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EPISTLE OF PAUL
to the
ROMANS
by
J. P. LANGE, D.D., and the Rev. F. R. FAY
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
by
J. F. HURST, D.D.
WITH ADDITIONS
by
P. SCHAFF, D.D., and the Rev. M. B. RIDDLE
VOL. V. OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: CONTAINING THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION
But it is certainly also the most difficult book of the New Testament, unless we except the Gospel of John and the Revelation. Meyer, the ablest philological exegete of the age, humbly confesses, in the preface to the fourth edition of his commentary, to a growing sense of our inability to do justice to “the grandest, the boldest, and, in all its depths and heights, the most complete composition of the greatest apostle.” If St. Peter did not hesitate to state that there are “some things hard to be understood” in the Epistles of his “beloved brother Paul,” we need not be surprised that even such divines as occupy the same general platform widely differ in their interpretations. The Epistle to the Romans, more than any other, is a battle-field; and every chapter, especially the third, the fifth, the seventh, and the ninth, is contested ground. Not a few commentators deal with it as Procrustes dealt with his victims, in adapting them to the length of his iron bedstead—either stretching out or cutting off their legs. But after all, vast progress has been made, especially within the last fifty years, toward an impartial and thorough understanding of this wonderful production of a wonderful man.
Among the many noble contributions of German learning and industry to this end, Dr. Lange’s Commentary—which is here presented, with many additions, in an English dress—will occupy an honorable and useful position. It appeared first in 1865, and in a second edition in 1868, in a small but closely-printed volume of 289 pages, as part of his Bibelwerk. It is evidently the result of much earnest labor and profound research, and presents many new and striking views. These, however, are not always expressed with that clearness demanded by the practical common sense of the English reader; hence the difficult labor of translation has been occasionally supplemented by the delicate task of explanation.
Dr. Lange prepared the Exegetical and Doctrinal parts, the Rev. F. R. Fay, his son-in-law, and pastor at Crefeld, Prussia, the Homiletical sections.
The English edition is the result of the combined labor of the Rev. Dr. Hurst, the Rev. M. B. Riddle, and the General Editor. Dr. Hurst is responsible for the translation (which was an unusually difficult task), and for the valuable Homiletical selections from the best English sources. The General Editor and the Rev. M. B. Riddle, besides carefully comparing the translation with the original, prepared the text, with the Critical notes, and the additions to the Exegetical and Doctrinal sections. The initials indicate the authorship of the various additions in brackets, which increase the volume of the German edition nearly one half. Upon no other book, except Matthew and Genesis, has so much original labor been bestowed.
I am responsible for the General and Special Introduction, and the first six chapters (exclusive of the last few verses of Romans 6), which cover about one half of the volume. I examined nearly all the authorities quoted by Dr. Lange, from Chrysostom down to the latest editions of Tholuck and Meyer, and also the principal English commentators, as Stuart, Hodge, Alford, Wordsworth, Jowett, Forbes, &c., who are sublimely ignored by continental commentators, as if exegesis had never crossed the English Channel, much less the Atlantic Ocean. The length of some of my annotations (e.g., on Romans 1, 3, , 5) may be justified by the defects of the original, and the great importance of the topics for the English and American mind.
I had a strong desire to complete the work, and to incorporate the parts of a German Commentary on Romans which I prepared years ago in connection with my lectures as professor of theology, as well as the results of more recent studies. But a multiplicity of engagements, and a due regard for my health, compelled me to intrust the remaining chapters, together with my whole apparatus, including my notes in manuscript and a printed essay on the ninth chapter, to my friend, the Rev. M. B. Riddle. As an excellent German and Biblical scholar, and as editor of the Commentaries on Galatians and Colossians in the Biblework, Mr. Riddle has all the qualifications and experience, as well as that rare and noble enthusiasm which is indispensable for the successful completion of such a difficult and responsible task.
It is hoped that, by this combination of talent and labor, the Commentary on Romans has gained in variety, richness, and adaptation to the use of English students.
PHILIP SCHAFF.
No. 5 Bible House, New York, April 20, 1869.to the
ROMANS
INTRODUCTION
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATION
§ 1. THE PAULINE PORTION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
As far as the Pauline portion of the New Testament is concerned, it constitutes not only the greatest part of the apostolic epistles, but also a large share of the entire New Testament; especially when we include both the writings of Luke and the Epistle to the Hebrews, which were evidently written under the influence of the Apostle of the Gentiles.
An eternal triumph of Christianity, an imperishable sign and pledge of its world-conquering power, lies in the fact that the greatest part of the Christian Church, the greatest portion of the New Testament, and the most powerful expression of Christian doctrine, proceeded from a man who, endowed with a lofty genius and a heroic energy of will, had cast all the enthusiasm of his youth into a fanatical hatred of Christianity, and who had made it the great object of his life to exterminate that religion from the face of the earth. With the conversion of Paul, the noblest prince of Pharisæism was changed from an arch-enemy of Christ, into his most active apostle and witness. This was a prelude to the world-historical change by which the eagle of the heathen power of Rome was converted from the work of a vulture that vexed the fold of Christ, into the service of a dove of peace for the nations of the earth. Saul became Paul. In this one word all the past triumphs of Christianity over its foes are embraced, and all its future triumphs are described in advance. To bend or to break—that is the question; to bend, like Paul, or to break, like Julian the Apostate. The cause of this wonderful power of conversion and of judgment lies in the universal triumph of Christ, against whom a Paul was not too great an enemy, nor a Julian too crafty a politician and emperor.
