Chapter XXXV: Part 35

Paul was now received in Jerusalem by the brethren with great joy, and going, on the day after his arrival, to see James, now the principal apostle resident in the Holy city, communicated to him and all the elders a full account of all his various labors. Having heard his very interesting communications, they were moved with gratitude to God for this triumph of his grace; but knowing as they did, with what rumors against Paul these events had been connected by common fame, they desired to arrange his introduction to the temple in such a manner, as would most effectually silence these prejudicial stories. The plan proposed by them was, that he should, in the company of four Jews of the Christian faith, who had a vow on them, go through with all the usual forms of purification prescribed under such circumstances for a Jew, on returning from the daily impurities to which he was exposed by a residence among the Gentiles, to a participation in the holy services of solemn worship in the temple. The apostles and elders, however, in recommending this course, declared to him, that they believed that the Gentiles ought not to be bound to the performance of the Jewish rituals, but should be exempt from all restrictions, except such as had formerly been decided on, by the council of Jerusalem. Paul, always devout and exact in the observance of the institutions of his national religion, followed their advice accordingly, and went on quietly and unpretendingly in the regular performance of the prescribed ceremonies, waiting for the termination of the seven days of purification, when the offering should be made for himself, and one for each of his companions, after which, they were all to be admitted of course, to the full honors of Mosaic purity, and the religious privileges of conforming Jews. But these ritual observances were not destined to save him from the calamities to which the hatred of his enemies had devoted him. Near the close of the seven days allotted by the Mosaic ritual for the purification of a regenerated Israelite, some of the Asian Jews, who had known Paul in his missionary journeys through their own country, and who had come to Jerusalem, to attend the festival, seeing their old enemy in the midst of the temple, against whose worship they had understood him to have been preaching to the Gentiles,――instantly raised a great outcry, and fell upon him, dragging him along, and shouting to the multitude around, “Men of Israel! help! This is the man, that every where teaches all men against the people, and the law, and this place; and he has furthermore, brought Greeks into the temple, and has polluted this holy place.” It seems they had seen Trophimus, one of his Gentile companions from Ephesus, with him in the city, and imagined also that Paul had brought him into the temple, within the sanctuary, whose entrance was expressly forbidden to all Gentiles, who were never allowed to pass beyond the outermost court. The sanctuary or court of the Jews could not be crossed by an uncircumcised Gentile, and the transgression of the holy limit was punished with death. Within this holy court, the scene now described took place; and as the whole sanctuary was then crowded with Jews, who had come from all parts of the world to attend the festival in Jerusalem, the outcry raised against Paul immediately drew thronging thousands around him. Hearing the complaint that he was a renegade Jew, who, in other countries, had used his utmost endeavors to throw contempt on his own nation, and to bring their holy worship into disrepute, and yet had now the impudence to show himself in the sanctuary, which he had thus blasphemed,――and had, moreover, even profaned it by introducing into the sacred precincts one of those Gentiles for whose company he had forsaken the fellowship of Israel,――they all joined in the rush upon him, and dragged him out of the temple, the gates of which were immediately shut by the Levites on duty, lest in the riot that was expected to ensue, the consecrated pavement should be polluted with the blood of the renegade. Not only those in the temple, but also all those in the city, were called out by the disturbance, and came running together to join in the mob against the profaner of the sanctuary, and Paul now seemed in a fair way to win the bloody crown of martyrdom.

The great noise made by the swarming multitudes who were gathering around Paul, soon reached the ears of the Roman garrison in castle Antonia, and the soldiers instantly hastened to tell the commanding officer, that “the whole city was in an uproar.” The tribune, Claudius Lysias, probably thinking of a rebellion against the Romans, instantly ordered a detachment of several companies under arms, and hurried down with them, in a few moments, to the scene of the riot. The mob meanwhile were ♦diligently occupied in beating Paul; but as soon as the military force made their way among the crowd, the rioters left off beating him, and fell back. The tribune coming near, and seeing Paul alone in the midst, who seemed to be the object and occasion of all the disturbance, without hesitation seized him, and putting him in chains, took him out of the throng. He then demanded what all this riot meant. To his inquiry, the whole mob replied with various accounts; some cried one thing and some another; and the tribune finding it utterly impossible to learn from the rioters who he was or what he had done, ordered him to be taken up to the castle. Castle Antonia stood at the northwestern angle of the temple, close by one of the great entrances to it, near which the riot seems to have taken place. To this, Paul was now taken, and was borne by the surrounding soldiers, to keep off the multitude, who were raging for his blood, like hungry wolves after the prey snatched from their jaws,――and they all pressed after him, shouting, “kill him!” In this way Paul was carried up the stairs which led to the high entrance of the castle, which of course the soldiers would not allow the multitude to mount; and when he had reached the top of the stairs, he was therefore perfectly protected from their violence, though perfectly well situated for speaking to them so as to be distinctly seen and heard. As they were taking him up the stairs, he begged the attention of the tribune, saying, “May I speak to thee?” The tribune hearing this, in some surprise asked, “Canst thou speak Greek? Art thou not that Egyptian that raised a sedition some time ago, and led away into the wilderness a band of four thousand cut-throats?” This alarming revolt had been but lately put down with great trouble, and was therefore fresh in the mind of Lysias, who had been concerned in quelling it, along with the whole Roman force in Palestine,――and from some of the outcries of the mob, he now took up the notion that Paul was the very ringleader of that revolt, and had now just returned from his place of refuge to make new trouble, and had been detected by the multitude in the temple. Paul answered the foolish accusation of the tribune, by saying, “I am a Jewish citizen of Tarsus, in Cilicia, which is no mean city; and I beg of thee, to let me speak to the people.” The tribune, quite glad to have his unpleasant suspicions removed, as an atonement for the unjust accusation immediately granted the permission as requested, and Paul therefore turned to the raging multitude, waving his hand in the usual gesture for requesting silence. The people, curious to hear his account of himself, listened accordingly, and he therefore uplifted his voice in a respectful request for their attention to his plea in his own behalf. “Men! Brethren! and Fathers! Hear ye my defence which I make to you!”

