Chapter 10

#His Third Missionary Journey# began at Antioch, and is recorded in Acts 18:23 to Acts 21:26. It included a stay of three months in Greece, and ended at Jerusalem, where he made a report of his Gentile ministry (Acts 21:15-26).

#His Voyage to Rome# began with arrest in Jerusalem (Acts 21:27-36). A plot to kill Paul failed (Acts 23:12-14). He was sent to Caesarea and appeared before the Roman rulers (Acts 24, 25, 26), remaining there over two years (Acts 24:27). He suffered shipwreck (Acts 27:1-44), but reached Rome at last (Acts 28:1-31).

#His Sufferings# are outlined in 2 Corinthians 11:25-28.

#TIME.#--About A. D. 2 to A. D. 63.

#PLACES.#--Tarsus, Jerusalem, Arabia, Damascus, Antioch, Cyprus, Perga, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Malta, Galatia, Troas, Corinth, Athens, Caesarea, Rome. (Details of Paul's journeys are given in the Appendix.)

#SIGNIFICANCE OF EVENTS.#--Paul bequeathed to his Christian posterity the record of a life unreservedly consecrated to service and a series of letters which set forth the philosophy of Christian belief in a manner that for simplicity and depth has never been surpassed.

Paul--Persecutor and Preacher

#159. His Birthplace.#--Saul was born in Tarsus in Cilicia, which was one of the university cities of that day. Unlike John the Baptist, therefore, Saul was a city-bred man, and this urban influence is seen in the illustrations of truth that he loves to use. They deal largely with city life. The influence, too, of a city is apparent in his mental make-up, for no one like Saul could be brought up in a university town without feeling the influence of his environment.

#160. His Age.#--Exactly when he was born is not known. But all seem to agree that it was about the same time as our Lord, so that when Jesus was playing in the streets of Nazareth, Saul may have been playing in the streets of Tarsus. His parents evidently intended that he should be a rabbi, but before he went to Jerusalem, there to continue his studies, they had him learn the trade of a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). This trade was most useful to him in later days (1 Cor. 4:12). In Jerusalem he was under the instruction of a noted teacher named Gamaliel, (Acts 5:34), and Saul names him as his teacher in Acts 22:3.

#161. He comes before us first# in the stoning of Stephen, where he cares for the garments of those who did the actual stoning of the first martyr. Then for a while he stands to the forefront in the bitter persecution of the new and hated sect of the Nazarene. For the fearful work that he did in Jerusalem read Acts 8:3, and Acts 9:1; for similar work done elsewhere also Acts 26:10, 11. How widely he was soon known as a ruthless persecutor we learn from Acts 9:13. On account of all this he was the most feared man in the world by all believers.

#162. His miraculous conversion# took place on the way to Damascus on an errand of persecution. Of this we have one narrative given by Luke, and two given by the Apostle himself. (Acts 9:1-22; Acts 22:3-13; Acts 26:9-18). From the moment of his conversion, Saul was a changed man. That which he hated before he now loved, and for the sake of his newly found Master he was willing to suffer all the persecutions that he himself had up to that time meted out to others. As a consequence of his preaching in Damascus he was obliged to flee, and he went at once to Arabia (Gal. 1:15-17), where many think that he spent three years in the vicinity of Mount Sinai, where Moses and Elijah had learned so much. It may be also that before he comes to the front in the story told by Luke, he was in Syria and Cilicia, as mentioned in Galatians 1:21.

#163. In connection with the revival in Antioch#, he is introduced by Barnabas, who went to Tarsus and got him to aid him in his work (Acts 11:25, 26). Here the Apostle remained for about one year, doing grand work for the church in that place. As we have seen in our lesson on the Acts, this was the church which organized the first missionary work, and sent Paul and Barnabas as their missionaries to other cities. Here begins #Paul's first missionary journey# (Acts 13:2). In all his work Paul aimed at cities, for he knew that there he could find men, and these were what he sought. This first journey took him to Cyprus, Perga, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and back through Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, to Attalia, and back to Antioch in Syria. Let the scholar read the story as told in Acts 13 and 14. In Lystra it was that he and Barnabas were first deified--thought to be gods,--and not long after nearly killed by the inhabitants of that city. In Malta later on he was first taken for a murderer, and then later on deified. Paul is the only man in all the Bible history who had such varied experiences.

#164. In his second missionary journey# he started once more from Antioch, and together with Silas made a tour of the cities touched in his first journey. Then they went into Galatia, and so on to Troas. Here it was that the vision of the man of Macedonia came to Paul, and the result was that they crossed over to Europe. In our last lesson we saw this army of four start on their journey across the Hellespont, they being destined to bring to Europe the gospel of the grace of God. For the narrative of this journey let the scholar look up carefully Acts 15:36 to 18:22. In this tour he remained for a year and a half at Corinth. The place where he found the least persecution was Athens, and there too he found the least real seriousness. The Athenians seem to have cared too little about religion to take the trouble to persecute.