Concerning the signification of Paul in the New Testament, Calmet thus speaks in the introduction to his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans: “Post sacrosancta evangelia venerabile maxime ac ceterorum omnium pretiosissimum monumentum Pauli epistolœ habendœ sunt. Omnia in illis continentur, quœ formandis moribus, sive ad mysteria et religionem constituendam a Jesu Christo tradita sunt. Tamquam supplementum et interpretatio eorum, quœ Jesus Christus docuit, ac veluti alterum evangelium Jesu Christi e mortuis redivivi jure meritoque reputantur.” [H. Ewald, the great orientalist, commences his Commentary on the Pauline Epistles (Göttingen, 1857), with the following striking and truthful eulogy: “Considering these Epistles for themselves only, and apart from the general significance of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, we must still admit that, in the whole history of all centuries and of all nations, there is no other set of writings of similar extent, which, as creations of the fugitive moment, have proceeded from such severe troubles of the age, and such profound pains and sufferings of the author himself, and yet contain such an amount of healthfulness, serenity, and vigor of immortal genius, and touch with such clearness and certainty on the very highest truths of human aspiration and action. … The smallest as well as the greatest of these Epistles seem to have proceeded from the fleeting moments of this earthly life only to enchain all eternity; they were born of anxiety and bitterness of human strife, to set forth in brighter lustre and with higher certainty their superhuman grace and beauty. The divine assurance and firmness of the old prophets of Israel, the all-transcending glory and immediate spiritual presence of the Eternal King and Lord, who had just ascended to heaven, and all the art and culture of a ripe and wonderfully excited age, seem to have joined, as it were, in bringing forth the new creation of these Epistles of the times which were destined to last for all times.” Upon the whole, St. Paul is, perhaps, the most remarkable man, and his Epistles, next to the Gospels, the most important literary production of all ages. Dr. Wordsworth strongly recommends the reading of the Pauline Epistles in their chronological order, so as to accompany the Apostle, with the help of the Acts, in his missionary career from the call at Damascus to the martyrdom in Rome, and his development of Christian doctrine from the elementary truths of the Thessalonians to the farewell instructions of the Pastoral Letters. The reader will thus trace with growing delight this spiritual river of Paradise from its fountain-head, through Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece, to Rome, diffusing purity and health, flowing onward in a majestic and ever-widening flood, fertilizing the banks, that they may bear the flowers and trees of Christian graces, and terminating at last in the ocean of eternity.—P. S.]
§
Saul had already taken the lead in Jerusalem in the work of incarcerating the Christians; but the apparent result of his efforts, which was only the wider promulgation of the gospel by means of the scattering of the congregation (Act_8:4), exasperated him still more. Therefore he solicited those fatal letters of authority which directed him toward Damascus. A proof of the confidence reposed in the fiery zeal of the young Pharisaic student may be seen in the fact that the Council not only gave him full authority, but also an obedient escort. The enterprising youth designed to destroy the whole Christian flock in Damascus, and to drag back to Jerusalem even women, and all who were at his mercy.
But the Divine visitation came upon him when near Damascus. Saul, by a sudden miracle, became a Paul, as we are accustomed to say; the greatest and most dangerous of all the persecutors of the Christians (for he persecuted the Church in its infancy), was transformed into the greatest promulgator of Christianity in the world.
Paul was a descendant of the tribe of Benjamin, and a native of Tarsus, the polished and venerable capital of Cilicia, situated on the river Cydnus, the home of the great naturalist, Dioscorides, and of other distinguished men, and the burial place of Emperor Julian the Apostate. Jerome (De viris illustrib. cap. v.) mentions the report that Paul had emigrated with his parents from Gishala, but he afterwards declares, in his commentary on Philemon, that it is a fable. As the stock of Levi became gloriously resplendent in John the Baptist, so, under the new dispensation, did Benjamin, the son of Rachel, receive higher honor than any other tribe save Judah, which had previously risen to the greatest glory. And the same mighty energy which the blessing of Jacob ascribed to the character of Benjamin (Gen_49:27), and which was confirmed by later events (Jdg_20:21), found its perfect expression in Paul. He was first a ravenous wolf in the midst of the flock that ate his prey in the morning; but in the evening he combined the strength of the wolf and the mildness of the lamb; and though he sprang like a wolf into the metropolitan cities of heathendom, his purpose was to “divide his spoil in the evening.” His parents appear to have been in good circumstances. They were “Roman” citizens, though not as inhabitants of the city of Tarsus (for that city had not then obtained its freedom), but by special conditions with which we are not acquainted. Notwithstanding their high social standing, they strictly adhered to the Jewish faith, and designed their son to be a Pharisaic Rabbi. According to Jewish custom he had learned a trade; he was a tent-maker (that is, a weaver of a kind of cloth which was applied to tent-making; óêçíïðïéüò , Act_18:3). The great talents of Saul could be early developed in the schools of cultivated Tarsus, if we may suppose that the rigid Pharisaic sentiment of his parents (which, however, was often mollified in heathen cities far away from Palestine) permitted him to visit those schools. From Paul’s philosophic analysis of heathendom (Rom_1:2.), from his discourse at Athens (Acts 17), and from other similar expressions, we may very readily infer that his acquaintance with sentences of heathen philosophers and poets (Act_17:28; Tit_1:12 sq.), is not attributable to mere popular intercourse, but to reading and study. When in Jerusalem, he became familiarly acquainted with the Old Testament, rabbinical traditions and dialectics, and probably also with the doctrines of the Jewish Alexandrian school. It is probable that he found there some family connections; at least, he was subsequently supported very earnestly by a nephew (Act_23:16). As King Saul of old is said to have gone forth to seek she-asses, but found a crown, so with the Apostle; but he took better care of his crown.