♦ “dilgently” replaced with “diligently”

Those words were spoken in the vernacular language of Palestine, the true Hebraistic dialect of Jerusalem, and the multitude were thereby immediately undeceived about his character, for they had been as much mistaken about him, as the tribune was, though their mistake was of a very opposite character; for they supposed him to be entirely Greek in his habits and language, if not in his origin; and the vast concourse was therefore hushed in profound silence, to hear his address made in the true Jewish language. Before this strange audience, Paul then stood up boldly, to declare his character, his views, and his apostolic commission. On the top of the lofty rampart of Castle Antonia,――with the dark iron forms of the Roman soldiery around him, guarding the staircase from top to bottom, against the raging mob,――and with the enormous mass of the congregated thousands of Jerusalem, and of the strangers who had come up to the festival, all straining their fierce eyes in wrath and hate upon him, as a convicted renegade,――one feeble, slender man, now stood, the object of the most painful attention to all,――yet, less moved with passion and anxiety than any one present. Thus stationed, he began, and gave to the curious multitude an interesting account of the incidents connected with that great change in his feelings and belief, which was the occasion of the present difficulty. After giving them a complete statement of these particulars, he was narrating the circumstance of a revelation made to him in the temple, while in a devotional trance there, on his first return to Jerusalem, after his conversion. In repeating the solemn commission there confirmed to him by the voice of God, he repeated the crowning sentence, with which the Lord removed his doubts about engaging in the work of preaching the gospel, when his hands were yet, as it were, red with the blood of the martyred faithful,――“And he said to me, ‘Go: for I will send thee far hence, unto the GENTILES.’” But when the listening multitude heard this clear declaration of his having considered himself authorized to communicate to the Gentiles those holy things which had been especially consigned by God to his peculiar people,――they took it as a clear confession of the charge of having desecrated and degraded his national religion, and all interrupted him with the ferocious cry, “Take him away from the earth! for such a fellow does not deserve to live.” The tribune, finding that this discussion was not likely to answer any good purpose, instantly put a stop to it, by dragging him into the castle, and gave directions that he should be examined by scourging, that they might make him confess truly who he was, and what he had done to make the people cry out so against him,――a very foolish way, it would seem, to find out the truth about an unknown and abused person, to flog him until he should tell a story that would please them. While the guard were binding him with thongs, before they laid on the scourge, Paul spoke to the centurion, who was superintending the operation, and said in a sententiously inquiring way, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman citizen without legal condemnation?” This question put a stop to all proceedings at once. The centurion immediately dropped the thongs, and ran to the tribune, saying, “Take heed what thou doest, for this man is a Roman citizen.” The tribune then came to Paul, in much trepidation, and with great solemnity said――“Tell me truly, art thou a Roman citizen?” Paul distinctly declared, “Yes.”

Desirous to learn the mode in which the prisoner had obtained this most sacred and unimpeachable privilege, the tribune remarked of himself, that _he_ had obtained this right by the payment of a large sum of money,――perhaps doubting whether a man of Paul’s poor aspect could have ever been able to buy it; to which Paul boldly replied――“But I was BORN free.” This clear declaration satisfied the tribune that he had involved himself in a very serious difficulty, by committing this illegal violence on a person thus entitled to all the privileges of a subject of law. All the subordinate agents also, were fully aware of the nature of the mistake, and all immediately let him alone. Lysias now kept Paul with great care in the castle, as a place of safety from his Jewish persecutors; and the next day, in order to have a full investigation of his character and the charges against him, he took him before the Sanhedrim, for examination. Paul there opened his defence in a very appropriate and self-vindicating style. “Men! Brethren! and Fathers! I have heretofore lived before God with a good conscience.” At these words, Ananias the high priest, provoked by Paul’s seeming assurance in thus vindicating himself, when under the accusation of the heads of the Jewish religion, commanded those that stood next to Paul to slap him on the mouth. Paul, indignant at the high-handed tyranny of this outrageous attack on him, answered in honest wrath――“God shall smite thee, thou whited wall! For dost thou command me to be smitten contrary to the law, when thou sittest as a judge over me?” The other by-standers, enraged at his boldness, asked him, “Revilest thou God’s high priest?” To which Paul, not having known the fact that Ananias then held that office, which he had so disgraced by his infamous conduct, replied――“I knew not, brethren, that he was the high priest; for it is written, thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.” Then, perceiving the mixed character of the council, he determined to avail himself of the mutual hatred of the two great sects, for his defense, by making his own persecution a kind of party question; and therefore called out to them――“I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. Of the hope of the resurrection of the dead, I am called in question.” These words had the expected effect. Instantly, all the violent party feeling between these two sects broke out in full force, and the whole council was divided and confused,――the scribes who belonged to the Pharisaic order, arising, and declaring, “We find no occasion of evil in this man. But if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God.” This last remark, of course, was throwing down the gauntlet at the opposite sect; for the Sadducees, denying absolutely the existence of either angel or spirit, could of course believe no part of Paul’s story about his vision and spiritual summons. They all therefore broke out against the Pharisees, who being thus involved, took Paul’s side very determinedly, and the party strife grew so hot that Paul was like to be torn in pieces between them. The tribune, seeing the pass to which matters had come, then ordered out the castle-guard, and took him by force, bringing him back to his former place of safety.

