Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

may proceed to contention: for such is the situation of Paul and Barnabas, each of them pleading with earnestness for the excellence of his own plan and for the weakness or impropriety of that which is recommended by his friend; yet their difference is accompanied with no hatred or ill will; it produces no disgust with the work in which they are engaged. They separate with mutual esteem; they continue to devote themselves to the same benevolent employment of instructing mankind, although in different ways, and prosecute their work with the same zeal. This controversy reveals no secret which betrays the bad conduct or evil designs of one of the parties, as contentions among the wicked have uniformly done; no plot for imposing upon the credulity of mankind, no scheme of private interest or ambition, pursued under colour of zeal for the public welfare. Such has been the usual effect of contentions and separations amongst others, which have proved fatal to the undertaking in which they were engaged; but as nothing of this kind occurs here, it is a proof that nothing of a private or secret nature entered into the views of Paul and Barnabas. Thus it is that we gain evidence for the truth of the gospel history from the concurring testimony of the first teachers, and especially from their holding the same language under every other variety of opinion.

2. We see what advantage Christianity derives from the separation of those things from it which do not belong to the system. To have imposed the law of Moses upon all converts, would have been gratifying to the Jews, but would have given disgust to the Gentiles, and proved a great obstacle to the success of the gospel: to have retained it, would have been a constant source of contention and dispute, of rancour and hatred. By rejecting it the apostles preserved the good will of those who were already converted, and prepared the way for the conversion of many more. The churches were established in the faith, and increased in number daily.

The like benefit would arise to the gospel of Christ by our separating from it many other doctrines and rites, which have been added to it by the folly or wickedness of mankind. By such errors and additions inquisitive and thoughtful minds are disgusted, and many are induced to reject Christianity altogether, or prevented from embracing it; and while they are retained we must expect that unbelievers will increase and abound.

Let all those, therefore, who wish well to Christ ianity exert all their influence to purify it from every foreign admixture, from every thing which is not essential to its nature. For this purpose let them make an undisguised profession of the truth themselves, and aid every scheme for communicating it to others. In doing this they may awaken the fears of some, who may be apprehensive that by such proceedings they are taking from Christianity every thing that rendered it interesting, or even undermining its foundations; but let them not be deterred by such fears. They are, in fact, restoring it to its native dignity, and placing it on a firmer foundation than before; they will by this means secure the wavering attachment of its friends, and invite many to return who had deserted its standard.

Acts xvi. 6-18.

We have here a further account of Paul s progress in preaching the gospel in the Lesser Asia; of his passing thence by divine direction to Philippi in Macedonia, and of his success there in converting Lydia, and in curing a person who was supposed to be possessed of a spirit of divination.

6. Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the

Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia, i. e. in Asia Proper or Proconsular Asia.

7. After they were come to Mysia they assayed "they attempted," to go. into Bithynia; but the spirit of Jesus * suffered them not.

8. And they, passing by, rather, "passing through," Mysia, came down to Troas.

The reason of this prohibition was that they might meet with no interruption in their progress towards Europe, to which they seem to be miraculously called, and in which the inhabitants were better prepared to receive the gospel. That the restrictions were only temporary we learn from the eighteenth chapter of this history, where we find Paul preaching at the city of Ephesus, which lay in this part of Asia, but especially from the nineteenth, in which we are informed that he spent two years at Ephesus, "so that," it is added, all they of Asia heard the word."

In the seventh verse the best manuscripts read the spirit of Jesus, instead of the spirit, as it is in our translation, and that is probably the original reading. The miraculous influence which accompanied the gospel might with propriety be denominated the spirit of Jesus, because it came from him, and was intended for the establishment of his cause in the world.

9. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us.

* Griesbach.

10. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.

It appears from this verse that the writer of this history was the companion of Paul on this journey; for he says, "we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us.' This circumstance gives peculiar authenticity to his narrative.

we

to

11. Therefore, loosing from Troas, came with a straight course Samothrace, an island in the narrow part of the Archipelago, and the next day to Neapolis, a town on the continent of Europe.

12. And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.

The Roman historian Livy calls Amphipolis the chief city of this part of Macedonia, and therefore seems to contradict the assertion of Luke: but both. accounts may be true; for although Amphipolis merited this distinction when Livy wrote, yet in the time of Luke, above one hundred years after, the condition of the two places might be much changed*, so as to justify the precedence which is here given to Philippit.

Pearce, Doddridge and Benson are for altering the text.

By using a Latin rather than a Greek word for Philippi, Luke plainly shows that it was a Roman colony, which will serve to

13. And on the sabbath-day we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted there.

Many persons have supposed that the word which we render "prayer" should be understood rather of the place than of the act of prayer. It is certain that the Jews had such places of worship, without the gates of the cities, where they resided in foreign countries, either because they were too poor or too few to provide a synagogue, or because they were not allowed to observe their form of worship within the gates; and that these oratories or places of prayer were often situated near the sea or a river, for the sake of those purifications which the Jews practised *.

14.

And a certain woman, named Lydia, so called from the country in which she lived, which was a province of the Lesser Asia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, (a city of Lydia,) which worshipped God, heard whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

us,

This woman, who appears to have been a person of property, from her selling purple, the most expensive kind of cloth used by the ancients, and from her receiving the apostle and his companions at her house, was a proselyte to the Jewish religion, which is intim

explain what the Philippians afterwards say of themselves in the twenty-first verse, that they were Romans, that is, enjoyed the privileges of Roman citizens.

Lardner, Vol. i. p. 110.

« ZurückWeiter »