The conversion of Saul is one of the greatest miracles of the exalted Saviour—one of the greatest miracles of conversion in the kingdom of grace. The fact especially that the most earnest zealot for Pharisaic legalism become, by Divine appointment, the chief apostle of a free gospel and faith, and the most successful destroyer of Pharisæism in Judaism, and in the Christian Church through all ages, is without a parallel in history. True, some of the greatest opponents of Jesuitism have come out of Jesuit schools. Luther, the former monk, was the strongest antagonist of monastic righteousness; and Luther, the Augustinian, the strongest antagonist of intolerance, which St. Augustine unfortunately first established in theory in opposition to the Donatists; but not one of these contrasts reaches that miraculous transformation in which the glorified Christ, as with an ironical smile, changed the most formidable power of the enemy into His most victorious agency for conquest.
And yet this miracle, too, was conditioned by justice and truth. We must not ignore for the miraculous manifestation of Christ all connecting points of preparation in the unconscious spiritual life of Saul (as Baumgarten has again done). This would be as partial and untenable as the opposite extreme of rationalistic writers, who vainly attempt to explain his conversion by psychological antecedents and extraordinary natural phenomena (see Winer, Real-Wörterbuch, art. Paulus). The history declares positively that the glorified Christ appeared to him; and we cannot interpret it in any other light. But Paul’s own accounts show that the objective manifestation of Christ was mediated by a visionary or ecstatic elevation of Saul himself (Act_9:7; Act_22:9).
[The rationalistic interpretation, after having exploded in Germany, has been ingeniously renewed in France by E. Renan, Les Apótres, Paris, 1866, p. 181. There is a third view on the conversion of Paul, not mentioned by Dr. Lange—the mythical—which resolves the event into a purely subjective process in Paul’s own mind, and explains the supernatural light to be simply the symbolical expression of the certainty of the real spiritual presence of Christ in the Church and the believer. This view was ably defended by the late Dr. Baur, of Tübingen, in his work on Paul, 1847, p. 68. But after a renewed investigation of the subject, the celebrated historian arrived at the conclusion that the conversion of Paul was an enigma, which cannot be satisfactorily solved by any psychological or dialectical analysis. See the second and revised edition of his work on Christianity and the Christian Church in the first three centuries, which appeared shortly before his death, a. 1860, p. 45, and the second edition of his Paul, edited by Zeller, 1867. The character and apostolic life of Paul, and the very origin and continued existence of the Christian Church, is an inexplicable mystery without the miracle of the actual resurrection of our Saviour.—P. S.]
Observations.—1. On the splendor of the city of Tarsus in culture and institutions of learning, see Winer, article Tarsus. Also the particulars concerning Gamaliel, by the same author [and in Kitto’s and W. Smith’s Bible Dictionaries].
2. On the life of Paul in general, compare the article Paul in the various Bible dictionaries; the relevant chapters in Neander, Schaff , Thiersch, and Lange, on the Apostolic Age; the work, Die Biographien der Bibel, Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1838; and Reuss, Die Gesch. der heil. Schriften Neuen Testaments [4th ed., 1864], p. 45 ff., where a comprehensive catalogue of literature may be found. For particular references, see below.
3. The literary education of the Apostle has been much discussed. Comp. Niemeyer, Charakteristik der Bibel; Thalemann’s treatise, De eruditione Pauli Judaica non Grœca (and Winer, Real-Wörterbuch, ii. 213). The parents of Paul may have been prevented, by their religious prejudices, from sending their son to the brilliant Grecian schools in Tarsus; but it does not therefore follow that the vigorous mind of the youthful Paul did not become acquainted privately with the principles of Grecian learning. Possibly his parents may have sent him to Jerusalem for the very reason that they discovered in him a dangerous susceptibility for the charms of Grecian literature.—“Paul received a learned Jewish education in the school of the Pharisæan Rabbi, Gamaliel, not remaining an entire stranger to Greek literature, as his style, his dialectic method, his allusions to heathen religion and philosophy, and his occasional quotations from heathen poets show. Thus, a ‘Hebrew of the Hebrews,’ yet at the same time a native Hellenist and a Roman citizen, he combined in himself, so to speak, the three great nationalists of the ancient world, and was endowed with all the natural qualifications for a universal apostleship. He could argue with the Pharisees as a son of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, as a disciple of the renowned Gamaliel, surnamed ‘the Glory of the Law,’ and as one of the straitest of their sect. He could address the Greeks in their own beautiful tongue, and with the force of their strong logic. Clothed with the dignity and majesty of the Roman people, he could travel safely over the whole empire with the watchword: ‘Civis Romanus sum.’ ” From Ph. Schaff, History of Ancient Christianity, vol. i. p. 68. Comp. also Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, revised edition, first section of the Introduction: “His (Paul’s) natural character was ardent, energetic, uncompromising, and severe. How his extravagance and violence were subdued by the grace of God, is abundantly evident from the moderation, mildness, tenderness, and conciliation manifested in all his epistles. Absorbed in the one object of glorifying Christ, he was ready to submit to any thing, and to yield any thing necessary for this purpose. He no longer insisted that others should think and act just as he did. So that they obeyed Christ, he was satisfied; and he willingly conformed to their prejudices, and tolerated their errors, so far as the cause of truth and righteousness allowed. By his early education, by his miraculous conversion and inspiration, by his natural disposition, and by the abundant grace of God, was this Apostle fitted for his work, and sustained under his multiplied and arduous labors.”—P. S.]
