Paul in Jerusalem

“Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
Enthroned once on high,
Thou favour’d home of God on earth — Thou heaven below the sky!

Till to the Saviour of mankind

Thou humbly bow the knee,
Jerusalem! Jerusalem!

Our tears shall flow for thee.”

“And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.” — Acts xx. 22-24.

t*T was now the lovely month of May. The hills and valleys of old Palestine were clothed in their summer beauty. The husbandman saw the labours of early spring rewarded with fields of plenty. It was the time of year when good King David’s pastoral song must have been on many lips — “Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness; and Thy paths drop fatness.... The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.”* Thousands upon thousands from all parts of Judea, and Israelites from distant lands, were assembling at the feast of Pentecost, to offer to Jehovah thanksgiving for the bounties of harvest. Already, when the Apostle

* Psalm lxv. 11, 13.

arrived in Jerusalem, multitudes of stranger-Jews were crowding the streets; and the slopes of Mount Olivet, and the valley of the Kedron, as far as the eye could reach, were dotted over with the well-known goats’- hair tents. Many a young Hebrew youth, doubtless, had come up, for the first time, from his distant home, to see the city of the Great King — his heart bounding with joy. Many, too, unknown to themselves, had made their last pilgrimage to the place of ordinances. Among the latter, was the sojourner in the house of old Mnason, who was now, we have every reason to believe, spending his last Pentecost in the earthly Zion.

Let us think of him, then, once more in the “city of God,” within sight of the splendid temple and the green Mount of Olives. Many changes had taken place since his last visit. Four years before, his old teacher, Gamaliel, had gone the way of all the earth, and been laid in the sepulchre of his fathers. His two sons still survived, Simon and Jesus. With them Paul doubtless had been acquainted in former years. They had probably been his companions during his school-days. Their path in life, however, from that time became very different., The sons of the Rabbi were afterwards exalted respectively to the chair of the Sanhedrim and the office of high priest, while their old Cilician friend and playmate arrives in their city a careworn traveller, with no thought but that of bonds and imprisonment. Theophilus (the same to whom “Saul the persecutor” had applied for letters to seize the Damascus Christians) was still alive. Felix was residing in his gorgeous palace at Cesarea; and the Roman officer in command at Jerusalem, as we shall presently see, was Claudius Lysias. It was often the case then, as it is now when multitudes are gathered together in one place, that breaches of the peace were committed. Any such riots were best suppressed by the presence of military; and for this purpose, Claudius, during the feast of Pentecost, had, like his predecessors, soldiers ready armed to march, in case of disturbance, from the fort of Antonia.

The Apostle arrived (for even the date may with probability be given) on the 8th day of May, a.d. 56. He was kindly received, and seems to have spent the evening in company with the disciples. The next day was an anxious one to him; he was then to meet all the presbyters, in order to deliver the contributions he had brought for the relief of the poor Hebrews. He well knew that there were among them many “Juclaisers,” who regarded him with bitter dislike, as one who was doing all he could to destroy their national glory, and abolish their legal rites and ceremonies. One great purpose for which he came at present to Jerusalem was, to try and soothe their bitterness, and to convince them that he was but a single-minded disciple, who had no interest at heart but that of his dear Lord. However much, therefore, he dreaded the coming storm, he was resolved boldly, in the strength of his God, to meet it.

The venerable Apostle James at present presided over the assembly of presbyters. These met the next day, in order to receive Paul and the other brethren from a distance. They greeted one another with “the kiss of charity,” common in these times as a symbol of brotherly affection. The strangers first laid down the money which had been collected in distant countries for the poor saints, and then Paul proceeded to address the meeting. He rehearsed all that had been done by himself and his companions, during the last four years, among the Gentiles. He would probably enlarge on the many promising churches he had founded — the perilous and trying scenes, more especially that at Ephesus, through which he had passed. Moreover, that he was not come now among them to seek an idle repose; but that, though his face was beginning to be deeply furrowed with wrinkles, he was still resolved to “spend and be spent” in the service of his Master.

“How must his hearers have rejoiced to listen to every detail of those wonderful achievements, far more interesting than were ever told to admiring senates by the conquerors of the earth, and of the power of Divine grace, which, by the foolishness of preaching, had overcome the pride of the Areopagite, and subdued the rugged nature of the barbarous jailer, with as much facility as it had melted the heart of the tender Lydia! Surely few eyes were dry in that assembly.” *

His address, indeed, seems to have been listened to with intense interest by the bulk of those present; for we are told, that the first thing they did, after hearing him speak, was to glorify God for the things He had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.

