xxiii. 1, 6); before Felix and Festus, blameless by the standard of Law

and Prophets (xxiv. 14-16; xxv. 8); before Agrippa, a strict Pharisee in his conduct hitherto (xxvi. 5, 22 f.). Titus, whose circumcision Paul strenuously resisted, is never mentioned in Acts. Conversely Timothy (a Jew only on his mother's side) Paul "took and circumcised" immediately after the Jerusalem Council "because of the Jews that were in those parts" (Galatia!). His visit with Barnabas to Jerusalem is not occasioned by opposition to Gentile missions, though it falls between Barnabas' mission from Jerusalem to investigate the alarming reports of Gentile conversions at Antioch, and the First Missionary Journey on which the two take with them Mark, who had accompanied them from Jerusalem. No; according to Luke Gentile missions did not yet exist[12](!). This visit (that of the Conference, Gal. ii. 1-10) was merely to convey a gift from the Antioch church to that of Jerusalem because of the famine "about that time" (it occurred in 46-47). Conversely the great 'offering of the Gentiles' made at the risk of Paul's life in company with delegates from each province of his field, as a proffer of peace, the enterprise which occupies so large a place in his effort and his letters of this period (1st Cor. xvi. 1-6; 2nd Cor. 8-9; Rom. xv. 15, 16, 25-32), has in Acts no relation to the controversy--for the demonstration of Paul's exemplary legalism in the temple is merely incidental. The gift Paul brought was "alms to my nation" (!) (Acts xxiv. 17). The reader asks in vain what necessitates this dangerous journey. The only motives assigned are a Nazarite vow assumed in Cenchreæ (xviii. 18; xxi. 24), and regard for the Jewish feasts (xx. 16).

Footnote 12: On the reading "Greeks" in Acts xi. 20 see Footnote 10 above., p. 59.

The background of history against which the modern reader must place the great letters of Paul of the first period, is manifestly something quite different from the mere unsifted story of Acts. Their real origin is in a profound difference in Paul's idea of 'the gospel' and the necessity of defending the independence of it and of the Gentile churches founded on it. The difference originates in Paul's own religious experience. It found its first expression in his antithesis of Law and Grace, his doctrine that the cross marks the abolition of the economy of Law.

Both in Galatians and everywhere else Paul treats on equal terms with the representatives of the "apostleship of the circumcision." He denounces Peter and "the rest of the Jews," including "even Barnabas," at Antioch, after they have withdrawn from Gentile fellowship in order to preserve their legal 'cleanness,' and the point of the denunciation is that this is inconsistent with _their_ (implied) abandonment of the Law as a means of salvation when they "sought to be justified by faith in Christ." This makes their conduct not only inconsistent but cowardly and "hypocritical."

Here is something far deeper than a mere question of policy. Paul's attitude shows that from the beginning he has really been preaching "a different gospel." A gospel _about_ Christ in which the central fact is the cross as the token of the abolition of a dispensation of Law wherein Jew and Gentile alike were in a servile relation to God, under angelic (or demonic) "stewards and governors," and the inauguration of a dispensation of Grace, wherein all who have 'faith' and receive in baptism the gift of 'the Spirit,' are thereby adopted to be God's sons. Beside this cosmic drama of the cross and resurrection wherein God reveals his redemptive purpose for the world, the mere inculcation of the easy yoke of Jesus as a new Law, simplifying and supplementing the old by restoring the doctrine of forgiveness for the repentant believer (_cf._ Matt. xxviii. 20; Acts x. 42 f.; xiii. 39; xxvi. 22 f.) seems only half a gospel.

Paul can never surrender the independence of his God-given message, nor the liberty wherewith Christ has made all believers free in abolishing the economy of law and making them "sons" by the Spirit. And yet he is even more determined to achieve peace and reunion than the apostles 'of the circumcision'; only he has a different plan. Paul and his churches fall back upon the Jerusalem Conference, not upon the 'Apostolic Council.' The Conference is their Magna Carta. Its recognition of Paul's independent gospel and apostleship as no less divine than Peter's is their guarantee of liberty and equality; its request for brotherly aid is their promise of fraternity.

