy, however, to grant a provincial constitution and a free status to a community which did not possess a certain degree of culture and ability for autonomous government. In any case, "the free cities and the colonies were points of power," and Paul went to them "as centres of influence." [Robertson, op. cit., p. 185. Luke mentions Athens, Tarsus, Ephesus, and Thessalonica, which are known to be in the class of “free cities.”]

2. Archaeology and Luke's Reference to Philippi's Importance

     Concerning this city, Luke remarks that it was protē tēs meridos, i.e. "first in that part" of Macedonia (Acts 16:12), meaning thereby either the first in political importance and rank or first which the apostle reached. If Luke means the first in political importance and rank, a difficulty results which has led some scholars to impugn Luke's accuracy either on the ground of an obvious blunder or an overstatement dictated by his civic pride. But it is highly improbable that Luke would blunder through ignorance in a passage distinguished for its vivid detail and evidences of minute accuracy. Would it not be inconceivable to imagine he did not know that Thessalonica was the capital of the province, or if he referred to the easternmost of the four districts into which Macedonia had been divided by the Romans in 168 B.C., that he was unaware that Amphipolis was its capital and, at least, this rival city would contest such a declaration?

     [Some scholars suggest a corrupt text (and the codices vary, see R. J. Knowling “Acts” in The Expositor’s Greek Testament, ed. By W. Robertson Nicoll, note on Acts 16:12). Scholars offer the following emendations; (a) for prōtē tēs read prōtēs “which belongs to the first region of Macedonia” (b) delete meridos as a gloss and read “which is a city of Macedonia of first rank” (though not necessarily the first city) (c) for meridos read Pieridos and read with Hort “a chief city of Pierian Macedonia.”]

     The simple explanation is that Luke being a native of Philippi would understandably claim for his own city the precedence over the rival town of Amphipolis "which his own townsmen were doubtless claiming then, and which claim was acknowledged a little later universally." [Cobern, op. cit., p. 546.]

     Furthermore, as far as its dignity as a Roman colony was concerned, its rich historical associations with the Empire, and particularly its strategic geographical location as the Aegean doorway to Europe and through the Egnatian and Appian Ways to Rome and the West, certainly Philippi from Luke's point of view had some claim to be "the first city in the district of Macedonia." [Or did Luke use the adjective “first” in the sense of an honorary epithet, meaning merely “outstanding” or “noteworthy”? Cf. Guiseppe Ricciotti, Paul the Apostle (Milwaukee, 1953), p. 297.]

     But another difficulty has long encumbered Luke's enthusiastic description of Philippi (Acts 16:12) in his allegedly impossible use of the well-known Greek word meris in a geographical sense to mean a "region" or "district." Even F. J. A. Hort, the famous New Testament textual authority, was convinced that Luke blundered in this usage. [See the Appendix to Westcott and Hort, Greek Testament, Vol. II, appendix, p. 96.] Hort was correct insofar as archaeological light at that time could elucidate this word.

     However, archaeological evidence has appeared to show that Luke was more intimately acquainted with Macedonian geographical terms than present-day experts. Excavations in the papyri-rich sands of the Fayum in Egypt have demonstrated that the resident colonists there, many of whom had emigrated from Macedonia where Philippi was located, idiomatically employed this very word meris to denote the divisions of a district. Now all scholars own that this word meris was used correctly by Luke, and evidence is furnished by archaeology to correct modern critics and once again to vindicate Luke. [Cobern, op. cit., pp. 545-546; J. P. Free, Archaeology and Bible History (Wheaton, Ill., 1950), p. 320.]

3. The First Converts in Europe

     At Philippi the Jewish element was so inconsequential that there was no building for a synagogue. On the Sabbath what Jews or Jewish proselytes there were (evidently only women) gathered in an "oratory" (proseuchē) in the open air near a stream, where water was supplied for legal and ceremonial ablutions. The "river" may well have been the Gangites which flows less than two miles west of the city, but on the other hand it may have been one of the numerous springs or wells from which the ancient well-watered village of Krenides ("Fountains") took its name.