“The reason why St. Paul chose to speak in the Hebrew tongue,
may be accounted for thus. There were at this time two sorts
of Jews, some called by Chrysostom οἱ βαθεις Ἑβραιοι, _profound
Hebrews_, who used no other language but the Hebrew, and would
not admit the Greek Bible into their assemblies, but only the
Hebrew, with the Jerusalem Targum and Paraphrase. The other
sort spoke Greek, and used that translation of the scriptures;
these were called Hellenists. This was a cause of great
dissension among these two parties, even after they had embraced
Christianity, (Acts vi. 1.) Of this latter sort was St. Paul,
because he always made use of the Greek translation of the
Bible in his writings, so that in this respect he might not be
acceptable to the other party. Those of them who were converted
to Christianity, were much prejudiced against him, (Acts xxi.
21,) which is given as a reason for his concealing his name
in his Epistle to the Hebrews. And as for those who were not
converted, they could not so much as endure him: and this is the
reason which Chrysostom gives, why he preached to the Hellenists
only. Acts ix. 28. Therefore, that he might avert the great
displeasure which the Jews had conceived against him, he
accosted them in their favorite language, and by his compliance
in this respect, they were so far pacified as to give him
audience.” (Hammond’s Annotations.) [Williams’s Pearson, p. 70.]

“Scourging was a method of examination used by Romans and other
nations, to force such as were supposed guilty to confess what
they had done, what were their motives, and who were accessory
to the fact. Thus Tacitus tells us of Herennius Gallus, that he
received several stripes, that it might be known for what price,
and with what confederates, he had betrayed the Roman army.
It is to be observed, however, that the Romans were punished
in this wise, not by whips and scourges, but with rods only;
and therefore it is that Cicero, in his oration pro Rabirio,
speaking against Labienus, tells his audience that the Porcian
law permitted a Roman to be whipped with rods, but he, like a
good and merciful man, (speaking ironically,) had done it with
scourges; and still further, neither by whips nor rods could
a citizen of Rome be punished, until he were first adjudged to
lose his privilege, to be uncitizened, and to be declared an
enemy to the commonwealth, then he might be scourged or put to
death. Cicero Oratio in Verres, says, ‘It is a foul fault for
any praetor, &c. to bind a citizen of Rome; a piacular offense
to scourge him; a kind of parricide to kill him: what shall I
call the crucifying of such an one?’” (Williams’s notes on
Pearson, pp. 70, 71.)

“Ananias, the son of Nebedaeus, was high priest at the time
that Helena, queen of Adiabene, supplied the Jews with corn
from Egypt, (Josephus Antiquities, lib. xx. c. 5. § 2,) during
the famine which took place in the fourth year of Claudius,
mentioned in the eleventh chapter of the Acts. St. Paul,
therefore, who took a journey to Jerusalem at that period, (Acts
xv.) could not have been ignorant of the elevation of Ananias
to that dignity. Soon after the holding of the first council,
as it is called, at Jerusalem, Ananias was dispossessed of his
office, in consequence of certain acts of violence between the
Samaritans and the Jews, and sent prisoner to Rome, (Josephus,
Antiquities, lib. xx. c. 6. § 2,) whence he was afterwards
released and returned to Jerusalem. Now from that period he
could not be called high priest, in the proper sense of the word,
though Josephus (Antiquities, lib. xx. c. 9. § 2, and Jewish
War lib. ii. c. 17. § 9,) has sometimes given him the title
of αρχιερευς, taken in the more extensive meaning of a priest,
who had a seat and voice in the Sanhedrim; αρχιερεις in the
plural number is frequently used in the New Testament, when
allusion is made to the Sanhedrim;) and Jonathan, though we
are not acquainted with the circumstances of his elevation, had
been raised, in the mean time, to the supreme dignity in the
Jewish church. Between the death of Jonathan, who was murdered
(Josephus Antiquities of the Jews lib. xx. c. 8. § 5,) by order
of Felix, and the high priesthood of Ismael, who was invested
with that office by Agrippa, (Josephus Antiquities lib. xx.
c. 8. § 3,) elapsed an interval in which this dignity continued
vacant. Now it happened precisely in this interval, that St.
Paul was apprehended at Jerusalem; and, the Sanhedrim being
destitute of a president, he undertook of his own authority the
discharge of that office, which he executed with the greatest
tyranny. (Josephus Antiquities lib. xx. c. 9. § 2.) It is
possible therefore that St. Paul, who had been only a few days
at Jerusalem, might be ignorant that Ananias, who had been
dispossessed of the priesthood, had taken upon himself a trust
to which he was not entitled. He might therefore very naturally
exclaim, ‘I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest!’
Admitting him on the other hand to have been acquainted with the
fact, the expression must be considered as an indirect reproof,
and a tacit refusal to recognize usurped authority.” (Michaelis,
Vol. I. pp. 51, 56.)