There were many deep prejudices, however, in the minds of “thousands of Jews which believed,” which would not be so easily allayed. Many of these, as you remember in a former chapter, could not brook the thought of a gospel proclaimed to the heathen. They imagined that, as Israel had all along been the favoured and peculiar people of God, Christianity was only in-

* Blunt. tended for them. This question had been finally disposed of and settled by the decree of the Jerusalem Council — copies of which, you will recollect, were carried by Paul, Barnabas, and Titus, to Antioch, and distributed through the different cities in Asia Minor. Another equally strong feeling, however, had now taken hold of their minds, — viz., a dread that the Jews, who had been converted to Christianity, might be induced or compelled to give up the observance of the Mosaic law. What were Paul’s views on this subject? He distinctly held that the Jewish Christians might still, if they chose, observe their ancient rites; but these were in no respect to come in the place of the great work of Christ, by which alone both Jew and Gentile are “justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.” But the Jewish believers had accused him of going much farther, and of absolutely prohibiting the Hebrew converts among the heathen from having their children circumcised, and retaining any of the institutions of Moses. “Thou seest, brother,” said the elders at this conference we refer to, “how many thousands of Jews there are which believe, and they are all zealous of the law; and they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after their customs.”

Paul’s friends knew well that there would be many Asiatic Jews present at the feast from a far distance whose feelings of national pride and glory would be roused by treading once more the city of their fathers. These friends of the Apostle considered it desirable if he could in some way give public proof that he was not the enemy of the Hebrew rites which he had been represented to be. The following was the device they fell upon. There were four Jewish Christians among themselves who had taken the “Nazarite vow.” This, I have already explained, consisted in not cutting or shaving the hair or beard, nor taking wine for thirty days. I told you that at the end of that period, those who thus vowed were expected to repair to the temple, where they had their hair cut off and burnt on the altar. If they were poor, they generally got the assistance of some wealthy friend to pay the necessary expense; and nothing so raised a man in the estimation of the Jews as this act of charity towards a poor brother. Josephus tells us that King Agrippa, on returning to Jerusalem after having undergone many dangers and escapes, gave orders that the expense of shaving several Nazarites be paid out of his own private purse.*

These four Nazarites had fulfilled the “days of separation;” but they had not sufficient to pay the charge of the wonted sacrifices. The proposal of the Apostle’s advisers was, that he should go in company with these four men to the courts of the temple, and defray the expense incurred according to the law. Being poor himself, his friends would likely furnish him with money sufficient for the purpose; and thus, in a way most gratifying to Jewish feeling, he would show his good- will to the Jewish Church.

Paul seems willingly to have complied with the suggestion. If he had thought it in any degree inconsistent with right principle, and the duty he owed to his Lord, we may be very sure he would never have agreed to it.

* Josephus, ant. xix. 6, 1.

He viewed it, doubtless, as a mere outward compliance with a custom unimportant in itself, but which would tend to calm the feelings of those whom he was desirous of counting one with him in Christ Jesus. He ever sought, as he tells us elsewhere, to become “all things to all men, if by any means he might gain some.” Circumcision in itself was nothing to him, neither was uncircumcision, “but faith, which worketh by love.”

It is only fair, however, to mention, that many good men have considered the Apostle was, in this instance, guilty of an unwise compliance; and it is striking to observe, which we shall immediately do, that instead of soothing his enemies, his visit to the temple at this time threatened him with serious consequences. “He was brought,” says John Knox, “into the most desperate danger that he ever sustained — God designing to show thereby that we must not do evil that good may come.” We may picture to ourselves the Great Apostle, accompanied with his four friends, with their haggard looks and unshaven beards, ascending to the temple, entering by the Corinthian or Beautiful gate to the place allotted to the Nazarites to undergo their seven days’ purification. It was customary, after each day’s purification had taken place, for the Nazarite to remain in the temple. Paul in this way must have been daily in the court of the Gentiles, although he wisely abstained from entering into religious discussion with any of the worshippers. As I have said, multitudes of Jews from all parts of Asia, (and among these from Ephesus, to whom the Apostle’s face was well known,) were mingling in the crowd around him. They had not forgotten his victory in their synagogue in the city of Diana, and they thought that now would be a befitting opportunity to have their revenge. They at once spread the intelligence that this false and traitor apostate was present, and had ventured to take Trophirnus, his companion, a Greek, within the holy place. Probably they had seen Paul and Trophirnus walking together on the streets, and had inferred that he had brought him also within the sacred courts. The introduction of any Gentile there, I need not tell you, was strictly forbidden. Josephus informs us that tablets were hung out in sight of all, with words upon them to caution those who might not be aware of the sacredness of the enclosure.* In a moment he is surrounded with an infuriated mob and frantic cries. The whole scene of Stephen’s martyrdom must have flashed across him. They are almost within sight of the spot. Could a like terrible end be now in prospect for himself? They have laid fast hold of him, and are shouting aloud, “Men of Israel, help! this is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place, “t We can readily imagine their fury. Soon their madness turns into blows. They drag him down the steps from the court of the women. The Levites within, afraid that murder might be committed, and their sanctuary thereby profaned, closed the weighty brazen gates, and left him to his fate. Fortunately the little time that elapsed in taking him from one court to the other saved his life. The Roman sentries, some of whom were pacing the colonnade of the temple, and others on the towers of Antonia, heard the noise of the tumult, and rushed with their arms to quell it. They saw it was no trifle, and therefore sent in haste to