     The result of the meeting the first Sabbath was the conversion of a business woman named Lydia (i.e., "the woman from Lydia"), a dealer in purple dye and a native of the city of Thyatira in the extreme southern part of Mysia on the frontier of Lydia, and often considered part of Lydia. For this reason Lydia's name was apparently more of a surname. Thyatira was a colony of Macedonians and a prosperous market for purple. This fact explains the woman's presence in Macedonia as well as her occupation.

     After Lydia and her household believed the Gospel and were baptized, she insisted that the whole missionary party make her house their headquarters. It was undoubtedly a large dwelling, be fitting a successful career woman, and commodious enough to entertain four guests in addition to her own household. It may be supposed that the front entrance led to an atrium, ornamented with flowers and shrubbery and open to the sky. Beyond this would be a peristyle court surrounded by sleeping apartments on the second floor, which were made accessible through a gallery that circled the court above the columns of the peristyle.

     [Pansa’s house in fashionable Pompeii, contemporary with Lydia’s smaller dwelling, had this general plan, but contained no less than sixty rooms, though half of them facing the street were rented as stores and shops. Cf. E. J. Goodspeed, Paul (Philadelphia, 1947), p. 75.]

     As new converts were added to form the church in Philippi, Lydia's home became the first private house in Europe to serve as the meeting place of Christians. On the first day of the week the church may be thought of as assembling in the atrium or peristyle of the house to sing psalms, read the Old Testament in Greek, pray and hear an exposition by Paul, Silas, or Timothy. The private houses of wealthier members were to serve as places of Christian assembly for two centuries and more before Christians would have buildings of their own constructed solely for worship.

4. The Place of Women in the Church

     The beginning of the gospel movement in Europe auspiciously pointed to the different place women were to have in Christianity, especially in contrast to heathenism and Judaism. Woman's enslavement and debasement in numerous cults of Oriental paganism are notorious. In contrast, woman's liberation by Christianity is both characteristic and striking.

     Even in reference to Judaism the change is striking. The low opinion of women in Judaism is reflected in Jewish liturgy, in which Israelite men fervently thank God they were not born women. Women were excluded from participation in the synagogue service and could witness the service only from galleries or behind curtains. They were granted only an extremely restricted access to the Temple, and suffered numerous severities under the Mosaic Law and the pharisaical traditions growing out of it.

     The Church, on the other hand, from the beginning welcomed women, commended them, liberated them socially and spiritually, and granted them privileges of service and ministry they had never enjoyed before, although in matters of ruling and teaching in the house of God, they were never to usurp authority over a man, and thus introduce anarchy and confusion. [Cf. I. Corinthians 11;5, 13; 14:34, 35; I Timothy 2:11, 12; I Peter 3:1.]

5. Christianity Clashes With Heathenism

     The Gospel of divine grace had progressed well in Philippi, in fact, had been quite successful. One thing must have caused the missionaries to wonder—the lack of opposition and persecution. This could be partly explained by the absence of a synagogue in Philippi and experiences of virulent synagogue animosity as in Galatia. But the question still remained unanswered. How could Christianity thus advance against the strongholds of paganism and remain unchallenged by the demonism which the apostle recognized from the Old Testament was the dynamic of idolatry (Deuteronomy 32:7; Psalm 96:5; 106:37, 38) and of heathen worship in general (I Corinthians 10:20, 21)?

     The answer was soon to come and was to mark the end of the missionaries' stay in Philippi. One day as the group was going to the place of prayer, they were accosted by a young woman "having a spirit of divination" who brought her promoters a tidy income by her predictions (Acts 16:16). The maid was a spiritistic medium who had actual powers of oracular utterance [James M. Gray, Spiritism and the Fallen Angels (New York, 1920), p. 97. Edward Langton, Essentials of Demonology, London, 1949), p. 177.] and was under direct demonic influence and control. This is the reason she harassed the missionaries, the evil spirit energizing her, subtly opposing and discrediting Paul's ministry by giving the appearance of commending it. With penetrating discernment, which was not to be imposed upon by Satanic cunning, the apostle after patiently enduring the veiled attack for many days, and realizing the real enemy was not the girl but the evil spirit indwelling her, turned and addressed not the maid but "the spirit" (Acts 16:18), expelling the demon, as both Jesus and the apostles regularly did in their ministry of deliverance.

