Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/467

 426 LUXE

in Cyprus. — St. Luko says, Acts, xiii, 7, that when St. never makes a false step amid all the many details as Paul visited Cyprus (in the reign of Claudius) Sergius the scene changes from city to city; and that is the Paulus was proconsul (dwBdiraTot) there. Grotius conclusive proof that it is a picture of real life" (Rani- asserted that this was an abuse of language, on the say, op. cit., 238). St. Luke mentions (Acts, xviii, 2) part of the natives, who wished to flatter the governor that when St. Paul was at Corinth the Jews had been by calling him proconsul, instead of propnetor (dim- recently expelled from Rome by Claudius, and this is tfTpdriryot), which he really was; ana that St. Luke confirmed dv a chance statement of Suetonius. He used the popular appellation. Even Baronius (An- tells us (ibid., 12) that Gallio was then proconsul in nales, ad Aim. 46) supposed that, though CVprus was Corinth (the capital of the Roman province of Achaia). only a prsetorian province, it was honoured by being There is no direct evidence that he was proconsul in ruled by the proconsul of Cilicia, who must have been Achaia, but his brother Seneca writes that Gallio Sergius Paulus. But this is all a mistake. Cato cap- caught a fever there, and went on a voyage for his tured Cyprus; Cicero was proconsul of Cihcia and health. The description of the riot at Epnesus (Acts, Cyprus in 52 b. c; Mark Antony gave the island to xix) brings together, in the space of eighteen verses, Oieopatra; Augustus made it a prsetorian province an extraordinary amoimt of knowledge of the city, in 27 B. c, but in 22 b. c. he transferred it to the that is fully corroborated by numerous inscriptions, senate, and it became again a proconsular province, and representations on coins, medals, etc., recently This latter fact is not stated by Strabo, but it is men- discovered. There are allusions to the temple of tioned by Dion Cassius (LIII). In Hadrian's time it Diana (one of the seven wonders of the world), to the was once more under a proprietor, while under Sev- fact that Ephcsus gloried in being her temple-sweeper, ems it was again administered by a proconsul. There her caretaker (»€<aK6pos), to the theatre as the place of can be no doubt that in the reign of Claudius, when assembly for the people, to the to^^ni clerk (ypafifuiTcOs)^ St. Paul visited it, Cyprus was under a proconsul to the Asiarchs, to sacrilegious (UpoaOXot), to procon- (iwO&waros), as stated by St. Luke. Numerous coins sular sessions, artificers, etc. The ecclesia (the usual have been discovered in Cyprus, bearing the head and word in Ephesus for the assembly of the people) and name of Claudius on one side, and the names of the the grammateus or town-clerk (the title of a high proconsuls of Cyprus on the other. A woodcut en- official frequent on Ephesian coins) completely puzzled graving of one is given in Conybeare and Howson's Cornelius a Lapidc, Baronius, and other commcnta- "St. Paul", at the end of chapter v. On the reverse tors, who imagined the eccleaia meant a synagogue, etc. it has: EHI KOMINOT HPOKAOT ANeXIIATOT: (see Vigouroux, "I^ Nouveau Testament et les D6- KTIIPION — ^" Money of the Cyprians imder Cominius couvertes Arch^logiques", Paris, 1890). Proclus, Proconsul." The head of Claudius (with his (6) The Shipwreck. — The account of the voyage and name) is figured on the other side. General Cesnola ship'WTeck described in Acts (xxvii, xxvii) is regarded discovered a long inscription on a pedestal of white by competent authorities on nautical mat tors as a mar- marble, at Solvi, in the north of the island, having the vellous instance of accurate description (see Smith's words: EIII HATAOT ANeXIIATOT — *' Under Paulus classical work on the suljject, " Voyage and Shipwreck Proconsul." Lightfoot, Zochler, Ramsay, Knaben- of St. Paul" (4th ed., London, 18^). Blass (Acta bauer. Zahn, and Vigouroux hold that this was the Apostolorum, 186) says: ''Extrema duo ca,pita ha- actual (Seigius) Paulus of Acts, xiii, 7. bent descriptionem clarissimam itineris maritimi quod

