Commentary Upon Acts, Part 3
ACTS IX.
Vers. 23. And after that many dayes were fulfilled, &c.
Sect. Account of the Chronologie.
THe conversion of Paul wee observed ere while, and proved to be in the yeer next after our Saviours ascension or Anno Christi 34. Now Paul himselfe testifieth that three yeers after his conversion he went up to Ierusalem, Gal. 1.18. That space of time he spent in Damascus, in Arabia and in Damascus againe. For so himself testifieth in the verse before. But how long time hee tooke up in these severall abodes in these places, it is not determinable nor indeed is it materiall to inquire, since we have the whole time of all his abodes summed up in that account of three yeers: Now whereas there is no mention in Lukes relation of his journey into Arabia, but he maketh him (as one would think) to come up to Ierusalem, at his first departure from Damascus, we have shewed elsewhere that it is no uncouth thing with this and the other Evangelists, to make such briefe transitions, sometimes in stories of a large distance: and Paul himself plainely sheweth us in the place alledged, how to make the briefe story of Luke full and compleat, and to speak it out: Namely that Paul upon his comming after his conversion into Damascus, began there to preach, and increased more and more in strength, and confounded the Iewes that dwelt at Damascus, proving that Iesus was the very Christ: And having preached a while in Damascus, hee goeth into Arabia, which countrey was now under the same government with Damascus, namely under King Aretas) and after a while hee returned into Damascus againe: And then do the Jewes there seek to kill him, and they incense the governour of the Citie under Aretas against him, so that hee setteth a watch to take him, but he escapeth over the wall by night in a Basket, Acts 9.25. 2 Cor. 11.33. We shall see by and by, that there were preparations for warre this yeere, betwixt Aretas the King of Arabia, and Herod the Tetrarch, and it is not improbable that the Jewes in those times of commotion did accuse Paul to the governour of Damascus under Aretas for a spie or for a man that was an enemy to the Kings cause, and so they interest the governor in a quarrell against him: And this very thing being considered may helpe somewhat to confirme this for the yeare of Pauls comming from Damascus for feare of his life to Ierusalem, if his owne accounting the yeers did not make it plaine enough.
Vers. 26. And when Saul was come to Ierusalem, &c.
His errand to Ierusalem, as himselfe testifieth, was to see Peter, Gal. 1.18. foreign: not for any homage to his primacy (as is strongly pleaded by the Popish crew) for hee maketh no distinction betwixt him and Iames and Iohn in point of dignity, Gal. 2.9. nay is so farre from homaging him that he rebuketh and reproveth him, Gal. 2.11. But his journey to Peter at this time was, that hee might have acquaintance with him and some knowledge of him, for so the word foreign more properly signifieth, and that hee desired the rather, because then Peter was the minister of the Circumcision, as hee himselfe was to bee of the uncircumcision, Gal. 2.8. and because there had been some kind of remarkable parallel betwixt them in their recovery, the one from denying and forswearing Christ himselfe, and the other from persecuting of Christ in his members.
Sect. But they were all affraid of him, and beleeved not that hee was a Disciple.
This very thing hath caused some to conceive that Paul had a journey to Ierusalem a little after his conversion, and before ever he went into Arabia: because they cannot conceive how it should be possible, that hee should have beene a convert and a Preacher of the Gospell three yeers together, and yet his conversion and his present qualities should bee unknowne to the Church at Ierusalem: and the rather because hee himself saith that the wonder of his conversion was not done in a corner, Acts 26.26.
Answ. But these two or three considerations may helpe to resolve the scruple. 1. The distance betwixt Damascus and Ierusalem, which was exceeding great. 2. The quarrels betwixt Herod and Aretas, which were a meanes to hinder intercourse betwixt those two places. 3. The persecution that continued still upon the Church of Iudea, which would keepe Disciples of Damascus from going thither. And 4. the just feare that might possesse the Disciples at Ierusalem, in the very time of persecution: For though it was said before, the Church at Ierusalem and of Iudaea injoyed a great deale of rest and tranquillity after the conversion of Paul their great persecutor, in comparison of what they had done before, yet was not the persecution of the Church utterly extinct to the very time of Pauls comming up to Ierusalem, but continued still, and therefore it is the lesse wonder if the Disciples there, bee the more fearefull and cautelous.
Vers. 27. But Barnabas tooke him, &c.
How Barnabas came acquainted with the certainty of Pauls conversion, better then the other Disciples, is not easie to resolve: It is like that hee being abroad for feare of the persecution, as the other of the Preachers were, (all but the Apostles) went in his travailes towards Damascus or Arabia, and so had heard and learned the certainty of the matter: However it is pregnant to our observation, that hee that was afterwards to be fellow traveller and labourer with Paul in the Gospel to the Gentiles is now made the instrument and meanes of his first admission to the societie of the Apostles. It is possible that there had been some acquaintance betwixt these two men in former times, they being both Grecizing Jewes, the one of Cyprus, the other of Ci…icia, and both in all probability brought up and educated at Ierusalem; but whether it were so or no the hand of God is to bee looked after in this passage, when Pauls future partner in the ministery to the Gentiles, is now his first intertainer into the societie of the Church at Ierusalem.