     To represent this girl as a mere "hysteria type," of "none too strong mentality," whose "confused utterances were taken as coming from some supernatural power," as some critics [Burton Scott Easton, “Python,” Int. Stand. Bible Encyclopaedia, IV, 2511.] do, is to betray ignorance of the essential facts of demonological phenomena, as well as rejection of the explicit statements of the historian. [Acts 16:16-18.]

     This episode at Philippi was in reality a head-on collision of gospel light with pagan darkness, of the power of truth with error. It is valuable in illustrating the intimate connection between divination and demonism. [Cf. Merrill F. Unger, Biblical Demonology (Wheaton, Ill. 4^th ed., 1958), pp. 119-142; Auguste Bouchē-Leclerq, Historie de la Divination dans l’Antiquit (4 vols. Paris 1879-1882).] The maid is said to have possessed pneuma Puthona, that is, "a Pythian spirit." In Greek mythology Python was the name of a legendary dragon that haunted the region of Pytho at the foot of Mt. Parnassus in Phocis. It was claimed to guard Delphi, the most renowned of all ancient oracular shrines, and to have been slain by Apollo. Pytho is accordingly the older name of Delphi. Consequently, "the Pythian spirit," as Hesychius defines it, meant a "divining demon" (daimonion mantikon). [Hesychius of Alexandria, The Lexicographer, as quoted by J. A. Thayer, Greek English Lexicon of the N.T., p. 557.]

     In the course of time, the expression "Pythian spirit," came to be the generic title of the alleged source of the inspiration of diviners in general, including the slave girl, whom Satan employed as a tool at Philippi to oppose the progress of the Gospel into Europe.

     The spiritistic maid at Philippi is interesting, too, in illustrating the fact that "the vehicles of manifestation resembling possession in the ancient world are almost exclusively women ... Among the possessed prophetesses of historic times the most eminent is the Pythoness." [T. K. Oesterreich, Possession, Demoniacal and Other Among Primitive Races in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times (new York, 1930), p. 311; cf. his description of the Delphic Oracle, op. cit., pp. 311-331.] The Delphic seeress was originally a maid from the surrounding countryside. She was reputed to be filled with the god Apollo himself and his spirit. The god, as was believed, entered into the physical body, and the priestess' soul, loosed from her body, apprehended the divine revelations. What she uttered was spoken through her by the god (demon). [E. Rhode, Psyche, the Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality Among the Greeks (2^nd ed. Freiburg, 1898), II, 60-61.]

6. Archaeology and the Philippian Persecution

When the promoters of the spiritistic medium (perhaps a group of pagan priests versed in occultism) saw that their dupe was exorcised and the means of their profit gone, lethargic paganism became aroused when its pocketbook was touched. As a result, a violent persecution was precipitated. Those affected financially dragged the missionaries into the market place before the rulers, and during the hearing so great was the anger of the populace that all formalities of trial, witnesses, pleas, etc. were dispensed with and the missionaries punished and jailed.

     Singularly prominent, as would be expected in a Roman colony, is the Roman element in the narrative. The market place or forum (Greek agora), where the rulers presided, was in the center of the city. The general term "magistrates" (archontes) in verse 19, is exchanged for the specific title of praetors (strategoi) in verse 20. [Cf. vs. 22, 35, 36, 38.] These officials are attended by lictors (rhabdouchoi) (vs. 35, 38) who carry the fasces or bundle of rods having among them an ax with blade projecting and which was borne before Roman magistrates as a badge of their authority. With these rods the lictors ("scourgers" ) soundly beat Paul and Silas. Two lictors attended each praetor, protected him and executed his orders.

     The charge, craftily diverted from the real issue of money, was fabricated to concern the public order ("they are making a disturbance"), anti-Semitism ("they are Jews"), and fidelity to Roman customs ("set forth customs which it is not lawful for us to receive, or to observe being Romans").