4. On the chronology of the Apostle’s life, see Winer, Real-Wörterbuch, ii. p. 217; Wieseler, Chronology of the Apostolic Age [Göttingen, 1848; also the Chronological Chart in the American edition of Lange’s Commentary on Acts, and Alford’s Commentary on Acts , 5 th ed., 1865, [pp. 22–27.—P. S.] On the various suppositions concerning the time of Paul’s conversion, Winer, ii. p. 219.
5. On the conversion of the Apostle in particular, see the Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Romans 9 [p. 161, Am. ed.] The objectivity of the appearance of Christ is there justly maintained. But we should, in addition to it, make proper account of the element of a vision as the medium of the appearance of Christ. Here belongs also the treatise of C. P. Hofstede de Groot, Pauli conversio, prœcipuus theologiœ Paulinœ fons, Groningen, 1855. (“Itaque inveni principia gravissima tria, e quibus tota Pauli theologia est orta; primum mentis, Jesu vitam novam semper cogitantis, alterum animi, gratiam divinam constanter experti et sentientis, tertium vitœ, Christi ecclesiam perpetuo spectantis.”) Also the essay of Paret, The Testimony of the Apostle Paul concerning the Appearance of Christ, in the Jahrbücher für deutsche Theol., vol. iv., pt. 2. For a full list of literature, see Reuss, l. c., p. 51, and Winer, ii. p. 214.
Barnabas sent for him to come from Cilicia to Antioch, to coöperate with him in that newly-arisen metropolis of Gentile Christianity (Act_11:25). Paul entered into the most intimate relations with the congregation of Gentile Christians living there, and the destination that he had received at his call to become the Apostle to the Gentiles (Act_9:15), now approached its fulfilment. But it was in accordance with the apostolic spirit that the Gentile Church should remain in perfect unity with the Jewish-Christian Church. This tendency toward unity was strengthened by the first mission of Paul to Jerusalem, in company with Barnabas (Act_11:30). We may therefore consider this mission as the introduction to the apostolic labors of the Apostle; and since it also constitutes one of the strongest chronological links in his career, we will now speak of the chronological relations of his life.
We pass over, as unreliable points of connection, the government of Damascus by the Arabian king Aretas (Acts 9; 2Co_11:32), and the meeting of Paul with Aquila in Corinth, in consequence of the banishment of the latter from Rome by an edict of the Emperor Claudius (see Wieseler, Chronologie des Apostolischen Zeitalters, p. 167, and p. 125). The safest date at the beginning of the apostolic career of Paul is the year of the death of Herod Agrippa, a. d. 44 (Joseph., De bello Jud. ii. 11, 6); and the safest one at the end of the same is the recall of the procurator Felix from Judea in the year 60. The execution of James the Elder took place shortly before the death of Herod Agrippa (Act_12:2). About the same time, Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem as bearers of the collection taken at Antioch. If, according to the usual method, we reckon backward from this date, the year 44 (one year spent in Antioch, about one year in Jerusalem and Tarsus, three years in Arabia and Damascus), the conversion of Paul occurred about the year 39. Then, reckoning forward, let us fix the time of the Apostolic Council, under the supposition (which has been vainly contested) that the journey described in Acts 15 is identical with that of Galatians 2 (see my Gesch. des Apost. Zeitalters, i. 99), and that the fourteen years which Paul reckons as occurring previous to this journey are to be numbered from his conversion. This being the case, the Apostolic Council occurred about the year 53. The first missionary tour of the Apostle therefore took place between the years 44 or 45 and 52 or 53. The second and third were made between the years 53 and 59–60.
In reference to the more particular dates, compare the already mentioned work of Wieseler (whose parallel of Paul’s journey mentioned in Act_18:22, with that in Galatians 2, does not seem to be warranted); the article Paul in Winer; G. W. Agardh, Von der Zeitrechnung der Lebensgeschichte des Apostels Paulus, etc., Stockholm, 1847. On the time of the ecstasy narrated in 2Co_12:7, compare my Apost. Zeitalter, ii. p. 8.
In regard to the credibility of the account of the Acts on the apostolic life of Paul, Schneckenburger maintained the hypothesis, that the author of that book converted the life of Paul from real historical materials into a parallel to the life of Peter. Baur has outdone this hypothesis, and endeavored to carry out the hypercritical notion that the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles is an unhistorical production, written for the purpose of bringing about a compromise between Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity. On this vain attempt to convert the history of the Acts into a myth, or rather a conscious fiction, compare Lechler, The Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Age, p. 6 ff.
