Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/1015

Rh embodied, e.g. in the Teaching of the Apostles.'- But to judge from these epistles (l Thess. iv. i seq., 6; 2 Thess. ii. 15; iii. 6), and his reference to the " type of teaching " (bearing on " sin, unto death, " and " obedience, unto righteousness ) unto which the Roman Christians had been " committed " (Rom. vi. 16 seq.), Paul gave to his converts a fairly full outline of moral instruction, similar at least to that of Judaeo-Christian missionaries (note too the rather uniform lists of vices in Rom. i. 24 seq.; i Cor. v. 10 seq.; Gal. v. 19; Col. iii. 5; cf . E. von Dobschiltz, Christian Life in the Primitive Church, app. 6).

What was distinctive of Paul's ethical teaching was not any lack of positive precepts, but the intimate way in which he, Paulas like his Master, infused them with the spirit in Ethical which and by which they were to be realized, as Teacher, aspects of the ideal of love to God and man. He was supremely concerned with the dynamic of conduct, as to which his own experience made him the most inspiring of teachers and the greatest interpreter of the mind of Christ. The master motive on which he relied for all, was the imitation of Christ in a peculiarly inward sense. To the believer Christ was no mere external example, but was already within him as the principle of his own new moral being, in virtue of the Holy Spirit indwelling as the Spirit of Christ. Here lay the secret of the new " power " so characteristic of the Gospel (Rom. i. 16), a power adequate to reahze even the enhanced moral ideal revealed in Christ. The wonder of it was that this power annulled the moral past, giving the once vicious an equal freedom with the " virtuous." To this sovereign, emancipating influence of God's Holy Spirit, antagonizing "the flesh" and all its works, Paul confidently entrusted his converts for " sanctification " or progressive transformation (Gal. iii. 3, v. 16 sqq.) into " the image of Christ, " the full actuality of the type already latent in Christian faith. Such teaching is implicit in the Thessalonian letters; but it is explicit in the Epistle to the Galatians. Here he announces in the clearest accents the secret of Christian conduct. " Walk by (the) Spirit, and desire of the flesh ye shall not fulfil." " If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk." " On the basis of freedom (from law as external to the conscience) were ye called; only turn not freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Pauline For the whole Law stands fulfilled in this, Thou Antl- shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (v. 13 sqq., 25).

aomlaalsm. -pijgsg ^^e the watchwords of Paul's antinomianism, which had grown out of the soil of his own strict moral discipline, where the ethical ideal had become an instinct and a passion. But how would they be taken by raw Gentiles, say in Corinth, untutored to self-denial whether in the things of sense or spirit? That their egoism often perverted Paul's libertarianism into an apology for libertinism, in keeping with current habits, as well as for selfish individualism in the use of intellect or even " gifts of the Spirit, " may be gathered from his letters to Corinth (see Corinthians, Epistles to the). What here concerns us, however, is the splendidly positive way in which Paul met such abuses, not by falling back upon legalism as a " safeguard " against hcence, but by reapplying the laws of spirituality, both in relation to God as source of spiritual gifts, and to God's people as the appointed sphere of their e-xercise. He does not recede from his way of teaching; he insists that they shall understand it and abide by its real obligations. But while thinking of Paul's work in Corinth, we must note certain special religious conditions affecting both the reception of his gospel and the way in which it was afterwards conceived. Side by side with the religion of the city and of the family, both of them polytheistic and utilitarian in the main, stood the " mysteries " or esoteric cults, which were sought out and participated in by the individual for the satisfaction of essentially personal religious needs. Clearly those trained by such Mysteries would be more drawn than ordinary polytheists to his gospel, with its doctrine of mystical yet real union with the divine in Christ, and would less than others find the Cross, with its message of Hfe through death, to be folly. This being

Yet compare " the Way " (Acts xix. 9, 23), or " the Way of the Lord " (xviii. 25) as a name for Christianity on its practical side. So Sergius Paulus was " astonished at the Teaching (didache) of the Lord, " xiii. 12; cf. Tit. i. 8 seq.

so, we shall not be surprised to find, especially at Corinth, traces of the reaction of conceptions proper to the Mysteries upon the ideas and practices of Paul's converts (cf. i Cor. xv. 29), and even upon the language in which he set forth his meaning to them (see ii. 6 sqq.). Whether Paul himself was influenced by such ideas, e.g. in relation to the Sacraments, is a further question as to which opinions are divided.

After some eighteen months in Corinth, Paul felt the time had come to break fresh ground now at last perhaps at Ephesus, the key to the province of Asia. With this in view he took with him his fellow-workers Priscilla and jgrusilea, Aquila, and left them at Ephesus while he himself " *"" visited Syria for ends of his own. That these ends were of high import we may be sure, else he would not have spent on them a period of months when the door seemed already opening in Asia (Acts xviii. 19-21). Acts gives no hint as to their nature, save the statement that " he went up " from Caesarea to Jerusalem, " and saluted the church, " before he " went down to Antioch." But Paul's letters enable us to infer that he relied largely on this visit for counteracting rumours which represented him as an apostate from Judaism.^ After some stay in Antioch Paul started before autumn a.d. 53 for his third great campaign, the centre of which he had already chosen in Ephesus, where Priscilla and Aquila were helping to prepare the ground. Passing through south Galatia, where he further fortified his converts (xviii. 23), he would reach Ephesus before winter closed in. Already his circle of helpers had gained a fresh member of great gifts, the Alexandrine Jew Apollos who had been brought into fuller sympathy with the Pauline gospel by Priscilla and Aquila, and who, learning from them the situation in Corinth, volunteered to try to overcome the prejudices of the Jews there (xviii. 24-28). At first Paul taught in the synagogue, until growing hostility drove him to " separate the disciples " and transfer his headquarters to " the school of Tyrannus." This was a lecture-room such as " sophists " or rhetors were wont to hire for their " displays." The change was not only one of place, but also of style of discourse, his appeal now being directly to the Gentiles, who would at first regard Paul as a new lecturer on morals and religion. The influence which went forth from this centre radiated throughout the whole province of Asia, partly through visitors to Ephesus on business or for worship at its great temple, and partly through Paul's lieutenants, such as Timothy and Epaphras (Col. i. 7; iv. 13). Witness to this extensive influence is afforded both by the friendly conduct of certain " Asiarchs " at the time of the riot (xix. 31), and by the fact that Paul later wrote a circular letter to this region, the so-called Epistle to the Ephesians. This result was due not only to Paul's persuasive speech but also to deeds of power, connected with the superhuman gifts with which he felt himself to be endowed by the Spirit of God (Acts xix. 11; cf. Rom. xv. 18 seq.; 2 Cor. xii. 12). Nor can we feel Paul's full greatness unless we remember that he was tried by the searching test of super normal psychical and physical powers operating through him, and that he came through all with an enhanced sense of the superiority of rational and moral gifts, and of love as the crown and touchstone of all, as well as with a deepened humility. That he suffered much before the final tumult, due to his success affecting ^i^^ss. trades dependent on the cult of the Ephesian Artemis is imphed in his own words, " humanly speaking, I,


 * r2 The affirmative is maintained by the so-called Religionsgeschichtliche Schule in particular. The more general verdict is "not proven."


 * r3 In this light his polling of his head before embarking at Cenchreae in token of a vow of special self-consecration (to be redeemed at the end of a month in Jerusalem itself; cf. Josephus, Jewish War, II. XV. i), is significant of his feelings as to the critical nature of the visit, including danger from Jewish fanaticism during a voyage probably on the eve of a feast (say Pentecost), for which he went up on his later visit (Acts. x-x. 16).