“The prediction of St. Paul, verse 3, ‘God shall smite thee,
thou whited wall,’ was, according to Josephus, fulfilled in
a short time. For when, in the government of Florus, his son
Eleazar set himself at the head of a party of mutineers, who,
having made themselves masters of the temple, would permit
no sacrifices to be offered for the emperor; and being joined
by a company of assassins, compelled persons of the best
quality to fly for their safety and hide themselves in sinks
and vaults;――Ananias and his brother Hezekias, were both drawn
out of one of these places, and murdered, (Josephus Jewish War
lib. ii. c. 17, 18,) though Dr. Lightfoot will have it that he
perished at the siege of Jerusalem!” (Whitby’s Annotations.)
[Williams on Pearson.]

During that night, the soul of Paul was comforted by a heavenly vision, in which the Lord exhorted him to maintain the same high spirit,――assuring him that as he had testified of him in Jerusalem, even so he should bear witness in Rome. His dangers in Jerusalem, however, were not yet over. The furious Jews, now cut off from all possibility of doing any violence to Paul, under the sanction of legal forms, determined to set all moderation aside, and forty of the most desperate bound themselves by a solemn oath, neither to eat nor drink, till they had slain Paul. In the arrangement of the mode in which their abominable vow should be performed, it was settled between them and the high-priest, that a request should be sent to the tribune to bring down Paul before the council once more, as if for the sake of putting some additional inquiries to him for their final and perfect satisfaction; and then, that these desperadoes should station themselves, where they could make a rush upon Paul, just as he was entering the council-hall, and kill him before the guard could bestir themselves in his defense, or seize the murderers; and even if some of them should be caught and punished, it never need be known, that the high priest was accessory to the assassination. But while they were arranging this hopeful piece of wickedness, they did not manage it so snugly as was necessary for the success of the plot; for it somehow or other got to the ears of Paul’s nephew,――a young man no where else mentioned in the New Testament, and of whose character and situation, nothing whatever is known. He, hearing of the plot, came instantly to his uncle, who sent him to communicate the tidings to the tribune. Lysias, on receiving this account of the utterly desperate character of the opposition to Paul, determined not to risk his prisoner’s life any longer in Jerusalem, even when guarded by the powerful defenses of castle Antonia. He dismissed the young man with the strongest injunctions, to observe the most profound secrecy, as to the fact of his having made this communication to him; and immediately made preparations to send off Paul, that very night, to Caesarea, designing to have him left there with the governor of the province, as a prisoner of state, and thus to rid himself of all responsibility about this very difficult and perilous business. He ordered two centurions to draw out a detachment, of such very remarkable strength, as shows the excess of his fears for Paul. Two hundred heavy-armed soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred lancers, were detached as a guard for Paul, and were all mounted for speed, to take him beyond the reach of the Jerusalem desperadoes, that very night. He gave to that portion of the detachment that was designed to go all the way to Caesarea, a letter to be delivered to Felix the governor, giving a fair and faithful account of all the circumstances connected with Paul’s imprisonment and perils in Jerusalem.

RETURN TO CAESAREA.

The strong mounted detachment, numbering four hundred and seventy full-armed Roman warriors, accordingly set out that night at nine o’clock, and moving silently off from the castle, which stood near one of the western gates of the city, passed out of Jerusalem unnoticed in the darkness, and galloped away to the north-west. After forty miles of hard riding, they reached Antipatris before day, and as all danger of pursuit from the Jerusalem assassins was out of the question there, the mounted infantry and the lancers returned to Jerusalem, leaving Paul however, the very respectable military attendance of the seventy horse-guards. With these, he journeyed to Caesarea, only about twenty-five miles off, where he was presented by the commander of the detachment to Felix, the Roman governor, who always resided in Caesarea, the capital of his province. The governor, on reading the letter and learning that Paul was of Cilicia, deferred giving his case a full hearing, until his accusers had also come; and committed him for safe keeping in the interval, to an apartment in the great palace, built by Herod the Great, the royal founder of Caesarea.

After a delay of five days, the high priest and the elders came down to Caesarea, to prosecute their charges against Paul before the governor. They brought with them, as their advocate, a speech-maker named Tertullus, whose name shows him to have been of Roman connections or education, and who, on account of his acquaintance with the Latin forms of oratory and law, was no doubt selected by Ananias and his coadjutors, as a person better qualified than themselves to maintain their cause with effect, before the governor. Tertullus accordingly opened the case, and when Paul had been confronted with his accusers, began with a very tedious string of formal compliments to Felix, and then set forth a complaint against Paul in very bitter and abusive terms, stating his offense to be, the attempt to profane the temple, for which the Jews would have convicted and punished him, if Lysias had not violently hindered, and put them to the trouble of bringing the whole business before the governor, though a matter exclusively concerning their religious law. To all his assertions the Jews testified.