There was no doubt a gradual approach of the two sections of apostolic Christianity, in harmony with the first fundamental principle of the Word made flesh and the working of the spirit of the apostolic history. Conscious of the essential unity of faith and hope, the Gentile Church moved towards the Jewish Church, as the Jewish Church sought and found the Gentile Church. It is from this point of view that we must study Paul’s journeys to Jerusalem as they alternated with his missionary tours. Every new missionary journey to the heathen world was followed by a renewal of the bond of union with the parent society in Jerusalem; and the more deeply the Apostle penetrated the heathen world, and the more fully he kept the Gentile Church free from Jewish ordinances, the more decidedly did he afterward show, by his own conduct in Jerusalem, his respect for Jewish customs. Only those who are unable, like Paul, to distinguish between dogmatic and ethical rules, can find a contradiction in this fact, and especially in the diversity of requirements between Gal_2:16 and Act_15:20.
The farthest limit of the first missionary tour of the Apostle was Derbe, in Lycaonia, Asia Minor. The appointment of Barnabas and Saul in Antioch by the direction of the Holy Spirit, their ordination by the united act of the congregation and its leaders, the voyage to Cyprus, the triumph of Paul over the false prophet Bar-jesus, his change of name, the journey to Pamphylia, and the return of Mark, the apostolic attendant, the missionary address of the Apostle in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia, the persecutions on the part of the Jews in Antioch and Iconia, Paul’s miracle at Lystra, and his success in Derbe: these are the prominent points of the first missionary tour. We must observe especially, 1, That the apostolic men at that time, as well as later, always directed their first attention to the Jews, and consequently entered the synagogue, although at Antioch, in Pisidia, an important crisis occurred in their zeal for Gentile missions (Act_13:46); 2. that Paul, the younger messenger, appears more and more decidedly in the foreground; 3. that on their return the societies of converts were organized into fixed congregations, especially by the appointment of elders (Act_14:23); 4. that the free spirit with which Paul carried on the missionary work among the Gentiles produced, in all probability, that reaction of the more rigid Jewish Christians which led to the first Apostolic Council, and Paul’s journey to Jerusalem in connection there-with; 5. that the enmity of the Jews against the preaching of the two men, especially of Paul, became more intense from his expulsion (in Antioch) to the attempt to stone him (in Iconium), and to his real stoning (in Lystra).
On the change of Paul’s name, various views have been advanced (see Winer, article Paul; Schaff, History of the Apost. Church, p. 226; comp. Com. on Rom_1:1). We are of the opinion that Saul, as a Roman citizen, was already in possession of a Roman name, but that, while at Cyprus, he was induced, not only by the friendship of Sergius Paulus, but especially by his antagonism to the false prophet who called himself Elymas the Sorcerer, the mighty magician, to term himself, as that man’s conqueror in the name of the Lord, Paul the small man (so far as David’s victory over Goliath had repeated itself here in a New Testament character); and particularly, also, because the Apostle, being now about to enter into active intercourse with the Grecian and Roman world, could travel more conveniently under a Roman name.
The second missionary journey passes over Asia Minor to Europe, and finds its farthest limit in Corinth. It is specially characterized by the following events: (1) The separation of Paul and Barnabas on account of Mark, and the beginning of a separate and independent mission of Paul, in which he was followed at first by Silas, and later by Timothy and Luke; (2) the tour of visitation into the earlier missionary field (Cyprus being passed over, and left to the care of Barnabas), which was changed into a new mission of colossal proportions; (3) the harmonization of the body of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians by means of the ethical principles established by the Church in Jerusalem (Act_16:4); (4) the new stations: Cilicia (before the repeated visit of the elder stations), then Phrygia, Galatia, Troas; after this in Europe: Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth; also the persecutions, which varied in strength in proportion to the greater or less results of the preaching of the gospel; (5) the miraculous aid and manifestation of the Spirit, which led Paul to Europe (Act_16:6-7; Act_16:9); (6) the contrast between the ministrations of the Apostle in Athens and in Corinth; but we err if we suppose that Paul corrected his learned discourse in Athens by his exclusive preaching of the Cross in Corinth; (7) the meeting of Paul with Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth, which so greatly affected his subsequent mission; (8) the longer stay of the Apostle in Corinth, and the importunities of the Jews against him in the presence of the deputy, Gallio; (9) the new journey of the Apostle to Jerusalem for the accomplishment of a vow, during which he touches at Ephesus, and there makes preparation for his mission by leaving behind Aquila and Priscilla.
The third missionary tour is so far an enlargement of the second, as that Paul at this time makes Ephesus, in Asia Minor, his great object, which city he had been compelled to pass by in his journey, and which he could only touch at on his return. Apollos was his pioneer here, and the silversmith Demetrius became his principal opponent. His victory was, on the one hand, a triumph over the nocturnal magic of this city dedicated to Diana, the goddess of the Moon; and, on the other, over idolatry. This journey, which was at first supplementary in its design, assumed the character of a visitation; for Paul departed from Ephesus, and again visited the congregations in Macedonia and Greece. The supposition of a third missionary visit to the Corinthian church between the second and third missionary tours has been shown, in a variety of ways, to rest upon a misunderstanding (see my Apost. Age, i. p. 199). The third missionary journey is characterized by the more decided prominence of the missionary calculation and self-determination of the Apostle (see 1Co_16:5; 2Co_1:15); by his miraculous works, especially in Ephesus and Troas (Act_18:11; Act_20:10); by the establishment of a metropolis of the church of Asia Minor, which was destined to become the home of John, and the maternal city of Christian speculation; by the founding of a larger association and Pauline school; and finally, by the decided premonition of his captivity which the Apostle felt, as he drew his missionary journey to a close, and entered upon his pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
The performance of a Nazarite vow in Jerusalem (a step counselled by James) grew, from a measure of accommodation to the narrow views of the Jewish Christians, into an offence on the part of the Jews. It led to the persecution of the Apostle in Jerusalem, his abduction and imprisonment in Cæsarea, his appeal to the judgment-seat of Cæsar, and his transportation to Rome (in the year 62; according to Auger and Winer, in the spring of 61). From this captivity he was released (in the year 64), not only according to the testimony of tradition (Euseb., ii. Rom 22: ëüãïò ἔ÷åé , Cyrill. Hieros., Hieronymus, etc.; see Winer), but also according to certain hints of the Scriptures, yet only, after a new journey for missions and visitation, to fall into a second imprisonment, and to suffer martyrdom under Nero.