Approaches were made on both sides. It is true the ill-advised attempt of the Judaizers to secure unity by a renewal of their propaganda of the Law, seducing the Greek churches from their loyalty to Paul and his gospel, provoked from him only such thunderbolts as Galatians, with its defence of "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free," or 2nd Cor. x. 1 to xiii. 10, with its denunciation of the "ministers of Satan." Peace through surrender was not to Paul's mind. But the sincere attempt of the followers of Peter to find a _modus vivendi_, even if they did not venture to claim liberty from the Law for themselves, found Paul prepared to go more than half-way. His epistles are not more remarkable for their strenuous defence of the liberty of Son ship, than for their insistence on the obligation of brotherly love. His churches must be not only morally pure for their own sakes, but must avoid offences to the more scrupulous. Even that which Christian liberty allows must be sacrificed to the scruples of the 'weak,' if only it be not "unto doubtful disputations," or demanded as of right. From 1st Thessalonians (Corinth, A.D. 50), where, in the absence of all Judaizing opposition Paul merely exhibits his simple gospel of the resurrection and judgment to come, unaffected by questions of Law and Grace, on through Galatians with its sublime polemic for the liberty of sons, to the Corinthian correspondence, with its insistence on the duty of consideration and forbearance, its stronger note of love, its revelation of the widespread, strenuous exertions of Paul to promote his great 'offering,' down to Romans, where the 'offering of the Gentiles' is ready to be made (Rom. xv. 16-33), and Paul is sedulously preparing to enter a great new field already partially occupied, by presenting a full and superlatively conciliatory statement of his entire 'gospel' (i. 15-17), there is steady progress toward the "peace" and "acceptance" which he hopes to find in Jerusalem. The later Epistles, with their different phase of conflict, the very attitude of 'apostolic' Christianity toward Paul, as exhibited in Acts, make it incredible that substantial unity was not in fact secured.[13] We cannot, indeed, accept Luke's representation of Paul as performing the Nazarite ceremonial in the temple in order to prove _that he does not teach that the Law is not binding on Jews_. But it does not follow that Paul may not have done even this to prove that his principle of accommodation to the weak (1st Cor. ix. 19-22) left ample room for fellowship with the Jewish Christian--except when (as with Peter and Barnabas at Antioch) the needless scruples of the legalist were made a pretext for "compelling the Gentiles to live as do the Jews."

Footnote 13: The actual outcome is seen in the reduction of the 'burden' to the two items of abstinence from "fornication and from things offered to idols." Paul's nicer distinctions under the latter head (1st Cor. viii. 1-13, x. 14-23) as well as his distinction between the ceremonial and the moral grounds for abstinence, were disregarded.

Had unity been attained through the simple process imagined by Luke, obedient acquiescence of Paul and the Gentiles in the divinely inspired verdict of "the apostles and elders in Jerusalem," Christianity would have been an immeasurably poorer thing than it became. Indeed, it is questionable whether a gospel of mere simplification, extension and supplementation of the Law would ever have made permanent conquest of the Gentile world. It is because Paul stood out on this question of 'meats' for the equal right of his independent gospel, refusing submission until his great ten-years' work of evangelization by tongue and pen had made Gentile Christianity a factor of at least equal importance with Jewish, that our religion was enriched by its Hellenistic strain. The deeper insight into the real significance of Jesus' work and fate born of Paul's peculiar experience and his Hellenistic apprehension of the gospel found embodiment in the beginnings of a New Testament literature. The writings of this period must accordingly be viewed against the background of a critical history. Luke's account, written in the interest of "apostolic" authority, must receive such modifications as the contemporary documents require.

Taking up the story at the point of divergence we see Paul and Barnabas returning to Antioch after the Conference with the Pillars, glad at heart, and expecting now to resume the work for Gentiles without impediment. Besides Titus, John Mark of Jerusalem, a nephew of Barnabas, accompanied them. The Missionary Journey to Cyprus and (southern) Galatia follows, Mark returning, however, to Jerusalem after leaving Cyprus.

It was probably during the absence of the missionaries that "Peter came to Antioch" and, at first, followed the Pauline practice of disregarding 'distinctions of meats.' Later, on arrival of certain "from James" he "drew back and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcision." While matters were at this stage Paul and Barnabas reappeared on the scene. Paul thought it necessary to rebuke Peter "openly, before them all." Barnabas, former head of the Antioch church, took sides with Peter and "the rest of the Jews," doubtless determining the attitude of the church; for Paul says nothing of prevailing upon them by his argument, but merely turns it at once upon the Galatians themselves. Moreover, Barnabas now takes Cyprus as his mission field, with Mark as his helper, while Paul with a new companion, Silvanus (in Acts "Silas," a bearer of the 'decrees' from Jerusalem), takes the northern half of the newly evangelized territory, and through much difficulty and opposition makes his way to the coasts of the Ægean.