This presentation of the accusation being made, Paul was then called on for his defense, which he thereupon delivered in a tone highly respectful to the governor, and maintained that he had been guilty of none of the troublesome and riotous conduct of which he was accused: but quietly, without any effort to make a commotion among the people anywhere, had come into the city on a visit, after many years absence, to bring alms and offerings; and that when he was seized by the Asian Jews in the temple, he was going blamelessly through the established ceremonies of purification. He complained also, that his original accusers, the Asian Jews, were not confronted with him, and challenged his present prosecutors to bring any evidence against him. Felix, after this hearing of the case, on the pretence of needing Lysias as a witness on the facts, deferred his decision, and left both accusers and accused to the enjoyment of the delays and “glorious uncertainties of the law.” Meanwhile he committed Paul to the charge of a centurion, with directions that he should be allowed all reasonable liberty, and should not be in any particular restricted from the freest intercourse with his friends. The imprisonment of Paul at Caesarea was merely nominal; and he must have passed his time both pleasantly and profitably, with the members of the church at Caesarea, with whom he had formerly been acquainted, especially with Philip and his family. Besides these, he was also favored with the company of several of his assistants, who had been the companions of his toils in Europe and Asia; and through them he could hold the freest correspondence with any of the numerous churches of his apostolic charge throughout the world. He resided here for two whole years at least, of Felix’s administration; and during that time, was more than once sent for by the governor, to hold conversations with him on the great objects of his life, in some of which he expressed himself so forcibly on righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, that the wicked governor,――at that moment sitting in the presence of the apostle with an adulterous paramour,――trembled at the view presented by Paul of the consequences of those sins for which Felix was so infamous. But his repentant tremors soon passed off, and he merely dismissed the apostle with the vague promise, that at some more convenient season he would send for him. He did indeed, often send for him after this; but the motive of these renewals of intercourse seems to have been of the basest order, for it is stated by the sacred historian, that his real object was to induce Paul to offer him a bribe, which he supposed could be easily raised by the contributions of his devoted friends. But the hope was vain. It was no part of Paul’s plan of action to hasten the decision of his movements by such means, and the consequence was, that Felix found so little occasion to befriend him, that when he went out of the office which he had uniformly disgraced by tyranny, rapine, and murder, he thought it, on the whole, worth while to gratify the late subjects of his hateful sway, by leaving Paul still a prisoner.

“This Drusilla was the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa.
(Josephus lib. xix. c. 9. in.) Josephus gives the following
account of her marriage with Felix:――‘Agrippa, having received
this present from Caesar, (viz. Claudius,) gave his sister
Drusilla in marriage to the Azizus, king of the Emesenes, when
he had consented to be circumcised. For Epiphanes, the son of
king Antiochus, had broken the contract with her, by refusing
to embrace the Jewish customs, although he had promised her
father he would. But this marriage of Drusilla with Azizus was
dissolved in a short time, after this manner. When Felix was
procurator of Judaea, having had a sight of her, he was mightily
taken with her; and indeed she was the most beautiful of her
sex. He therefore sent to her Simon, a Jew of Cyprus, who was
one of his friends, and pretended to magic, by whom he persuaded
her to leave her husband, and marry him; promising to make her
perfectly happy, if she did not disdain him. It was far from
being a sufficient reason; but to avoid the envy of her sister
Bernice, who was continually doing her ill offices, because
of her beauty, she was induced to transgress the laws of her
country, and marry Felix.’” (Lardner’s Credibility, 4to. Vol. I.
p. 16, 17, edition, London, 1815.) [Williams on Pearson, p. 78.]

Illustration: SYRACUSE. Acts xxviii. 12.

The successor of Felix in the government of Palestine, was Porcius Festus, a man whose administration is by no means characterized in the history of those times by a reputation for justice or prudence; yet in the case of Paul, his conduct seems to have been much more accordant with right and reason, than was that of the truly infamous Felix. Visiting the religious capital of the Jews soon after his first entrance into the province, he was there earnestly petitioned by the ever-spiteful foes of Paul, to cause this prisoner to be brought up to Jerusalem for trial, intending when Paul should enter the city, to execute their old plan of assassination, which had been formerly frustrated by the benevolent prudence and energy of Claudius Lysias. But Festus, perhaps having received some notification of this plot, from the friends of Paul, utterly refused to bring the prisoner to Jerusalem, but required the presence of the accusers in the proper seat of the supreme provincial administration of justice at Caesarea. After a ten days’ stay in Jerusalem, he returned to the civil capital, and with a commendable activity in his judicial proceedings, on the very next day after his arrival in Caesarea, summoned Paul and his accusers before him. The Jews of course, told their old story, and brought out against Paul many grievous complaints, which they could not prove. His only reply to all this accusation without testimony was――“Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended in any particular.” But Festus having been in some way influenced to favor the designs of the Jews, urged Paul to go up to Jerusalem, there to be tried by the supreme religious court of his own nation. Paul replied by a bold and distinct assertion of his rights, as a Roman citizen, before the tribunal of his liege lord and sovran: “I stand before Caesar’s judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as thou very well knowest. If I am guilty of anything that deserves death, I refuse not to die; but if I have done none of these things of which they accuse me, no man can deliver me into their hands. I APPEAL TO CAESAR.” This solemn concluding formula put him at once far beyond the reach of all inferior tyranny; henceforth no governor in the world could direct the fate of the appellant Roman citizen, throwing before himself the adamantine aegis of Roman law. Festus himself, though evidently displeased at this turn of events, could not resist the course of law; but after a conference with this council, replied to Paul――“Dost thou appeal to Caesar? To Caesar shalt thou go.”