Observations.—1. For a statement of relevant literature, see Reuss, 1. c., p. 54, 55, 56 sqq. [Smith, Dict. of the B., art. Paul, at the close, vol. iii. 763).
2. Ananias at Damascus, a predecessor of Barnabas for the introduction of Paul into the Church of Christ, as Stephen had been a predecessor of Paul himself.
3. Paul’s three years of instruction in the quiet solitude of Arabia, a counterpart and parallel to the three years of instruction spent by the twelve apostles in intercourse with the Lord. The latter was an external and historical communion; that of Paul was undoubtedly of a mysterious and internal character, and kindred to the great mysterious fact of his conversion. See my Apost. Age, ii. p. 123. [Schaff, H. of the Ap. Ch. p. 236; and Com. on Gal_1:17.]
4. The development of the Apostle’s consciousness of his specific call to the Gentiles was gradual, and commensurate with the gradual definiteness of his call to the apostolic office in general. This may be seen from Act_9:15; Act_9:29; comp. Act_22:21; Act_13:46; Act_19:9; Act_28:17 sqq.; Galatians 2. But this call to the Gentiles did not exclude a purpose to convert the Jews; for not only must he first seek in the synagogues those heathen who were susceptible hearers of his message, especially the proselytes of the gate (Act_13:48), but Paul also recognized the conversion of the Gentiles, apart from their personal salvation, as a means for the conversion of Israel (Rom_11:13-14). The gradual development of his apostolic knowledge by virtue of continued revelations and illuminations, was not precluded by the Apostle’s preparation, derived from a historical knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and of the life of Jesus, and by his great miraculous illumination when his call occurred.
5. On the person of Barnabas; on Cilicia, Antioch, Asia Minor, etc., see the relevant articles in the Biblical dictionaries. Also the introductions to the respective parts of this Commentary. On Antioch in particular, see my Apost. Age, ii. p. 158.
6. The reciprocal action between the three missionary journeys of the Apostle, and his pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the close of each of these journeys, are in themselves sufficient to overthrow as an untenable fiction Baur’s hypothesis above alluded to.
7. On the identity of the fact related in Gal. ii. with that narrated in Acts 15, see Reuss, p. 55, and Schaff’s History of the Apost. Church, p. 245 ff.
8. The relation of the apostolic deliberations in Acts 15 to the so-called Noachian commands, is also maintained by Reuss, 1. c., p. 56. See thereon my Apost. Age, ii. p. 184. Reuss maintains that Act_15:21 avows the validity of the law for the Jewish Christians. But the absence of all dogmatic obligation in the same passage is very plain from the transactions of the apostolic council. Yet, as far as the national and ethical validity of the same is concerned, it was in perfect harmony with the apostolic spirit that the continuance of the law should not be violently abrogated. For the relevant literature, see Reuss, p. 56.
9. For a catalogue of the friends and followers of the Apostle, see the same, p. 58.
10. The Apostle’s missionary method and policy: (1) A prudent adjustment of his universal mission to the Gentile world, even to Rome, and the western limit of the Old World (Spain), to the primitive historical trunk of Christianity in Jerusalem—that is, the incorporation of the missionary spirit with the vital power of the Church. (2) Perception of the historical links for communicating the gospel to the world. Therefore he first turned hisattention to the Jews, and rose in their synagogues, but made full account of the prejudices of the Jews, and the receptibility of the heathen for Christianity. Therefore he embraced in his view, and also seized upon, the points of connection in the Gentile world (see his address at Athens on the inscription of an altar), and with equal clearness he discovered and opposed all real barriers to the truth (righteousness by works among the Jews; luxurious life in Corinth, 1Co_1:2; and the gloomy sorcery of superstition in Ephesus). (3) Most careful observance of Divine guidance to go forward or to hold back (Act_16:6; Act_16:9; Act_25:10; Rom_1:13, etc.). (4) Careful consolidation of his missionary work, by instituting congregational offices, and the organization of congregations (Act_14:22-23), and promoting the inner unity of the churches by their community of prayer and love (see especially the Epistle to the Philippians). (5) A comprehensive and free use of all chosen companions in faith for coöperation in the form of helpers, evangelists, messengers, and pioneers in a general sense. He is surrounded by his helpers; he sends them out upon new paths; he leaves them behind in churches already organized. That they may be strengthened and encouraged, the spirits of the gospel come and go in his presence, just as the messengers come and go at the court of a prince; he sets all the powers of faith in motion, in order to set all the world in motion. (6) He greatly advances the personal usefulness of himself and of his coadjutors, by his apostolical epistles. (7) The marvellous concentration, development, and elaboration of his doctrine in a manner adapted to the necessities of the congregations, and in perfect harmony with a most careful preservation of the fundamental character of his doctrine. The rock-like steadfastness and adherence to the doctrine of free grace, united with that most faithful development which is exhibited also in his style as a progressive creative power, producing a rich treasure of ἅðáò ëåãüìåíá . (8) The supplementing of his burning activity by sacred retreats, when he sank even into the depths of visionary contemplation; likewise his union of apostolic consecration to the demand of the moment (see his Epistle to Philemon) with his all-embracing care for the whole Church and for its whole future.
