Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/149

 the head of each of them. The tempest and the fire were the symbols of God's presence on Sinai of old, and from the same signs joined with these new phenomena, they now learned that the aid of God was thus given to equip them with the powers and energies needful for their success in the wider publication of the doctrine of Christ. With these tokens of a divine presence around them, their feelings and thoughts were raised to the highest pitch of joy and exultation; and being conscious of a new impulse working in them, they were seized with a sacred glow of enthusiasm, so that they gave utterance to these new emotions in words as new to them as their sensations, and spoke in different languages, praising God for this glorious fulfilment of his promise, as this holy influence inspired them.

An upper room.—The location of this chamber has been the subject of a vast quantity of learned discussion, a complete view of which would far exceed my limits. The great point mooted has been, whether this place was in a private house or in the temple. The passage in Luke xxiv. 53, where it is said that the apostles "were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God," has led many to suppose that the same writer, in this continuation of the gospel story, must have had reference to some part of the temple, in speaking of the upper room as the place of their abode. In the Acts ii. 46, also, he has made a similar remark, which I can best explain when that part of the story is given. The learned Krebsius (Obs. in N. T. e Jos. pp. 162-164) has given a fine argument, most elegantly elaborated with quotations from Josephus, in which he makes it apparently quite certain from the grammatical construction, and from the correspondence of terms with Josephus's description of the temple, that this upper room must have been there. It is true, that Josephus mentions particularly a division of the inner temple, on the upper side of it, under the name of [Greek: hyperôon], (hyperoon,) which is the word used by Luke in this passage, but Krebsius in attempting to prove this to be a place in which the disciples might be constantly assembled, has made several errors in the plan of the later temple, which I have not time to point out, since there are other proofs of the impossibility of their meeting there, which will take up all the space I can bestow on the subject. Krebsius has furthermore overlooked entirely the following part of the text in Acts i. 13, where it is said, that when they returned to Jerusalem, "they went up into an upper room where they had been staying," in Greek, [Greek: hou êsan katamenontes], (hou esan katamenontes,) com. trans. "they abode." The true force of this use of the present participle with the verb of existence is repeated action, as is frequently true of the imperfect of that verb in such combinations. Kuinoel justly gives it this force,—"ubi commorari sive convenire solebant." But the decisive proof against the notion that this room was in the temple, is this. In specifying the persons there assembled, it is said, (Acts i. 14,) that the disciples were assembled there with the women of the company. Now it is most distinctly specified in all descriptions of the temple, that the women were always limited to one particular division of the temple, called the "women's court." Josephus is very particular in specifying this important fact in the arrangements of the temple. (Jew. War, V. 5. 2.) "A place on this part of the temple specially devoted to the religious use of the women, being entirely separated from the rest by a wall, it was necessary that there should be another entrance to this. * * * There were on the other sides of this place two gates, one on the north and one on the south, through which the court of the women was entered; for women were not allowed to enter through any others." (Also V. 5, 6.) "But women, even when pure, were not allowed to pass within the limit before mentioned." This makes it evident beyond all doubt, that women could never be allowed to assemble with men in this upper chamber within the forbidden precincts, to which indeed it was impossible for them to have access, entering the temple through two private doors, and using only one court, which was cut off by an impenetrable wall, from all communication with any other part of the sacred inclosure.