While Paul was still detained at Caesarea, after this final reference of his case to the highest judicial authority in the world, Festus was visited at Caesarea, by Herod Agrippa II. king of Iturea, Trachonitis, Abilene, and other northern regions of Palestine, the son of that Herod Agrippa whose character and actions were connected with the incidents of Peter’s life. He, passing through Judea with his sister Bernice, stopped at Caesarea, to pay their compliments to the new Roman governor. During their stay there, Festus, with a view to find rational entertainment for his royal guests, bethought himself of Paul’s case, as one that would be likely to interest them, connected as the prisoner’s fate seemed to be, with the religious and legal matters of that peculiar people to whom Agrippa himself belonged, and in the minutiae of whose law and theology he had been so well instructed, that his opinion on the case would be well worth having, to one as little acquainted with these matters as the heathen governor himself was. Festus therefore gave a very full account of the whole case to Agrippa, in terms that sufficiently well exhibited the perplexities in which he was involved, and in expressions which are strikingly and almost amusingly characteristic,――complaining as he does of the very abstruse and perplexing nature of the accusations brought by the Jews, as being “certain questions of their own religion, and of one Jesus, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.” Agrippa was so much interested in the case that he expressed a wish to hear the man in person; and Festus accordingly arranged that he should the next day be gratified with the hearing.

“‘_King Agrippa and Bernice._’ Acts. xxv. 13. This Agrippa
was the son of Herod Agrippa; St. Luke calls him king, which
Josephus also does very often. (Antiquities lib. xx. c. viii.
§ 6, et passim.) But St. Luke does not suppose him to be king
of Judaea, for all the judicial proceedings of that country
relating to St. Paul, are transacted before Felix, and Festus
his successor; besides, he says, that ‘Agrippa came to Caesarea
to salute Festus,’ to compliment him on his arrival, &c. verse 1.
When his father died, Claudius would have immediately put him in
possession of his father’s dominions, but he was advised not to
do so, on account of the son’s youth, then only seventeen; the
emperor, therefore, ‘appointed Cuspius Fadus praefect of Judea
and the whole kingdom, (Josephus Antiquities lib. xix. c. 9, ad
fin.) who was succeeded by Tiberius, Alexander, Cumanus, Felix,
and Festus, though these did not possess the province in the
same extent that Fadus did.’ (Antiquities xx. Jewish War lib.
ii.)

“Agrippa had, notwithstanding, at this time, considerable
territories. ‘Herod, brother of king Agrippa the Great, died
in the eighth year of the reign of Claudius. Claudius then gave
his government to the young Agrippa.’ (Josephus Antiquities
xx. p. 887.) This is the Agrippa mentioned in this twenty-fifth
chapter. ‘The twelfth year of his reign being completed,
Claudius gave to Agrippa the tetrarchy of Philip and Batanea,
adding also Trachonitis with Abila. This had been the tetrarchy
of Lysanias. But he took away from him Chalcis, after he had
governed it four years.’ (Josephus Antiquities xx. p. 890,
v. 25, &c.) ‘After this, he sent Felix, the brother of Pallas,
to be procurator of Judea, Galilee, Samaria, and Peraea; and
promoted Agrippa from Chalcis to a greater kingdom, giving
him the tetrarchy which had been Philip’s. (This is Batanea,
and Trachonitis, and Gaulonitis;) and he added, moreover, the
kingdom of Lysanias, and the province that had been Varus’s.’
(Josephus War of the Jews lib. ii. c. 12. fin.) ‘Nero, in the
first year of his reign, gave Agrippa a certain part of Galilee,
ordering Tiberias and Tarichaea to be subject to him. He gave
him also Julias, a city of Peraea, and fourteen towns in the
neighborhood of it.’ (Antiquities xx. c. 7. § 4.) St. Luke
is therefore fully justified in styling this Agrippa king at
this time.” (Lardner’s Credibility, 4to. Vol. I. pp. 17, 18.)
[Williams’s Pearson, p. 81, 82.]

On the next day, preparations were made for this audience, with a solemnity of display most honorable to the subject of it. The great hall of the palace was arrayed in grand order for the occasion, and, in due time, king Agrippa, with his royal sister, and the Roman governor, entered it with great pomp, followed by a train composed of all the great military and civil dignitaries of the vice-imperial court of Palestine. Before all this stately array, the apostolic prisoner was now set, and a solemn annunciation was made by Festus, of the circumstances of the prisoner’s previous accusation, trial, and appeal; all which were now summarily recapitulated in public, for the sake of form, although they had before been communicated in private, to Agrippa. The king, as the highest authority present, having graciously invited Paul to speak for himself, the apostle stretched forth his hand and began, in that respectful style of elaborately elegant compliment, which characterizes the exordiums of so many of his addresses to the great. After having, with most admirable skill, conciliated the attention and kind regard of the king, by expressing his happiness in being called to speak in his own defense before one so learned in Hebrew law, he went on; and in a speech which is well known for its noble eloquence, so resplendent, even through the disguise of a quaint translation, presented not merely his own case, but the claims of that revelation, for proclaiming which he was now a prisoner. So admirably did he conduct his whole plea, both for himself and the cause of Christ, that in spite of the sneer of Festus, Agrippa paid him the very highest compliment in his power, and pronounced him to be utterly guiltless of the charges. No part of this plea and its attendant discussions, needs to be recapitulated; but a single characteristic of Paul, which is most strikingly evinced, deserves especial notice. This is his profound regard for all the established forms of polite address. He is not satisfied with a mere respectful behavior towards his judges, but even distinguishes himself by a minute observance of all the customary phrases of politeness; nor does he suffer his courtly manner to be disturbed, even by the abrupt remark of Festus, accusing him of frenzy. In his reply, he styles his accuser “Most noble;” and yet every reader of Jewish history knows, and Paul knew, that this Festus, to whom he gave this honorable title, was one of the very wicked men of those wicked times. The instance shows then, that those who, from religious scruples, refuse to give the titles of established respect to those who are elevated in station, and reject all forms of genteel address, on the same ground, have certainly constructed their system of practical religion on a model wholly different from that by which the apostle’s demeanor was guided; and the whole impression made on a common reader, by Luke’s clear statement of Paul’s behavior before the most dignified and splendid audience that he ever addressed, must be, that he was complete in all the forms and observances of polite intercourse; and he must be considered, both according to the high standard of his refined and dignified hearers, and also by the universal standard of the refined of all ages,――not only a finished, eloquent orator, but a person of polished manners, delicate tact, ready compliment, and graceful, courtly address:――in short, A PERFECT GENTLEMAN.