#165. The third missionary journey begins in# Acts 18:23, and the chief episode of this journey is that which took place in Ephesus (Acts 19, 20). In this city Paul remained for two years (Acts 19:10). Here was kindled the most remarkable bonfire that the world had ever seen, it being made up of books of incantation, that the idolaters were now willing to consign to the flames.

#166. Paul's journey to Rome# really begins at Jerusalem, whither he had gone to take alms to his fellow-countrymen who were in distress. Here he was set upon and arrested, and then taken to Caesarea, where he appeared before Festus, Felix, and Agrippa. Here he was delayed for more than two years. Then he was sent to Rome on trial for his life. In this voyage the great shipwreck occurred. (For further details of this wonderful life, the scholar is referred to Dr. Stalker's Life of Paul, a most wonderful and brief setting forth of the main incidents of the life of the Apostle.)

#167.# In all this story of Paul's labors and sufferings there are great gaps. This is seen as soon as we compare his life, as given in the Acts, with one statement of his to the Corinthians, as given in 2 Corinthians 11:25-28. Put in parallel columns, so as to bring them out, the record is as follows:

#Paul's Story# #Luke's Story#

Five times whipped by Jews. Not one mentioned.

Thrice scourged by Romans. Only one mentioned.

Thrice shipwrecked. Not mentioned, for the shipwreck given in Acts was subsequent to those named.

A night and a day in the deep. Not mentioned.

#168. A Triumphant Life.#--Therefore, Paul was bound to the whipping-post _eight times_, and suffered shipwreck _four times_, while once he clung to wreckage for twenty-four hours before he could get to land. Yet in spite of all this he could exclaim, "Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10). And in spite of all that he suffered he could also cry out: "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content" (Phil. 4:11). It seems to us that if the Apostle had been asked, "Where did you learn this truly wonderful lesson?" he might have replied, "The whipping-post was my academy, and mobs with clenched fists and paving-stones were my professors. Fastings and perils in the deep were my college, and my midnight vigils were kept in the inner prison. Weariness and pain were my text-books, and kings and rulers my lecturers. Chained soldiers were my room-mates, a thorn in the flesh was my monitor, and Christ the crucified was Head-master."

#169.# All agree that at last Paul suffered martyrdom in Rome, by being beheaded. So ended the life of the most useful man of that day, and the great leader in work among the Gentiles.

Test Questions

Where was Saul born?

What distinguished Tarsus at that day?

What trade did Saul learn, and how was it useful to him in after-life?

When does he first come before us as a historical character?

What kind of a life did he live after the martyrdom of Stephen?

Give an account of his conversion.

Where did he go from Damascus at once on his conversion?

Give the outline of his first missionary journey.

What remarkable experience did he have at Lystra?

Give the tour of his second missionary journey.

What was the principal city in which he wrought on his third journey?

Give an account of his sufferings as given in his letter to the Corinthians compared with Luke's narrative.

Where did Paul suffer martyrdom, and in what way?

Test Questions for Review

Lessons 6 to 9

1. What were the charges in the ecclesiastical trial of Jesus?

2. What in the political trial?

3. Name the persons who were present at the crucifixion.

4. Give the six truths concerning the resurrection.

5. Mention in their order the various appearances of Jesus to his disciples.

6. What other appearances may be added to these?

7. Describe the Ascension.

8. What are the six pivotal events recorded in Acts?

9. What fact in Saul's conversion is of the utmost importance?

10. What victory did Paul and Silas gain in prison?

11. Give the outline of Paul's first missionary journey.

12. Of his second.

13. Where did Paul suffer martyrdom and how?

How the Bible Came to Us

BY IRA MAURICE PRICE, PH. D.

Professor of the Semitic Languages and Literatures in the University of Chicago.

#1.# The English Bible is the Bible of the English-speaking world. It is used in several editions or translations. The most prominent of these are the Authorized, or King James Version (of 1611), and the Revised Version (of 1881-5), and the American Standard Revision (of 1901). The recent revisions are supplied with marginal references and notes, both to parallel and to explanatory texts. In addition to these citations we find frequent references to the Heb(rew), Sept(uagint), Vulg(ate), and Syr(iac) readings. That is to say, the translators of the English Bible refer the reader to some variant reading in one of the great Bibles of the ancient world, for some valuable explanation of, or variant from, the reading found on the page of the Bible being read. In other words, we see by the margins of our English Bible, that there are many old Bibles in different languages which scholars must study if they give us the best that can be produced.