This second visit to the churches of Galatia (Acts xvi. 1-5) was signalized by warnings against the (possible) preaching of "another gospel" (Gal. i. 9); for Paul had reason to anticipate trouble from the "false brethren." If Acts may be believed, it was also marked by an extraordinary evidence of Paul's readiness to "become all things to all men" in the interest of conciliation. He is said to have circumcised a Galatian half-Jew named Timothy. If so, it was certainly not to prove his respect for the legal requirement, but rather its indifference. "Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision nothing; only faith working through love." But these generous 'accommodations' of Paul produced more of misrepresentation than of conciliation. He had cause to regret his liberality later (Gal. i. 10; v. 11 f.; _cf._ 1st Cor. vii. 18).

Some unexplained obstacle (Acts xvi. 6) prevented Paul's entrance into the Province of Asia at this time. Ephesus, his probable objective, had perhaps already been occupied (xviii. 24-28). He turned north through Phrygia-Galatia, hoping to find a field in Bithynia, but was again disappointed. At Troas, the very extremity of Asia, came the turning-point in the fortunes of the missionaries. Encouraged by a vision they crossed into Macedonia and found fields white for the harvest.

The Epistles to Thessalonica address one of these Macedonian churches from Corinth, whither the missionaries have been driven. Timothy had been sent back from Athens when Paul's own repeated attempts to return had been frustrated, and has just arrived with good news of the church's perseverance in spite of a persecution stirred up by the Jews. It is against these, apparently, not against Jewish-Christian detractors, that Paul defends his character and message (1st Thess. ii. 1-13). There is also an urgent warning against fornication (iv. 1-8) and exhortation to abound in love (iv. 9-12), with correction of the natural Greek tendency to misapprehend the Jewish eschatology and resurrection-doctrine (iv. 13--v. 1-11; _cf._ 1st Cor. xv.). The closing admonitions relate to the direction of church meetings and discipline.

2nd Thessalonians corrects and supplements the eschatology of 1st Thessalonians by adding a doctrine of Antichrist, which is at all events thoroughly Jewish and earlier than 70, when the temple was destroyed in which it expects the manifestation of "the man of sin." It is the only one of the Epistles of this period whose authenticity is seriously questioned by critical scholarship. How little this affects the question of Paul's 'gospel' may be seen by the fact that the entire contents cover less than 3 per cent. of the earlier Epistles, while the subject is a mere detail.

Far more significant is it to observe the close correspondence between the missionary preaching of Paul as here described by himself (1st Thess. i. 9 f.) and the general apostolic message (_kerygma_) as described by Luke (Acts x. 42 f.; xiv. 15-17; xvii. 24-31). Where there are no Judaizers there is no reference to the dispensations of Law and Grace and the abolition of the former in the Cross. The doctrine is the common gospel of the Resurrection, wherein Jesus has been manifested as the Messiah. Faith in him secures forgiveness to the repentant; all others are doomed to perish in the judgment shown by his 'manifestation' to be at hand (_cf._ 1st Cor. xv. 11; Rom. i. 3-5).

Galatians was written but slightly before (or after?) the letters to Thessalonica. Its single theme (after the retrospect) is the Adoption to Son ship through the Spirit. Against the Judaizer's plea that to share in the Inheritance one must be adopted (preferably by circumcision) into the family of Abraham, or at all events pay respect to the Mosaic Law, Paul asserts the single fact of the adoption of the Spirit. "It is because ye are sons that God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying (in the ecstatic utterances of 'tongues') Abba, that is, Father" (Gal. iv. 6). To go back to legal observances is to revert from redemption to bondage. All Christians are indeed sons of Abraham, but only as sharers of his trust in God. Abraham was made "heir of the world" (Rom. iv. 13) for his faith. Circumcision and the Law came afterwards. They were not superimposed stipulations and conditions of the promise. On the contrary they were temporary pedagogic measures intended to produce the consciousness of sin and (moral) death, so that when the Heir should come men should be ready to cast themselves on the mercy of God displayed in his vicarious death.[14] Thus the messianic Redemption is a redemption from a system issuing in sin and death. On the cross even the sinless Christ incurred the curse in order that believers thus redeemed might have the Blessing of the Abrahamic promise (Gal. iii. 1--iv. 7).