* See Olsliausen. t Acts xxi. 28.

Claudius Lysias, the governor of the castle, to acquaint him of the uproar. The Castle of Antonia was a stronglyfortified place at the north-western side of the temple.* It contained large barracks for the Roman troops, in which a thousand were generally stationed. Its form was a vast square, described as having “the magnificence of a palace, and the conveniences of a city.” A wall 300 cubits high and several fortifications were around it, and a tower at each corner to defend it. It was a sort of citadel of the temple.t One of these lofty turrets overlooked the temple courts, and Roman sentinels were always on watch to give intimation of any disturbance that might occur within the sacred precincts.

Claudius Lysias lost no time, after he received the message, in ordering out some officers and troops. He rushed down himself sword in hand. The sight of the Roman legion overawed the furious mob, and for the time they “left off beating Paul.” Their object, however, was so far gained, for Lysias gave orders that his wrists be bound with two chains, these chains fastened to a soldier on either side. Hurried along, with a maddened crowd behind him, in the direction of the castle, he is taken to the barracks within the fortress. While led up the flight of stairs between the two places, so great was the pressure, he was literally carried off his feet, and borne upon the shoulders of the throng, who were crying out, “Away with him.”

Lysias, in the confusion, could get no account of who his prisoner was. He imagined that he had cap-

* See the tower, in the picture of Jerusalem, at the farther extremity of the temple. t Calmet.

tured a different victim. A violent impostor and false prophet — a native of Egypt — had, at the preceding Passover, come to Jerusalem, pretending that he had been sent by God to restore the kingdom to Israel. Four thousand deluded people had at first followed him j they had, ere long, increased to 30,000. These he led to the brow of Mount Olivet, and gave them to believe that they would see the walls of Jerusalem falling to the ground, and a way miraculously made for a triumphant entry into the city. Felix resolved to quell the tumult and disperse the fanatics. Putting himself at the head of the Roman troops, the motley crowd were scattered in every direction, and four hundred of them slain. The artful leader succeeded in escaping; but, at the very time when Paul was now in the temple, a rigid search was being made, and rewards offered for his apprehension. This explains the conversation which was now held between Claudius Lysias and his prisoner, as they were ascending, in the crush, the stairs of the castle.*

Paul, in calm composure, requests a word of the chief officer, “May I speak unto thee?” Lysias allows him. To the astonishment of the latter, he speaks not in Hebrew, but in Greek. The Governor then asked him if he was under a mistake in thinking him that Egyptian impostor who had led out into the wilderness a multitude of fanatics, to be slain by the troops of Felix? Paul assured him he was no Egyptian, but a citizen of Tarsus, and begged he might be permitted to address the people. We almost wonder that Lysias so readily complied with his request: but he

* See Lewin and Olshausen, with the references to the passage in Josephus.

seems to have been impressed by the whole bearing of his prisoner. At once silence appears to have been obtained. We have seen Paul unfolding his great Gospel message to the crowd of philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens; and we feel that the scene must have been deeply impressive; but never, perhaps, did he address so vast and strange an audience as at present from the castle stairs at Fort Antoni — never was the power of his words more deeply felt. The storm was, in aTmoment, changed into a deep calm. Every voice was hushed into stillness as the gentle tones of the greatest of then living men broke over the turrets of the temple, — “Brethren and fathers, hear me!” What helped still more to lull the tumult and secure attention was, that he no longer spoke in Greek, but in their own much-loved Hebrew tongue. It was like oil thrown on a fretful sea! He commenced by telling them of his birth and education — his strong Jewish feelings and partialities — his wonderful conversion while in the very act of persecuting. He then passed to other events subsequent to that great turning-point in his history. They listen to him with patience and in silence, till he comes to speak of his special destination as the Apostle of the Heathen; but whenever the words were uttered which he tells them he had received as a special command from God, “Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles,” there was no controlling their rage: “Away,” they cried, “with such a fellow from the earth; for it is not fit that he should live.” * They dared not at present attempt any violence, as the prisoner was in the hands of Roman soldiers; and the only way, therefore, of exhibiting