     The historical difficulty in the narrative concerns the title of praetor which Luke assigns to these Roman officials. The highest officials in a Roman colony, two in number, were styled duoviri or duumviri. That this title was in use at Philippi is proved by the inscriptions. [Heuzey and Daumet, Mission Archologique de Macdoine 15, 127, Orelli No. 3746.] Why then did Luke use the term "praetor" here? Did he blunder or did he have reason to use the terminology he employs?

     Archaeology again has shown that Luke did not blunder. Inscriptions reveal that the term praetor was employed as a "courtesy title" for the chief magistrate of a Roman colony. It was an office of great dignity (next below a consul) and showed respect for the duumviri. [Hogarth, op. cit., pp. 351, 352. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, p. 218. Cicero, De lege agraria,11, 34: Horace Sat. 1, 5, 34; Orelli No. 3785. Luke is accurate, as usual, moving on the plane of idiomatic educated conversation in such matters, and not on the plane of rigid technical conformity. [Cobern, op. cit., pp. 546-547. Free, op. cit., p. 321.

7. The Philippian Jailing and Paul's Citizenship

     Although Paul's imprisonment was divinely overruled for good in the conversion of the jailer and extension of the gospel witness, his unjust condemnation without a fair trial, his brutal flogging and incarceration were violations of Roman law, which protected him as a Roman citizen. But objection has been raised that Paul did not take advantage of his citizenship to prevent his scourging. However, the mob apparently raised such an uproar that the apostle had no opportunity to defend himself.

     The next morning, when the magistrates had been persuaded by someone (perhaps Lydia) that they had acted hastily and ill-advisedly and had sent word for Paul and Silas to be released, Paul had his opportunity: "They have beaten us publicly, un-condemned men that are Romans, and have cast us into prison and do they now cast us out privily? nay, verily, but let them come themselves and bring us out" (Acts 16:37).

     Paul's insistence on this mark of consideration was not dictated by personal pique at his mistreatment, but for the sake of the cause he represented and the people to whom he ministered. An honorable discharge from custody was a debt he owed his converts and which the future success of the work at Philippi required.

     Paul's words had their desired effect, for the strategoi "feared when they heard that they were Romans" (v. 38). And rightly so! The lex Valeria of 509 B. C. had prohibited the striking of a Roman citizen without a previous popular decision. The lex Porcia of 248 B. C. had prohibited scourging a Roman citizen for any cause whatsoever. The magistrates had directly violated both these laws, and in addition condemned two Roman citizens (Silas was apparently a Roman citizen, too) without a regular trial and defense, which procedure was emphatically contrary to Roman law. No wonder the magistrates were filled with alarm and came themselves to offer apology and release the prisoners.

     This is a clear instance in which Paul made use of his prerogatives as a Roman citizen to carry on his ministry of evangelization, and which gave him such an advantage in his office as, Apostle to the Gentiles. "It was no doubt this citizenship ... which inspired him with the great plan of utilizing the civilization of the Roman state to spread the gospel along the lines of communication." [Maclean, “Paul” in One Volume Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible.] But the apostle did not selfishly use this privilege. He employed it for the good of others and was willing to leave Philippi after his clash with the Roman authorities.

8. Modern Archaeological Excavations at Philippi

     Today Felibedjik ("Little Philippi") marks the site of the many-acred ruins of the ancient Roman colony. The cole Francaise d'Athnes between 1914 and 1938 excavated Philippi, and the city is now much better known. [Pau1 Collart, Philippes ville de Macdoine depuis ses origines jusq' la fin de l'poque romaine, 2 vols. 1937. Cf. also Bulletin de correspondance hellnique 44 (1920) to 60 (1936). Cf. W. A. McDonald, "Archaeology and St. Paul's Journeys in Greek Lands," Biblical Archaeologist III 2 (May, 1940), pp. 20-22.