#2.# Every one who can read the Bible in English must recognize the fact that our Bible is only a translation from the language in which the books of both Testaments were originally written. The original language of the Old Testament is Hebrew with a few sections appearing in the Aramaic tongue; and the New Testament is Greek. Any translator who wishes to give us an English Bible that will be closest to the meaning intended by the original writers, must translate out of those two languages. If any of us has ever attempted to translate a language, he knows how difficult it is to transfer the exact thought of one tongue into another.

#3.# The Hebrew language of the Old Testament is full of picture-thoughts. It is simple in construction, and has a very small number of words in actual use. It was the language of the Hebrew peoples during the time of their national existence, but degenerated into Aramaic some time after their return from the exile. The tremendous expressive power of the language is seen in the great sermons of the prophets, especially Isaiah, and in the poetry of Job and the Psalms.

#4.# The founding and the growth of Alexandria under Greek influence led to an epoch in the history of the Bible. Facilities for trade and other reasons made this city attractive to the Jews. Greek, however, was the prevailing language of the community. Early in the third century B. C. the proportion of Greek-speaking Jews became so large that there was a call for their Scriptures in their adopted tongue. To supply this religious need of the Jews, the Hebrew Bible was translated (about 280-130 B. C.) into the Greek language. This Greek Bible contained all the books of the Hebrew Bible, and several other small books now called "the Apocrypha."

#5.# This Greek Bible, now called the Septuagint ("Seventy"), so named because it was thought to have been translated from the Hebrew by "seventy" men, became the Bible of the Old Testament for the Greek-speaking world. In the time of our Lord it was largely used by the New Testament writers. It was quoted by them, and especially by Paul, almost everywhere. It was the Bible of the early Christian church until the conquest of Rome and the Latin tongue required a translation into Latin. These early Latin translations of the Old Testament were all made from the Septuagint. There were also some scholars in the church who, not being satisfied with the translation of the Septuagint, made translations of their own. These were of some value to scholars, such as that most famous of all Biblical students, Origen (186-254 A. D.) who were trying to construct the best Greek text of the Bible.

#6.# The many and differing Latin translations that were current in the second, third, and fourth centuries led Jerome, a fully equipped and competent scholar, to translate the whole Bible from the original languages into good idiomatic Latin (384-405). His translation differed so much from those versions in general use that it was sharply and bitterly criticized by the less scholarly and more hostile enemies of progress. But the faithfulness of his translation to the original text commended it to the most thoughtful men of the Christian church, and before many centuries it became the Bible of the Latin-speaking and Latin-using world. That was the Bible adopted by the Council of Trent, April 8, 1546, as the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. With the exception of the Psalms, which is simply a revision of an old Latin Psalter, and the apocryphal books included in the collection, this is Jerome's translation, made 384-405, which was so drastically condemned when it first appeared.

#7.# In northern Syria there was a body of Christians who used the Syrian language. Somewhere in the second century they made, or had made for them, a translation of the Bible to aid them in their Christian growth. The translation from Hebrew Old Testament into Syriac was a translation from one sister tongue into another, and was thus quite freely rendered. If one should to-day translate from Dutch into German, he would feel free to vary from the literal if thereby he thought he could help bring out the meaning of the original language. This Syriac translation, while a beautiful piece of work, was most too freely done to be of much value to scholars who are to-day trying to find out what the text could have been from which it was made. There are none of the Latin Bible apocryphal books in the Syriac version.

#8.# These facts show us that the early Christian church in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and Europe used the Bible mainly in three versions, viz.: Septuagint Greek, Latin Vulgate, and the Syriac--all valuable, prominent texts. Of Greek texts there were several translations current among different branches of the early church.

#9.# When the peoples on the outskirts of civilization became Christianized they also were provided with the Scriptures, translated into their tongues from one of the three or four great versions of that day. Thus we have the Bible in Arabic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Gothic, Slavonic and a lot of other border languages.

#10.# The Bible was introduced into England very early in the Christian centuries, and it was one of the Latin versions current in the Western world. This was succeeded by the Vulgate Latin. Preachers and teachers were obliged to interpret this in the language of the native peoples. Some fragments of these interpretations, paraphrases, and translations remain to the present day, preserved in the Anglo-Saxon or early English tongue. In the fourteenth century, Wycliffe (1320-1384) gave us the first English Bible, translated, not from the original Hebrew and Greek, but from the Latin Vulgate,--a translation of a translation. This was received with slight favor by the churchmen of that day.