* Acts xsii. 22.

their wrath was by threats and menaces. The Jews had their own peculiar way of expressing passionate anger or malice. You remember when King David was going along by the side of Mount Olivet, weeping and barefoot, and when Shimei came out to curse and revile him, he further showed the vehemence of his hatred by casting stones and throwing dust. The enraged and agitated Hebrew mob now thronging around the stairs of the castle do the same thing. They tore off their upper garments and cast dust into the air, as if really preparing for a repetition of the murderous scene which Paul had, many years before, “consented to” in the valley below. Lysias, not knowing, from the Hebrew language in which the speech was given, what the cause was of the renewed uproar, concluded that the speaker must have been guilty of some great crime. He commanded that he should be taken back again to the castle, and examined there by torture, so as to get a confession of his guilt. The command of the Roman is speedily obeyed; he is even stretched on the rack, ready to be scourged. A wooden post, slightly inclined, is driven into the ground, and the holy Apostle is bound tightly to it by his hands and feet. A centurion stands by him to see that the order is duly executed, when Paul, summoning up his wonted fortitude, demanded, “Is it lawful for you to scourge one who is a Roman uncondemned 1” The centurion immediately informed Lysias of the prisoner’s question. The governor felt he had placed himself in imminent peril by the act. “He was afraid after he knew that he was a Roman.” We have found before now that, by the Sempronian law, those were liable to severe punishment who, however high their rank, presumed to beat a Roman citizen. He gave orders instantly that the cords which bound him be untied, but that he be kept in safe custody within the fortress. He was again secured by chains between two soldiers. His conscience, however, was void of offence; he had the fear of God, and no other fear; and he laid him down in that strange place “in peace and sleep,” feeling that God enabled him “to dwell in safety.”

Next day a new persecution awaited him. Lysias called together the Jewish Sanhedrim to try his case, in the same hall, Gazith, where Paul himself in former days had sat as one of the judges in condemning the martyr Stephen. There was only a short way between the steps that led down from the tower of Antonio to those which conducted up to the Jewish court.“‘’ Strange must have been the Apostle’s feelings in entering this place! and stranger still the feelings of those who were now called together to sit in judgment on him! Ananias, though he had been deposed from the office of high priest by the Romans, presided on this occasion, as his successor, Jonathan, had been lately murdered by assassins. Simeon and Jesus, Paul’s old schoolfellows, were also doubtless there, and Theophilus, the old high priest, — perhaps even some of those who had journeyed along with him to Damascus! What a change from that day! — the persecutor now the persecuted! — twenty full years he had been boldly “preaching that faith” which he had sought then “to destroy!”

The innocent Apostle looked steadfastly upon those soventy senators, in whose presence he now was, affirming with boldness that he had ever maintained “a

* Howson, vol. ii. p. 268.

good conscience before God.” The rage of the presiding high priest vented itself in a base action. He commanded those that stood near Paul to smite him on the mouth. The Apostle, naturally of a quick temper, was roused to indignation, and exclaimed, “God shall smite thee, thou whited wall!” The saying was, ere long, fearfully fulfilled. At the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem, in after years, Ananias and his followers took refuge in the upper city from the fury of the opposing faction. His palace being burnt, he fled to the Pretorium, but it too had to yield to the enemies’ assault. The wretched fugitive was discovered hiding in an aqueduct in the gardens, and fell by the daggers of the Sicarii. “Righteous art thou, 0 Lord!”

Paul, on this occasion, remarkably followed the injunction of his divine Master, “Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” He soon observed how hopeless his cause would be, argued before so prejudiced an assembly. With his usual tact and prudence, he turns the discussion on another point. He observed that the meeting around him was composed partly of Pharisees and partly of Sadducees; and as he knew there was a far more violent opposition existing between these sects than between either of them and the Christians, he started the great topic of their rivalry, declaring, “lama Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee: for the hope of the resurrection from the dead I am called in question.” * The result proved as he had expected. He had cast a spark amid combustible materials, which set the whole in a blaze. The two factions turned their weapons against one another;

* Acts xxiii. 6.

and in the midst of the turmoil, Claudius Lysias, fearing it might end seriously, sent down his troops from the castle to bring back his prisoner in safety.