11. On the three missionary tours and the life of the Apostle, and the particular events of the same, compare the Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, and the well-known works of Neander, Schaff, Thiersch, and Ewald, on the Apostolic Age, and the literature referred to by Reuss, p. 59 sqq.
If we may judge from intimations in the Pastoral Epistles, Paul hastened, after his deliverance, first to Ephesus, where the Christian truth was threatened by the first development of Christian heresy. We cannot decide whether he was permitted to visit Jerusalem once more on this journey, as was anticipated by the Epistle to the Hebrews, and might be expected from the three visits of his earlier missionary tours. From Ephesus he went to Macedonia and Greece; then over Troas and Miletus to Crete. Afterwards he proceeded to Epirus, where he spent the winter in Nicopolis, and subsequently left Titus. He then directed his course westward, to the ôÝñìá ôῆò äýóåùò , where he was probably seized and taken a prisoner to Rome, before being able to found another permanent organization [in Spain]. Meanwhile, Peter either came or was brought to Rome, and both suffered martyrdom there together (according to Clement of Rome, Irenæus, Tertullian, etc.; see the article Peter, in Herzog’s Real-Encyclopœdie). The Roman Church celebrates the death of Peter and Paul on the same day—the 29th of June.
[The views on the year of Paul’s martyrdom vary from 64 to 68. This question depends, of course, mainly on the question of the second captivity. Wieseler contends for the year 64, shortly before the great Neronian persecution (the only one properly authenticated by historical evidence), which broke out, according to Tacitus, Annal., xv. 44, in consequence of the configuration, July 19th, 64; but the general tradition of the Church connects Paul’s and Peter’s martyrdom with this persecution, which probably gave rise to several isolated executions afterwards. If we adopt the hypothesis of a second imprisonment, we may arrive at a more definite result by referring the ἡãïýìåíïé in the famous passage of Clemens Rom. (1 Corinthians 5, ìáñôõñÞóáò ἐðὶ ôῶí ἡãïõìÝíùí , sub prœfectis martyrium subiens), either (with Hug, Intr. ii. 323, Hefele, Patres Apost., p. 61, 4th ed., and Döllinger) to Tigellinus and Nymphidius Sabinus, or (with Pearson) to Helius Cæsarianus and Polycletus, who in the last years of Nero, especially during his absence in Greece, a. d. 67, had charge of the government in Rome. In this case we get the year 67 or 68 for the martyrdom of Paul; and this agrees with the Catholic tradition based upon Eusebius and Jerome (who, in his Catal. Script., says most explicitly of Paul: “Hic ergo decimo quarto Neronis anno—i. e., a. d. 68—eodem die quo Petrus Romœ pro Christo capite truncatus sepultusque est, in Via Ostiensi). The Basilica of St. Paul, in commemoration of his martyrdom, now stands outside the walls of Rome (San Paolo fuori de’ muri), on the road to Ostia, and the Porta Ostiensis is called the gate of St. Paul. The traditional spot of his martyrdom, however, is a little distance from the Basilica, where there are three chapels, called The Three Fountains (Tre Fontane), in commemoration of the legend that three fresh fountains miraculously gushed forth from the blood of Paul’s head as it was cut off by the executioner, and leaped three times from the ground (“abscisso Pauli capite triplici saltu sese sustollente,” Acta Sanct., vol. vii., sub June 29th.) This legend is less credible than the beautiful legend connected with Peter’s death and perpetuated in the little church of Domine quo vadis, on the Appian Way. Comp., on Paul’s death and martyrdom, my History of the Apost. Church; Conybeare and Howson, vol. ii. 502 ff. (Lond. ed.); also Prudentius, Peristeph. Hymnus XII.; Bunsen, Beschreibung Roms, iii. p. 440; Alfred von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom (Berlin, 1867), vol. i. p. 374 f.—P. S.]
Observations.—1. On the treatises for and against the second captivity of Paul, see Winer, Real-Lexic., ii. p. 221, and Schaff, Hist. of the Apost. Church, § 87, pp. 328–343. The second captivity is also advocated by the work of L. Ruffet, Saint Paul; sa double captivité à Rome. Paris, 1860; and by Gams, Das Jahr des Martyrtodes der Apostel Petrus and Paulus, Regensburg, 1867. He puts the martyrdom of Peter in the year 65; that of Paul in the year 67. [Van Oosterzee (Com. on the Pastoral Epistles), Ewald (History of Israel, vol. vi., or Hist. of the Apost. Age, 2d ed. of 1858), Bleek (Introd. to the N. T., 1862), Huther (Com. on the Epp. to Timothy and Titus in Meyer’s Com., 3d ed. 1866), Conybeare and Howson, Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth, and most of the English commentators on Paul, likewise favor the second Roman captivity. (Wordsworth, in the interest of Anglicanism, defends even Paul’s journey to Britain as well as to Spain). On the other hand, C. W. Otto (in his learned and astute work, Die historischen Verhältnisse der Pastoralbriefe, Lips. 1860), Niedner (Kirchengeschichte, 1866, p. 114), Meyer (Rom. p. 13 ff.), and again Wieseler (in his learned article on the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, in the last supplementary vol. of Herzog’s Encycl., 1866, vol. xxi. p. 276 ff.), oppose the hypothesis of a second Roman captivity of Paul. Adhuc sub judice lis est.—P. S.]
