Read Ebook: The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles Vol. 2 by Stokes George Thomas Nicoll W Robertson William Robertson Sir Editor

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ACTS vii. 58; xxii. 3.

PAGE

St. Paul's Appearance on the Christian Stage and its Results--The T?bingen Theory--His Parentage--Birthplace-- Testimony of St. Epiphanius--Early Friends--Education-- Trade--Gamaliel and his Influence--Evidence of Talmud-- Pharisaic Schools--Their Casuistry and Exegesis--Parallel between Hagar and Sarah 1-21

THE CONVERSION OF THE PERSECUTOR.

ACTS viii. 3; ix. 1-6.

THE NEW CONVERT AND HIS HUMAN TEACHER.

ACTS ix. 10, 11.

Saul and the Vision--Which probably produced Ophthalmia-- Portrait of St. Paul--Ananias of Damascus--Straight Street--St. Chrysostom on the Spiritual Greatness of Ananias--Seventeenth-century Travellers in Palestine-- Conversation between Jesus Christ and Ananias--Its Theology--Meaning of word Saint--Protest against Antinomianism--St. Paul and title Vas Electionis--And Doctrine of Election--Balance of Doctrine--The New Convert and Prayer 48-67

ACTS ix. 19, 20.

Visit of Ananias to House of Judas--Christ the True Visitor--Keble's Hymn for Easter Monday--Restoration of Saul's Sight--His Baptism--Language of Ananias-- Importance of this fact--Saul's Work in Damascus-- Narrative in Acts and in Galatians--Difficulties-- Reconciliation--Saul in Arabia--Ancient Explanations of--Discipline of--Value of Seasons of Retirement--Waste of Vital Spiritual Tissues in Activity--Abuse of this Principle in Monasticism--Celtic Monasticism--Saul, the Vas Electionis, trained like Jesus Christ 68-91

THE FIRST GENTILE CONVERT.

ACTS x. 1-6.

The Turning-points of Primitive Church History--Conversion of Saul and of Cornelius--Saul's earliest Ministry at Jerusalem--His Escape to Tarsus--St. Peter and Church in Joppa--Temporary Peace after Saul's Conversion-- Caligula's attempt to erect his Statue in Jerusalem--St. Peter and Simon the Tanner--Time of Conversion of Cornelius was Providential--Place, Caesarea-by-the-Sea, Providential--Cornelius, a Roman Centurion--The Legions and Palestine--Modern Authorities confirm the Acts--New Testament and Favourable Estimate of Soldiers--Catholic Nature of Christianity--Value of Discipline--Lessons Taught by Example of Cornelius 92-114

THE PETRINE VISION AT JOPPA.

ACTS x. 9-15.

St. Peter led to Joppa Unconsciously--His Period of Repose--Joppa and Missions to the Gentile World-- Jonah--Peter and the Hour of Prayer--Value of Forms-- Canonical Hours--Tertullian's Testimony--Nature of Peter's Vision--Conditioned by his Natural State-- Exactly suited to Destroy his Prejudices--John Calvin's View--St. Peter at Caesarea--His Sermon--Not Latitudinarian, as some Think--But Truly Catholic--Peter presupposes some Knowledge of Gospel Facts--Evidence of Resurrection--Necessarily Limited--Unless Course of Human Affairs was to be Upset--And God's Usual Laws set Aside--Outpouring of Holy Ghost on Gentiles--Baptism of Cornelius 115-141

THE HARVEST OF THE GENTILES.

ACTS xi. 26.

Reception of News of Gentile Conversion at Jerusalem-- Debate and Strife with St. Peter--The Early Church Knew Nothing of the Privilegium Petri--Fable of Pope Marcellinus--Origin of Antiochene Church--Foundation of Antioch--Scenery and History--Orators and Water Supply--Arrival of Barnabas and of Saul--Invention of the Name Christians--Remarks of Archbishop Trench-- The Prophet Agabus and the Outgoings of Charity 142-163

THE DEFEAT OF PRIDE.

ACTS xii. 1-3, 23, 24.

Contact of Sacred and Secular History in this Chapter-- Story of Herod Agrippa--Illustration of Principle of Heredity--First Martyrdom among Apostles--Character of James, Son of Zebedee--His Spiritual Eminence--His Death a Real Answer to Prayer--St. Peter's Deliverance--Granted to a Pleading Church--Angelic Interference--And the Proprieties of Christianity--Clement of Alexandria and the Paedagogue--Herod's Ostentation and Miserable Death-- Testimony of Josephus 164-187

ST. PAUL'S ORDINATION AND FIRST MISSIONARY TOUR

ACTS xiii. 2-4, 14; xiv. 1, 26.

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN COUNCIL.

ACTS xv. 1, 2, 6, 19.

History of the great General Councils--Originates at that of Jerusalem--Date and Subject-matter--The Controversy about Circumcision--Social Questions springing from it-- St. Paul's Position--His Apparent Inconsistencies-- Lessons of Apostolic Council--Early Church Scene of Controversies--No Infallible Guide--Composition of Council--Lay Element in Church Synods--Hooker and the Church of England--Witness of Prayer Book--Experience of Irish Church--Proceedings of the Council--Triumph of Gentile Freedom 219-244

APOSTOLIC QUARRELS AND THE SECOND TOUR.

ACTS xv. 36, 39; xvi. 6, 8, 9.