We may now think of the solitary Apostle, after the agitation of the few last days, left all alone to his solitary meditations in the cell of a Roman barrack. The future must have appeared painfully dark to him. The thought which had for long been near his heart, to “see Rome,” and preach the Gospel in the world’s capital, seemed now well-nigh hopeless. Could it be that his apostolic work was to be so soon terminated by a martyr’s death 1 But God, when his favoured servants are in gloom and despondency, has always visited them with some special encouragement and comfort. He did so now. In the depth of midnight, when the weary prisoner was stretched on his bed of straw, the Lord appeared to him, and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.” *

Great need, truly, was there for such a welcome assurance, as fresh plots were concocted to effect his destruction. At break of day, forty Jews made a vow together, that “they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.” They made known their infamous design to the chief priests and elders. It gives us an awful idea of the state of public morals, when these leaders of the people could become a party to so horrible a crime. Their plan was to get Claudius Lysias to request another meeting of the Sanhedrim, in order that a fresh trial might take place, and then they would murder him on his way from the castle of Antonio to the hall. The Apostle’s life was in the great

* Acts xxiii. 11.

est danger; but God mercifully warded off the blow, by means of a new personage, whose name is brought before us here — the son of that sister of Paul’s whom we have already spoken of at the commencement of this volume, as sharing the pleasures of infancy with him at Tarsus, Lysias had, in kind consideration, granted free admission to any of the prisoner’s friends, and this nephew (whose name is not given) hastened to tell his uncle the fearful secret which had reached his ears. When Paul was seated in his lonely place of concealment, a footstep is heard; the door opens; his young nephew enters with an anxious look; when he ascertains that they are all alone, he informs him of the plot which had been devised against his life. What is to be done? The Great Apostle does not hesitate; he has confidence in the kindness and prudence of the commander of the garrison, and instantly asks a centurion to take the young man to the presence of Lysias, as he had something important to tell him. The meeting was a kind one on the part of the Roman soldier. He “took him by the hand,” and leading him aside, asked him in private what he had to say. No sooner did Lysias receive the dangerous intelligence, than he dismissed the youth, with the injunction to tell no one of what had passed between them. And then, calling several of his officers, he told them to be ready at nine in the evening with two hundred soldiers, seventy cavalry, and two hundred lancers or spearmen, to take Paul down to the town of Cesarea, where Felix, the governor, was then residing. He further ordered them to have more than one horse for the prisoner, probably one for each of the soldiers who rode on either side of him, and to whom he was to be chained. The horses and horsemen were ready at the hour appointed at the gates of Fort Antonio. Bauds of Jews may have been still lingering on the streets, talking about the success of the plot against a life they all hated, when the troops swept past them. They may have wondered at so large a detachment of soldiery at that hour of the night, but they would little dream that the central horseman was the victim of their fury, thus “escaping like a bird out of the snare of the fowler.” We may imagine the journey of seventy-six miles.’“” The foot soldiers went no further than Antipatris, and then returned to Jerusalem. The rest, after two hard days, would be seen with tired and jaded horses entering the gates of the seaport town of the Csesars.

The centurion in command took his prisoner at once to the Pretorium, or Palace of Herod, where Felix lived, and presented, along with him, the letter from Lysias. The letter was as follows: — “Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix, sendeth greeting. This man was taken of the Jews, and should have been killed of them: then came I with an army, and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman. And when I would have known the cause wherefore they accused him, I brought him forth into their council; whom I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or bonds. And when it was told me how that the Jews laid wait for the man, I sent straightway to thee, and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee what they had against him. Farewell.” t It was a letter worthy of the generous-hearted writer. If Lysias had been actu-

* See the picture. t Acts xxiii. 26-30.

ated by unworthy motives, if he had wished to please the Jews, and increase his popularity with them, he might have represented the prisoner as a “pestilent fellow,” and worthy only of death. Had he done so, moreover, we can have little doubt as to the result. No mercy was to be expected from the hands of the abandoned Felix; but the letter expressly mentions that his crime was merely holding opinions contrary to the Jewish law; nothing was laid to his charge demanding a severe sentence. Felix having read it, looked at the prisoner who had been the cause of the disturbance, and put the question to him, “What province art thou from 1” Being told it was Cilicia, he gave orders that he should be taken to Herod’s judgment-hall, and kept there until, in accordance with law, his accusers made their appearance.