     The existing ruins of Philippi were found by French archaeologists to date for the most part to a period subsequent to Paul. These include the Roman baths, the theatre (rebuilt in the second century A.D.) and Christian churches (much later). The forum has been brought to light, being rectangular in shape and measuring 300 feet by 150 feet. Five porticoes adorned it, and it was surrounded by public buildings and temples. Here a rectangular podium with steps leading up to it was discovered. It evidently was a tribunal similar to that before which Paul and Silas suffered at the hands of the Roman authorities, and although dating from the second century when it was rebuilt, was not radically dissimilar to that of Paul's day.

     One structure which is believed to date from Paul's period and even to be mentioned in the Acts account is the colonial archway to the west of the city. This archway may have designated the line of the pomerium within which foreign gods were not allowed. As the Via Egnatia left Philippi and headed west, it ran beneath this arch and then traversed the Gangites, a mile or so from the city. It seems natural to deduce, therefore, that the "gate" mentioned in Acts 16:13 "was this very archway, and that the Jews met beyond it because it was required by law, and that the `river side' where Paul spoke to the assembled women was on the bank of the Gangites." [Jack Finegan, Light From the Ancient Past (Princeton, 1946), p. 271. Collart, op. cit., pp. 319-322; 458-460.]

II. FURTHER VINDICATION OF LUKE'S ACCURACY AND

THE CHURCH AT THESSALONICA

     From Philippi Paul traversed the seventy miles to Thessalonica on the Via Egnatia. On his way he passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, apparently without ministering there. Although Amphipolis was a free city, according to Pliny, [Natural History IV, 17.] and capital of eastern Macedonia later in the time of Diocletian, yet at this period it possessed no great importance, being eclipsed by the growing influence of Philippi and Thessalonica. Christianity early took hold at Amphipolis, however, possibly through Paul's converts from Philippi and Thessalonica, as is evidenced by remains of an early Christian basilica excavated in 1920.

     Apollonia, like Amphipolis, was unimportant. Neither city seemed to possess a Jewish population to present an opening for the Gospel, so Paul passed on to Thessalonica.

1. Thessalonica the City

     Paul's far-sighted policy of introducing Christianity into the strategic commercial and political centers of the Roman Empire is well illustrated in Thessalonica. Under the Romans this was a city of first-rate importance. Situated on the site of ancient Therma ("Hot Springs"), whose name survived in the Thermaic Gulf (now the Gulf of Salonika), the location was so felicitous, because of its fine harbor with full access to sea lanes and its link with Macedonian cities and markets via the Egnatian Way, that it early attained commercial and military dominance which it has retained to this day.

     Its growth dates especially from its rebuilding by Cassander in the late fourth century B.C. This general of Alexander the Great bestowed upon it the name of his wife Thessalonica, who was a sister of Alexander. It was a strong naval base during the period of civil wars, and was rewarded with the status of a free city (granted autonomy in its internal affairs) because of its loyalty to Octavius and Antony in their conflict with Brutus and Cassius. The poet Antipater, a Thessalonian, called the city "mother of all Macedon" [Jacobs, Anthol. Graec. II, p. 98, No. 14.] and Strabo the Greek geographer of the Augustan Age, described it as Macedonia's most populous town and the provincial metropolis. [VII, 323, 330. Cf. Harold R. Willoughby, "Archaeology and Christian Beginnings," Biblical Archaeologist II, 3 (Sept., 1939), pp. 32, 33.]

     Today the city is called Salonika and is a bustling metropolis of more than 200,000 population, with Jews representing about one-half the total. Its ancient strategic position is illustrated in modern times by the important role the city played in World War I and II, as a key Balkan port.

2. Paul's Labors in Thessalonica

     Upon his arrival, Paul at once set himself to his double activity of soul-winning and earning a livelihood. He found a friend in a certain Jason, who apparently was a Jew originally named Jesus.

     ["Use of double names among Jews in both Palestine and the Diaspora was common in the Graeco-Roman period. Since Graeco-Romans invariably distorted the pronunciation of Semitic names, it was convenient to select a foreign name which had a rough assonance with the Hebrew name. Examples: The Maccabaean high priests Jesus (Jason) and Eliaqim (Alkimos, Alkim). Cf. also Saul (Paul). The second name, however, might be different: Alexander Jannaeus (Jonathan); John Mark, Jesus Justus (Colossians 4:11). The catacomb inscriptions attest the same custom in earliest Judaism in Rome (J. B. Frey, Corpus Inscriptionum Judiacarum, I, Vatican City, 1936, pp. LXVI-LXVIII ). Most of these names (one-half) have a Latin name or cognomen, some (almost two-fifths) have a Greek name and very few (only a seventh) have a Hebrew or Aramaic name alone, according to Frey's research.]