Footnote 14: Romans enlarges the conception of the economy of Law by making it include the Gentile law of 'conscience' (Rom. i. 18--ii. 16). In Galatians this point is covered only by classing the "angels" through whom the Mosaic Law was given, with the "Elements" honoured in Gentile religion. Both are codes of "stewards and governors."

But this transfer from bondage to liberty, from the legal to the filial relation, does not "make Christ a minister of sin." On the contrary, if the delivering Spirit of Son ship has been received at all, it controls the life for purity and love. One cannot be a son and be unfilial or unbrotherly. The unity of the redeemed world in Christ is the unity of loving service, not of subjection to a bygone system of rules (iv. 8--vi. 18). Thus does Galatians meet the insidious plea of the Judaizers, and their charges against Pauline liberty.

The church founded by Paul in Corinth (Acts xviii. 1-17) was grounded from the beginning in this doctrine of the Cross. Paul purposely restricted himself to it (1st Cor. i. 17-25; ii. 1-5). He had indeed a world-view, of which we learn more in the Epistles of the Captivity, a philosophy revealed by the Spirit as a "mystery of God." Those who afterwards in Corinth came to call themselves followers "of Apollos" had nothing to teach him on this score. But consideration of this Grecizing tendency, too often issuing in a mere "philosophy and vain deceit after the Elements of the world and not after Christ" (Col. ii. 8), must be deferred, in favour of questions which became more immediately pressing. For after Paul had left Corinth to make a brief visit via Ephesus to Cæsarea and Antioch, and had returned through the now pacified Galatian churches to make Ephesus his permanent headquarters (Acts xviii. 18-23), he received disturbing news of conditions in Corinth. Under Apollos (now at Ephesus with Paul) an Alexandrian convert thoroughly indoctrinated with Paul's gospel (Acts xviii. 24-28) the church had flourished, but discussions had subsequently arisen, resulting in a letter to Paul asking his advice on disputed points. Besides this there were moral blemishes. First the factious strife itself, of which Paul has learnt from newcomers from Corinth; secondly a case of unpunished incest. A previous letter from Paul (now lost, or but partially preserved in 2nd Cor. vi. 14--vii. 1) had required the church "to have no company with fornicators." The church, making the application general, had pleaded the impracticability of "going out of the world." Paul now explains: "If any man _that is named a brother_ be a fornicator ... with such a one no, not to eat." After further rebuke for litigiousness, and a lack of moral tone, especially in the matter of "fornication" (ch. vi.), Paul takes up seriatim "the things whereof ye wrote." We are chiefly interested in the long section (viii. 1--xi. 1) on "things offered to idols" wherein Paul instructs those who would be imitators of his freedom, but who forget that he has always refused to assert his rights when thereby the 'weak' were stumbled. Moreover fornication is never among the permissible things, nor even the eating of meats offered to idols _at the heathen banquet itself_. Such food is unobjectionable only when it has been sold in the market, and can be eaten without 'offence.'

The other questions related to church meetings for the "Lord's supper" and the exercise of "spiritual gifts." They give opportunity for the development of Paul's noble doctrine of unity through loving service (xi. 2--xiv. 40). The doctrinal section of 1st Corinthians concludes with a full statement of Paul's doctrine of the resurrection body (called forth by Greek objections to the Jewish). From the items of business at the close we learn that "the collection for the saints" has been under way some time already "in Galatia," and that Paul hopes, after passing through Macedonia, to join the delegation which is to carry the money to Jerusalem (xvi. 1-6).

As it turned out Paul actually followed the itinerary outlined in 1st Cor. xvi. 1-6, but not until after distressing experiences. Timothy, sent (by way of Macedonia, Acts xix. 22) as Paul's representative (iv. 17; xvi. 10 f.), was unable to restore order. The opposition to Paul's apostolic authority, treated almost contemptuously in ix. 1-14, grew to alarming proportions. Paul received so direct and personal an affront (either on a hasty visit undertaken in person from Ephesus, or in the person of Timothy) that he despatched a peremptory ultimatum, whose effect he is anxiously waiting to hear when 2nd Corinthians opens with Paul driven out from Ephesus, a refugee in Macedonia (_c._ 55). It is highly probable that the disconnected section appended between 2nd Cor.