VOYAGE TO ROME.

As Paul, however, had previously appealed to Caesar, his case was already removed from any inferior jurisdiction, and his hearing before Agrippa was intended only to gratify the king himself, and to cause the particulars of his complicated case to be more fully drawn out before his royal hearer, who was so accomplished in Hebrew law, that his opinion was very naturally desired by Festus; for, as the governor himself confessed, the technicalities and abstruse points involved in the charge, were altogether beyond the comprehension of a Roman judge, with a mere heathen education. The object, therefore, of obtaining a full statement of particulars, to be presented to his most august majesty, the emperor, being completely accomplished by this hearing of Paul before Agrippa,――there was now nothing to delay the reference of the case to Nero; and Paul was therefore consigned, along with other prisoners of state, to the care of a Roman officer, Julius, a centurion of the Augustan cohort. Taking passage at Caesarea, in an Adramyttian vessel, Julius sailed with his important charge from the shores of Palestine, late in the year 60. Following the usual cautious course of all ancient navigators,――along the shores, and from island to island, venturing across the open sea only with the fairest winds,――the vessel which bore the apostle on his first voyage to Italy, coasted along by Syria and Asia Minor. Of those Christian associates who accompanied Paul, none are known except Timothy, Luke, his graphically accurate historian, and Aristarchus of Thessalonica, the apostle’s long-known companion in travel. These, of course, were a source of great enjoyment to Paul on this tedious voyage, surrounded, as he was, otherwise, by strangers and heathen, by most of whom he must have been regarded in the light of a mere criminal, held in bonds for trial. He was, however, very fortunate in the character of the centurion to whose keeping he was entrusted, as is shown in more than one incident related by Luke. After one day’s sail, the vessel touching at Sidon, Julius here politely gave Paul permission to visit his Christian friends in that place,――thus conferring a great favor, both on the apostle and on the church of Sidon. Leaving this place, their course was next along the coast of Syria, and then eastwards, along the southern shore of Asia Minor, keeping in the Cilician strait between that province and the great island of Cyprus, on account of the violence of the southwesters. Coasting along by Pamphylia and Lycia, they next touched at Myra, a city in the latter province, where they were obliged to take passage in another vessel, bound from Alexandria to Italy. In this vessel, they also kept close to the coast, their course being still retarded by head winds, until they reached Cnidus, the farthest southeastern point of Asia Minor, and thence stretched across the Carpathian sea, to Crete, approaching it first at Cape Salmone, the most eastern point at the island, and then passing on to a place called “the Fair Haven,” near Lasea, probably one of the hundred cities of Crete, but mentioned in no other ancient writer. At this place, Paul, whose experience in former voyages was already considerable, having been twice ship-wrecked, had sagacity enough to see that any further navigation that season would be dangerous; for it was now the beginning of October, and the most dreadful tempests might be reasonably expected on the wintry sea, before they could reach the Italian coast. He warned the centurion accordingly, of the peril to which all their lives were exposed; but the owner and commander of the vessel, anxious to find a better place for wintering than this, persuaded Julius to risk the passage to the south side of the island, when they might find, in the port of Phoenix, a more convenient winter harbor. So, after the south wind had nearly died away, they attempted to take advantage of this apparent lull, and work their way, close to the shore along the south side of Crete; but presently they were caught by a tremendous Levanter, which carried them with great velocity away to the west, to the island of Clauda, which lies south of the west end of Crete. Here the danger of the ship’s breaking in pieces was so great, that having with much ado overhauled their boat, they undergirded the ship with cables, to keep it together,――a measure not unknown in modern navigation. Finding that they were in much danger of grounding among the quicksands on the coast of the island, they were glad to stand out to sea; and taking in all sail, scudded under bare poles for fourteen days, during a great part of which time, they saw neither sun, moon nor stars, the whole sky being constantly overcast with clouds, so that they knew nothing of their position. The wind of course carried them directly west, over what was then called the sea of Adria,――not what is now called the _Adriatic_ gulf, but that part of the Mediterranean, which lies between Greece, Italy and Africa. In their desperation, the passengers threw over their own baggage, to lighten the ship; and they began to lose all hope of being saved from shipwreck. Paul, however, encouraged them by the narration of a dream, in which God had revealed to him that every one of them should escape; and they still kept their hopes alive to the fourteenth night, when the sailors, thinking that the long western course must have brought them near Sicily, or the main-land of Italy, which lay not far out of this direction, began to heave the lead, that they might avoid the shore; and at the first sounding, found but twenty fathoms, and at the next fifteen. Of course, the peril of grounding was imminent, and they therefore cast anchor, and waited for day. Knowing that they were now near some shore, the sailors determined to provide for their own safety, and accordingly undertook to let down the boat, to make their escape, and leave the passengers to provide for themselves. But Paul represented to the centurion the certainty of their destruction, if the ship should be left without any seamen to manage it; and the soldiers of the prisoners’ guard, determined not to be thus deserted, though they should all sink together, cut off the ropes by which the boat was held, and let it fell off. All being thus inevitably committed to one doom, Paul exhorted them to take food, and thus strengthen themselves for the effort to reach the shore. They did so accordingly, and then, as a last resort, flung out the wheat with which the ship was loaded, and at day-break, when land appeared, seeing a small creek, they made an effort to run the ship into it, weighing anchor and hoisting the mainsail; but knowing nothing of the ground, soon struck, and the overstrained ship was immediately broken by the waves, the bows being fast in the sandbank, while the stern was heaved by every surge. The soldiers, thinking first of their weighty charge, for whose escape they were to answer with their lives, advised to kill them all, lest they should swim ashore. But the more humane centurion forbade it, and gave directions that every man should provide for his own safety. They did so; and those that could not swim, clinging to the fragments of the wreck, the whole two hundred and seventy-six who were in the vessel, got safe to land.