#11.# Not until the sixteenth century do we have an English Bible translated out of the original languages of the Bible. After great opposition and severe trial Tyndale succeeded in printing in Germany and distributing in England an English New Testament translated from the Greek. But his books were confiscated, and burned in London by the church officials. Remaining on the continent and prosecuting his translation of the Old Testament he was finally kidnapped, imprisoned, strangled, and burned at the stake October 6, 1536--all because he translated the Bible into English so that the common people could read it. Within one year after his martyrdom his translation was published under another name by royal authority, the authority of Henry VIII. For several years English Bibles flowed from the presses of England and the continent in several editions, most prominent of which were "Matthew's," Coverdale's, and the Great Bible. A revulsion against Protestantism cut off Cromwell's head and gave Bible-popularity a setback. Edward VI (1547-3) espoused the cause of the Protestants, while Mary Tudor (1553-8) burned at the stake many of the best men of the times, such as Ridley, Latimer, and John Rogers. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) Bible translation and publication, both Protestant and Catholic, made rapid progress. There were published the Geneva version (1560), the Bishops' Bible (1568), and the Rheims New Testament (Roman Catholic, 1582). Of all these the Geneva Bible became the most popular.

#12.# Early in the reign of James I (1603-25) a movement was set on foot to provide a new and better English translation of the Bible. Most of the eminent Biblical scholars of England set to work and produced in 1611 the Authorized Version of the Bible; it is a model of good English and a very faithful translation of the original texts known at that time.

#13.# Between 1611, the date of appearance of the Authorized Version, and 1870, the date of the beginning of a revision, a period of more than 250 years, scholars found a large number of very valuable manuscripts of the Bible, older and nearer the lost originals than any hitherto known. The English language, too, in that space of time, had changed in some important particulars. During this same period, several private attempts were made to give us a new and better translation than the Authorized Version. Several works were produced on the added new material of the new manuscripts now known to scholars. In fact, there was agitation toward a new translation on the grounds of the better Hebrew and Greek texts now at hand, of the more thorough and comprehensive scholarship available, and of the obsolete language of the Authorized Version.

#14.# In 1870 steps were taken toward revision, and before many years both a British and American Revision Committee, made up of many of the leading British and American Biblical scholars, were at work. After ten years of most conscientious and careful effort the Revised Version of the New Testament appeared in 1881, and four years later, in 1885, the Old Testament appeared--thus completing a translation on the basis of the best manuscripts now known to the scholarly world.

#15.# The American Revision Committee, not as conservative as the British in the retention of old terms, words and phrases, carefully revised the Revised Version and issued in 1901 The American Standard Revised Version--the best edition of the Bible in the English language.

Test Questions

1. What are the three most prominent of the editions of the Bible in English?

2. What are the two original languages of the Old Testament? The original language of the New Testament?

3. What is a special characteristic of the Hebrew language?

4. What is meant by the Septuagint?

5. Who was the great translator of the Bible into Latin? By what church was it officially adopted?

6. Into what language akin to Hebrew was the Bible translated, and through the agency of what people?

7. What versions were mainly in use in the early Christian church?

8. Who gave us the first English Bible, and when?

9. Who first translated the Bible into English from the original Bible languages?

10. Tell the story of Tyndale's version.

11. What other editions were prominent at about that time?

12. What gave Bible popularity a setback?

13. What Bibles were published during the reign of Queen Elizabeth?

14. In whose reign and by whom was the Authorized Version produced?

15. Why was a revision deemed necessary?

16. In what year did the Revised Version of the New Testament appear? The Old Testament revision?

17. What body of men prepared the Revision?

18. Who prepared the American Standard Revised Version, and in general how does it differ from the Revised Version?

The Gist of the Books

The Old Testament--The Pentateuch

#Genesis#

The book of beginnings--the creation; the fall of man; the beginnings of the chosen people.

#Exodus#

The story of the _going out_ of the chosen people from Egypt to Canaan, with an account of God's dealings with his people in guiding them into national life.

#Leviticus#

Laws and ceremonies of the tabernacle for the priestly tribe of Levi, as a guide in their service.

#Numbers#

The book of the numbering of the people on two occasions--(1) At Sinai, in the second year of the wanderings; (2) On the Jordan, in the fortieth year. Containing the story of the wanderings, from Sinai to the countries east of the Jordan.

#Deuteronomy#

The repetition of the Law, to the people who had been born in the wilderness, as applied to the coming life in Canaan; appointment of Joshua to succeed Moses; the account of the death of Moses.

Historical Books

#Joshua#

The story of the Conquest of Canaan; distribution of the land; locating tabernacle at Shiloh; and death of Joshua.

#Judges#

The story of Israel's political and religious decline after Joshua's death. "There was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes." A history of the Judges from death of Joshua.

#Ruth#

The link connecting the period of the Judges with the Monarchy, giving David's genealogy, and furnishing many instances of faith, and of the bringing of good out of evil.

#1 and 2 Samuel#

A continuation of the history of the Judges, telling of Eli and Samuel, and the story of Saul's anointing and reign, and the rise and reign of David.

#1 and 2 Kings#

The history of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah from the death of David to the captivity. The story of the conflict between Jehovah and Baal. The life-stories of Elijah and Elisha.

#1 and 2 Chronicles#

Giving matter supplementary to the preceding books; the temple ritual under David and Solomon; restoration of church and nation after captivity.

#Ezra#