Sect. And brought him to the Apostles.
That is, to Peter and Iames the lesse: for other of the Apostles, hee himself relateth that hee saw none, Gal. 1.18. What was become of the rest of the twelve, is not determinable: it is more then probable they were not now at Ierusalem, otherwise it is hardly possible for Paul not to have seene them in fifteene dayes abode there: It is likely they were preaching and setling Churches up and down the Country, and Peter and Iames, the two most peculiar Ministers of the Circumcision, abode at Ierusalem, to take care of the Church there: For that these were so, and in what particular, the dispensation of their Ministery differed, wee shall take occasion to shew afterward; onelyonly here wee cannot omit to take notice of that temper as I may so call it, which the Text holdeth out against the Primacy and Prelacy that is held by some to have been among the Apostles: For whereas some conceive Iames to have been Bishop of Ierusalem, this Text sets Peter in the same fourme and equality with him in that place: and whereas it is conceived againe, that Peter was Prince of the Apostles, this Text hath equalled Iames with him.
1. And thus that persecution that began about Stephen had lasted till this very same time of Pauls comming to Ierusalem, for so it is apparent, both by the feare and suspitiousnesse of the Disciples at Ierusalem, as also by the very clausure of the Text, Vers. 31. Then had the Churches rest.
2. The length of this persecution by computation of the times as they have been cast up before, seemeth to have beene about three yeers and an halfe, the renowned number, and time so oft mentioned and hinted in Scripture.
3. The company of Disciples or beleevers continued still at Ierusalem, for all the persecution, as to the generalitie of them; as was said before: onelyonly the Ministers or Preachers were scattered abroad, all of them except the twelve Apostles.
4. Some of those Preachers were by this time returned back againe, the heat of the persecution abating, as it is apparent by Barnabas now being at Ierusalem: and of some such men, is it properest to understand the word Disciples Vers. 26. Saul assayed to joyne himselfe to the Disciples.
5. Therefore the absence of the ten Apostles from Ierusalem was not for feare of the persecution▪ but for the dispersion of the Gospel and setling of the Churches.
Sect. And declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way.
This is most properly to bee understood of Barnabas, that he declared these things to the Apostles, though there be, that thinke it is meant of Pauls declaring them: and they read it thus, And Barnabas brought him to the Apostles, and hee, that is, Paul, declared unto them.
Vers. 28. And hee was with them comming in and going out.
That is, conversing with them, as Beza hath well rendred it: A phrase usuall among the Hebrews, as 1 Sam. 18.13. Act. 1.21. &c. And the time of this his converse, Paul himselfe hath told us to have been fifteen dayes, Gal. 1.18. where also he hath interpreted this Phrase of comming in and going out, by the terme of abiding with, I abode with him fifteen dayes.
Vers. 29. And he disputed against the Grecians.
Gr. Against the Hellenists: which very place helpeth againe to confirme the interpretation and glosse wee set upon this word before, namely, that it meaneth not, Greeks converted to the Jewes Religion, but Jewes conversing and cohabiting among the Greeke nation. For, 1. there can be none or small reason given, why converted Greeks should bee so furiously Jewish as to go about to kill Paul for preaching against Judaisme, and wee heare not the Jews stirring against him for it. 2. What reason can be given why Paul should bend his disputations against converted Greeks more then against Jewes? Certainly the Jewes had more need of confutation in their Judaisme then the other had. And 3. it is very questionable, how converted Greeks, which were strangers and sojourners at Ierusalem and among the Jewes, durst go about to kill a Jew in the midst of the Jewes, and there being not a Jew that had any thing to say against him. It is therefore more then probable, that these Hellenists were Jewes that had lived among the Greeks, or of the Grecian dispersion, and that they used the Greek tongue: and that Paul chose to dispute with them, partly for that they living among the Gentiles, were by a kind of an Antiperistasis more zealously Jewish, and partly, because of their language, the Greek tongue, which was the very language Paul had learned from a child.
The times of the stories next succeeding when the Text hath done with the story of Paul, are somewhat unfixed, and uncertaine, in what yeer they came to passe: namely of Peters raysing of Aeneas from sicknesse, Dorcas from death, and bringing in Cornelius to the Gospel: But the best conjecture that can bee given of the times of these stories, is by casting and computing the history backward: And so we finde, 1. That the famine prophecied of by Agabus, was in the second of Claudius, as was shewed before. 2. Wee may then conceive that this prophecie of Agabus was in Claudius his first, and that was the yeer or some part of the yeer that Paul and Barnabas spent at Antioch, Act. 11.26. 3. The last yeere of Caius wee may hold to bee the yeer of Antiochs first receiving the Gospell, of Barnabas his comming thither, and of his journey to Tarsus to seek Saul, Act. 11.20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. And 4. the third yeer of Caius which was his last yeer but one, we may suppose accordingly to have been the yeer of Peters actions with Aeneas, Dorcas and Cornelius, and to that yeer shall wee referre the handling of the Texts that concerne those actions, and wee will carry on the Roman and Iewish Story, as they fall in time, till we come thither.