ST. PAUL IN MACEDONIA.

ACTS xvi. 29, 31; xvii. 1, 2, 10.

Ancient Roads and Rome--The Gospel at Philippi--History of that Town--Constitution of Roman Colonies--Lydia and Jewish Oratory--Francis de Sales and Small Congregations--Politics and Christianity--The Apostle before the Duumviri--The Jailer and the Earthquake-- "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and Thou shalt be Saved"--The Philippian Church and Persecution--St. Paul at Thessalonica and Beroea--The Politarchs 271-300

ST. PAUL IN GREECE.

ACTS xvii. 16-18; xviii. 1.

THE EPHESIAN CHURCH AND ITS FOUNDATION.

ACTS xviii. 19-21, 24-26; xix. 1.

History of Ephesus--Cenchreae and its Church--Aquila and his Vow--Christianity and External Actions--Judaism and Christianity confounded by Romans--St. Paul's Journey to Ephesus and Jerusalem--Visit to Galatia-- Ephesus and John's Disciples--Slow Progress of Gospel in Apostolic Age--Apollos and Meyer's Theory about Baptism--The Baptismal Formula--The School of Tyrannus--Ephesian Magic and its Professors--Story of St. Chrysostom--The Sons of Sceva 331-356

THE EPHESIAN RIOT AND A PRUDENT TOWN CLERK.

ACTS xix. 23-28.

ST. PAUL AND THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

ACTS xx. 1, 7, 17-19, 28.

St. Paul's Position in A.D. 57--Personal Character of St. Luke's Narrative--Defects of German Criticism-- Apostle's Second Visit to Macedonia--"Round about unto Illyricum"--Visitation of Corinth--Passover at Philippi-- Holy Communion at Troas--The Lord's Day in the Primitive Church--Argument from Silence, Dangers of--Justin Martyr on Sunday--Eucharistic Amen--Evening Celebrations--The Agape--Fasting Communion--St. Paul's Sermon and Eutychus-- Miletus and Charge to Ephesian Elders--Its Apologetic Tone--St. Paul's view of Sermons--Decay of Modern Preaching--Apostolic Power of Prevision--The Ministry and Personal Religion--The Holy Ghost and Ordination-- Origin of Episcopacy--Dr. Hatch's Theories unhistorical-- Irenaeus on Bishops--Derived from Apostles--Communicatio Idiomatum--St. Paul's Farewell 385-421

A PRISONER IN BONDS.

ACTS xxi. 2, 3, 17, 33, 39, 40; xxii. 22, 30; xxiv. 1; xxvi. 1.

St. Paul's Voyage from Miletus to Jerusalem--Christianity at Tyre--"The Seed growing silently"--The Church at Caesarea and its Teachers--St. Paul's Interview with St. James--The Nazarite Vow--St. Paul's Arrest and Appearance before the Sanhedrin--His Defence before Felix--Felix and Drusilla-- Lessons of St. Paul's Vicissitudes--Agabus and Prophesying-- St. James and Compromise--St. Paul and the High Priest--His Quickness and Tact--Tertullian on Flight in Persecution-- Quietism and Quakerism--St. Paul and the Herodian Family-- Argument of his Address before Agrippa and Bernice--His Appeal to Caesar 422-449

"IN PERILS ON THE SEA."

ACTS xxvii. 1-3; xxviii. 16.

St. Paul as a Traveller and a Prisoner--Length of his Imprisonment--Blessed Results of his Captivity--"The Prisoner of the Lord"--Teaching of the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity--His Captivity Benefited-- His Personal Religion-- The Church at Caesarea-- The Church at Rome-- The Universal Church-- Composition of St. Luke's Gospel--Technical Use of word Gospel--Testimony of Aristides and Irenaeus--Epistles of the Captivity--Story of the Voyage to Rome--Roman Provincial Organisation--Writings of Mr. James Smith of Jordanhills--Church at Sidon--The Storm--Malta and Puteoli--Christianity at Pompeii--Christian Inscription there Discovered--St. Paul's Approach to Rome--Intense Humanity of the Apostle--Interview with the local Jewish Sanhedrin--Christianity at Rome-- Investigations of Harnack and Sch?rer 450-471

"A young man named Saul."--ACTS vii. 58.

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as ye all are this day."--ACTS xxii. 3.

The appearance of St. Paul upon the stage of Christian history marks a period of new development and of more enlarged activity. The most casual reader of the Acts of the Apostles must see that a personality of vast power, force, individuality, has now entered the bounds of the Church, and that henceforth St. Paul, his teaching, methods, and actions, will throw all others into the shade. Modern German critics have seized upon this undoubted fact and made it the foundation on which they have built elaborate theories concerning St. Paul and the Acts of the Apostles. Some of them have made St. Paul the inventor of a new form of Christianity, more elaborate, artificial, and dogmatic than the simple religion of nature which, as they think, Jesus Christ taught. Others have seen in St. Paul the great rival and antagonist of St. Peter, and have seen in the Acts a deliberate attempt to reconcile the opposing factions of Peter and Paul by representing St. Paul's career as modelled upon that of Peter's. These theories are, we believe, utterly groundless; but they show at the same time what an important event in early Church history St. Paul's conversion was, and how necessary a thorough comprehension of his life and training if we wish to understand the genesis of our holy religion.

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