(2) The PoUtarchs in Thessalonica. — ^An excellent Paulus in Italiam fecit: quse descriptio ab homine example of St. Luke's accuracy is afforded by his state- harum rerum perito judicata est monumentum om- ment that rulers of Thessalonica were called "poH- nium pretiosissimum, quae rei navalis ex tota antic^ui- tardis" (roXtrdpxoi — ^Acts, xvii, 6, 8). The word is tate nobis relicta est. V. Breusing, 'Die Nautik der not found in the Greek classics; but there is a large Alten' (Bremen, 1886)." See also Knowling, "The stone in the British Museum, which was found in an Acts of the Apostles" in "Exp. Gr. Test." (Ix^iidon, arch in Thessalonica, containing an inscription which 1900). ^^

is supposed to date from the time of Vespasian. Here Vll. Lrsi^a^yi^IvniAiiCH of Abilene. — Gfrorrcr,

we find the word used by St. Luke together with the B. BaiMwr^flilgenfeld, Keim, and Holtzniaim assert

names of several such pohtarchs, among them being thalt*^^ J£ail« |x;«Mtnited a gross chronological hhm-

names identical with some of St. Paul's converts: So- der of sixty years Sl^making Lysanias, the sou of

pater, Gains, Secundus. Burton in "American Jour- Ptolemy, who hved SlflvB. c, and was put to death

nal of Theolog>'" (July, 1898) has drawn attention to by Mark Antony, tetrard^of Abilene wlien John the

seventeen inscriptions proving the existence of poH- Baptist began to preach (iih 1). Strauss says: *'He

tarchs in ancient times. Thirteen were found in Mace- [Luke] makes rule, 30 years after the birth of Christ, a

donia, and five iKcre discovered in Thessalonica, dat- certain Lysanias, who had certainly been slain 30

ing from the middle of the first to the end of the eecond years previous to that birth — a sli'i^ht error of 60

century. years." On the face of it, it is highly improlxable that

(3) The geographical, municipal, and political knowl- such a careful writer as St. Luke would have gone out edge of St. Luke, when speakipg of Pisidian Antioch, of his way to run the risk of making such a blunder, for Iconium, Lystra, and DNerbe, is fully borne out bv the mere purpose of helping to fix the date of the pub- recent research (see Ramsay, *' St. Pam the Traveller, Uc ministry. Fortunately, we have a complete rcf u- and other references given in Galatianb, Epistlb to tation supplied by Schttrer, a writer by no means over tee). friendly to St. Luke, as we shall see when treating of

(4) He is equally sure when speaking of Philippi, the Census of Quirinius. Ptolemy Menna'us was King a Roman colony, where the duumviri were called of the I tureans( whose kingdom embraced the Lebanon "pnetors" (trrpta^fYol — ^Acts, xvi, 20, 35), a lofty title and plain of Massvas with the capital Chalcis, between wnich duumviri assumed in Capua and elsewhere, as the Lebanon and Anti- Lebanon) from 85-40 b. c. we learn from Cicero and Horace (Sat., I, v, 34). They His territories extended on the east towards Damascus, also had hctors (papBovxoi), after the manner of real and on the south embraced Panias, and part, at leant, pnstors. of Galilee. Lysanias the older succeeded his father

(5) His references to Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, are Ptolemy about 40 b. c. (Josephus, " Ant.", XI\', xii, altogether in keeping with everything that is now 3;"Bel.Jud.", I, xiii, 1), and is sty led by Dion Cassius known of these cities. Take a single instance: "In "King of the Itureans" (XLIX, 32). After reigning Ephesus St. Paul taught in the school of Tyrannus, about four or five years he was put to death by Mark in the city of Socrates ne discussed moral questions in Antony, at the instigation of Cleopatra, who received the market-place. How incongruous it would seem a large portion of his territory (Josephus ," Ant.", XV, if the methods were transposed! But the narrative iv, 1; "Bel. Jud.", I, xxii, 3; Dion Cassius. op. cit.);