“‘When sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was already
past.’ verse 9. There is no question but that this is the great
fast of expiation, Leviticus xvi. 29, the description of which
we have in Isaiah lviii. under the name of a sabbath, verse 13.
The precise time of this sabbatic fast is on the tenth day of
the seventh month, _Tizri_, which falls on the same time very
nearly with our September, the first day of Tizri on the seventh
of that, and so the 10th of Tizri on the 16th of September, that
is, thirteen days before our Michaelmas. This being premised,
the apostle’s reasoning becomes clear; for it is precisely the
same as though he should have said, _because it was past the
twentieth_ (the day Scaliger sets for the solemnization of the
fast,) _of September_; it being observed by all sailors, that
for some weeks before and after Michaelmas, there are on the sea
sudden and frequent storms, (probably the equinoctial,) which
have in modern times received the name of Michaelmas flaws,
and must of course make sailing dangerous. Hesiod himself tells
us, that at the going down of Pleiades, which was at the end of
autumn, navigation was hazardous.” (Williams.)

“_Undergirding the ship._’ verse 17. We learn from various
passages in the Greek and Roman writers, that the ancients
had recourse to this expedient, in order to save the ship from
imminent danger; and this method has been used in modern times.
The process of undergirding a ship is thus performed:――a stout
cable is slipped under the vessel at the prow, which can be
conducted to any part of the ship’s keel, and then fasten the
two ends on the deck, to keep the planks from starting. An
instance of this kind is mentioned in ‘Lord Anson’s Voyage round
the World.’ Speaking of a Spanish man-of-war in a storm, the
writer says, ‘They were obliged to throw overboard all their
upper-deck guns, and _take six turns of the cable round the ship,
to prevent her opening_.’ (p. 24, 4to. edition.) Bp. Pearce and
Dr. Clarke, on Acts xxvii. 17. Two instances of undergirding the
ship are noticed in the ‘Chevalier de Johnstone’s Memoirs of the
Rebellion in 1745‒6, London, 1822, 8vo. pp. 421, 454.”
(Williams’s notes on Pearson, p. 85.)

They now found that they had struck on the island of Melita, (now Malta,) which lies just south of Sicily, in the direct track in which the eastern gale must have blown them. The uncivilized inhabitants of this desolate spot received the shipwrecked voyagers with the kindest attention, and very considerately kindled a fire, to warm and dry them, after their long soaking in cold water. The dripping apostle took hold with the rest to make the fire blaze up, and gathered a bundle of dry sticks, for the purpose; but with them he unconsciously gathered a viper, which was sheltering itself among them from the cold, and roused by the heat of the fire, now crept out upon his hand. He, of course, as any other man would, gave a jerk, and shook it off, as soon as he saw it,――a very natural occurrence; but the superstitious barbarians thought this a perfect miracle, as they had before foolishly considered it a token of divine wrath; and having looked on him as an object of horror, and a wicked criminal, they now, with equal sense, adored him as a God.

Another incident of more truly miraculous character, occurred to Paul soon after, in the part of the island on which they were wrecked, which had the effect of gaining him a much more solid fame. The father of Publius, the Roman officer who governed the island, as the deputy of the praetor of Sicily, was at that time very sick of the dysentery; and Paul, going to see him, laid his hands on him and prayed,――thus effecting a complete recovery. This being known, other diseased persons were presented as the subjects of Paul’s miraculous powers, and the same cures following his words, he with his associates soon became the objects of a far more rational reverence than had been excited by the deliverance from the viper. The reverence too, was extended beyond mere empty honor. The shipwrecked apostolic company having lost all their baggage and provisions, were abundantly provided with everything that they needed, by the grateful contributions of the islanders;――and when, after a stay of three months, Paul and his companions departed, they were loaded with things necessary for the voyage.

Illustration: PUTEOLI. Acts xxviii. 13, 14.