     Paul found a home with Jason and as soon as he could become located at his trade went to work once again weaving tent cloth, for later in his letters to the Thessalonians he reminded them that he had worked "night and day that we might not burden" any of them (I Thessalonians 2:9). He repeats the same statement in his second epistle (II Thessalonians 3:8).

Paul's spiritual labors began as usual through the entree furnished by the synagogue. That this medium secured the Gospel a large hearing on three consecutive Sabbaths is indicated by the fact that a large number of Jews were resident in the city, realizing its commercial advantages. The commodious synagogue here is in contrast to the absence of one in Philippi. This is further evidenced by the large number of Greek proselytes and God-seekers, as well as women of distinction and position, who frequented the Jewish meetings. The prestige, wealth, and prominence of the synagogue members are further attested by their success in influencing the populace in the ensuing persecution.

     Paul's synagogue preaching, together with his and Silas' personal work, resulted in the establishment of a strong church in the city. Much emphasis was placed upon prophecy both fulfilled in the Messiah at His first advent but especially unfulfilled in connection with His Second Advent. This appears strikingly in the first Thessalonian epistle, written evidently from Corinth not long after the founding of the Thessalonian church and also in the second epistle shortly after the first, probably while still at Corinth. [Theod. Zahn, Introduction to the New Testament I, pp. 232-33. G. Milligan, St. Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians, p. xxxix. Cf. I. Thessalonians 4:13-5:12; II Thessalonians 1:5-2:12.]

     The eschatological emphasis fitted into the general period of Paul's life (A.D. 51) when there were vague adumbrations of impending judgment and doom attended by prodigies and expectations of some great event bringing rebirth pervading the pagan world. [Guiseppe Ricciotti, Paul the Apostle (Milwaukee, 1952), pp. 308-311; cf. Tacitus, Annals XII, 43,64; Seutonius Claudius 46, Dion Cassius, LX, 35.

3. Jewish Persecutors and Subrostrani

     Paul and Silas' notable success in gospel witness was not to go unchallenged at Thessalonica any more than it had gone uncontested at Philippi. "But the Jews, moved with jealousy, took certain base loafers and forming a mob, set the city in an uproar. They attacked Jason's house and sought to bring them out to the people; but not finding them, they dragged Jason and certain brethren before the magistrates of the city, shouting, `These men who are setting the world in an uproar have come here too, and Jason has taken them in; and they are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus"' (Acts 17:5-7 Greek).

     Loungers of the type employed here by the Jews to attack Paul and Silas were common in the agora or forum of Graeco-Roman cities. They invariably assembled around the rostrum where an orator was speaking, and applauded or heckled according to who paid them, in this case being hired by the disaffected Jews in Thessalonica. Cicero gave them the apt designation of subrostrani ("those-under-rostrum"). These worthless fellows were always ready for the excitement of a riot, especially if paid to produce it. It mattered little to them that Paul and Silas were not in Jason's house at the time they assaulted it. They enjoyed dragging Jason before the magistrates, and their trumped-up charges were that these men were violating Caesar's edicts by setting up another ruler, "king" Jesus, in opposition to the Emperor. The accusation was based undoubtedly on some incidental remark of Paul concerning the kingdom of God and the reference to Jesus' kingdom in the sense Jesus Himself had used the term before Pilate (John 18:36). The charge was as fantastic as it was severe, involving high treason.

     But the Thessalonian magistrates were much more discreet and un-impulsive then those at Philippi. They realized the insincerity and mercenary role of the subrostrani. They had the rioters to pacify, however, as well as their conscience to appease. So they "accepted bail from Jason and the rest and let them go" (Acts 17:9).