2. Further on the necessity of admitting a second captivity of Paul, see in the Bible-Work, The Pastoral Epistles, by Dr. Van Oosterzee, 2d ed., Introduction (Am. ed. vol. viii.), and my Apost. Zeitalter, ii. p. 386. Critical prejudices are often propagated, while the original motives and reasons are lost sight of, although such reasons, sprung, as they frequently are, from original misconceptions, have lost their apparent importance in the course of time. For example, the criticism against the second part of Zechariah has very clearly arisen from a misunderstanding. Thus many negations in the department of New Testament exegesis have arisen from some caprice of Schleiermacher, some fancy of De Wette, some rationalistic short-sightedness or some fixed idea of Baur, produced by the Hegelian theory of an officious construction of history.
[The question of the second Roman captivity of Paul is simply a historical problem, which has no doctrinal or ethical bearing, and which, in the absence of sufficient data, can never be solved with mathematical certainty. Those who, like Wieseler, Thiersch, Niedner, Otto, and others, hold fast to the Pauline origin of the Pastoral Epistles, lose nothing by denying a second captivity and trial; they save the whole extent of Paul’s known labors, and only compress them into a smaller number of years, thus intensifying rather than diminishing his activity. It must be admitted, however, that the hypothesis of a second captivity offers a considerable advantage in the defence and exposition of the Pastoral Epistles; for it is much more difficult to find a suitable place before than after the first Roman captivity of Paul for the composition of these epistles, and a number of historical facts therein assumed (such as a missionary journey of Paul to Crete, Tit_1:5; a visit to Troas, 2Ti_4:13; a pretty advanced state in the development of church organization, and of heresy, 1 Timothy 3-4), and to understand their farewell tone and general spirit, as compared with the earlier writings of the Apostle.—P. S.]
Concerning the apostolic position of Paul, two points are to be observed in particular. First of all is the fact that he did not belong to the apostles of the first foundation of Christianity, but that he was charged with the apostolate of the first historical growth and expansion of Christianity into a universal character as the religion of the whole human race. He therefore has become, in an emphatic sense, the Apostle of evangelical reform in all succeeding periods of the Church. Secondly, the great opposition presented by the Pauline apostolate to all external legalism and stagnation in Christianity, is expressly declared in his call. He was not of the number of the historical disciples, witnesses, and chosen ones of the historical Christ; not a member of the apostolic college established by Christ during his pilgrimage on earth. Hurled down as an enemy by the risen Lord in a heavenly vision, he arose at once as a witness of faith and as one of the apostles, and received his apostolic authority only in heavenly voices from the Church (Act_9:15); in his visions (Act_22:21); in his commission from Antioch, the mother church of Gentile Christianity; in the living epistles which the Holy Spirit wrote in the form of vigorous churches of his planting (2Co_3:2 ff.); and in the decided recognition by the first apostles of the Lord (Acts 15; Galatians 2).
His apostolate remained doubtful to a great number of traditional Jewish Christians; the most rigid Jewish Christians rejected it, and persecuted him; and the later Ebionites loaded his memory with scorn, as an errorist and a heretic. The legalistic Christianity of the Middle Ages, while professing the highest respect for the name of Paul, has persecuted his doctrines as they have been exhibited in the principles of the Reformation, in the form of Jansenism, in the history of Port Royal, and in many other ways. Even in the Protestant evangelical Church there obtains a legalistic high-churchism, which, while it adheres to external legitimacy, traditionalism, and legalism, is opposed to the principles of Christianity, and especially to the apostolate and doctrine of Paul.
But, on the other hand, the antinomianism of all Christian ages has been based on a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of his doctrines. Amid these opposite extremes, there courses the mighty stream of pure blessings with which the Lord, by His Spirit, has sealed the testimony of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, and with which He will seal it to the end of time.
Thus Paul will still maintain his position with the other apostles in the Church of Christ. Yet we would not deny the measure of truth in the view of Schelling, that, as far as the prevailing type of the Church is concerned, the Petrine Church of the Middle Ages was followed by the Pauline Church of Protestantism, and that the perfection will hereafter appear in the Church of the Johannean type. It would be a great misunderstanding, however, to conceive of this type as a syncretism of Judaizing legalism and Pauline freedom. The higher synthesis of the genuine Petrine and the genuine Pauline theology can only be found in the deeper ideal development of the revelation of the law and the Spirit, as set forth by John.
Observations.—1. The natural disposition of the Apostle must be characterized as an even harmony of various temperaments and gifts in genial fulness and strength, and inspired by a heroic energy and vitality of soul. By virtue of this energetic vitality the same man could always remain consistent and true, and yet become all things to all men; he could stand and shine first in this and then in that pole of his wonderful endowments; at this moment in ecstasy, at the next as a practical man of action; now reminding us of the contemplativeness of a John, then of the fiery energy of a Peter; now musically lyrical in style, then acutely dialectical even to the subtlest distinctions; though possessing a tragical national sympathy for his people in his heart—the depth where his