Works, Book 1 · Discourse 20
DISCOURSE XX.
ACTS 2. 5.
And there were [foreign] sojourning at Ierusalem Iews, devout men, out of every Nation under Heaven.
AT the Feast of Pentecost, when that wonder hapned of the Holy Ghost's descent upon the Apostles in the likeness of Fiery tongues, there were present at Ierusalem (as the story a little after my Text informs us) men of several Nations, as Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, Verse 9, 10, 11.and dwellers in Mesopotamia, Iudaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, (or stranger-Romans) both Iews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians. All these, upon the noise of this strange accident, came together unto the place, and were confounded, hearing them every man speaking in his own language wherein he was born.
Many, when they read this story, suppose the people here mentioned, the most of them, to have been Gentiles; and some Expositors cannot be excused from this mistake. For the more clear discerning whereof, and their better information who may perhaps be overtaken with the same error, I have made choice of the words before read for the argument of my present Discourse; which tells us in express terms, That these Parthians, Medes and Elamites, these Mesopotamians, Cappadocians, and the rest after mentioned under those National names, were Israelites or Iews of the dispersion, Iews born in Parthia and Media, Iews of Elam or Persia, Mesopotamian Iews, and so the rest of the Countries there named; all of them of the Circumcision: For so saith my Text beginning to speak of them, There were sojourning, or (if you will) dwelling, at Ierusalem, Iews of every Nation under Heaven, that is, of every Nation where the Iews were dispersed.
This is yet further confirmed by S. Peter's speech unto them; as when having cited the words of the Prophet Ioel, verse the 22. he saith unto them, Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Iesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, &c. v. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Men of Israel, and such as had slain their Messias; surely those were no Gentiles.
Likewise when at the hearing of this they were pricked in their hearts, he saith unto them,Verse 37. Repeut, and be Baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ, for the remission of sins. Verse 38.For the Promise is made unto you and your Children, and to all that are afar off, Verse 39.even as many as the Lord shall call. The Promise, saith he, is made unto you and your children; were these then any others than Iews or Israelites, of the seed of Abraham?
Lastly, we find that of these Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and of the rest named with them,Verse 41. there were added unto the Church by this Sermon of S. Peter three thousand souls: But it is certain that Cornelius the Centurion was the first Gentile that was converted unto the Faith: Therefore these first converts were no Gentiles. Perhaps you will say, They were Proselytes of these several Nations, and therefore called Iews. I say, Not so neither; because Proselytes are by name rehearsed among them, when it is said of those Roman advenae, (verse the tenth) that they were Iews and Proselytes; Ergo, the rest were Iews by race, and not by Religion only. But what need I to have heaped together all these proofs, when my Text alone is sufficient to evince it?
I come now therefore to a more particular illustration thereof, according to what I have thus in general premised. And first, for the word foreign, which I translate sojourning, rather than dwelling, (for so I understand it, that they were not proper dwellers, but such as came to worship at Ierusalem from those far Countries at the Feasts of the Passeover and Pentecost, and so had been continuing there some good time;) 'Tis true, that in the usual Greek foreign and foreign signifie a durable mansion: Acts 2. 5.but with the Hellenists, in whose Dialect the Scripture speaketh, they are indifferently used for a stay of a shorter or a longer time, that is, for to sojourn, as well as to dwell; as these two examples out of the Septuagint will make manifest. One in Genes. 27. 44. where Rebecca says to her younger son Iacob, Son, arise, and flee unto Laban my brother to Haran, foreign, and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away: foreign is here to tarry but a few days. Another is in 1 Kings 17. 20. where Elijah cries unto the Lord, saying, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow, foreign, with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? here foreign is to sojourn only. In a word, foreign and foreign answer to the Hebrew verb foreign, which signifies any stay or remaining in a place.
Next for the persons here specified, Iews out of every Nation under Heaven; for the right understanding thereof we are to know, That before this last Dispersion of the Iews by the Romans, after their Temple and City were destroyed by Titus (which at the time of this story was not, nor many years after it,) there had been already two Captivities and great Dispersions of that Nation, besides some smaller scatterings. The first was of the Ten Tribes, by Salmanasser King of Assyria, who is said to have planted them in Halah and Habor, 2 King. 17. 6. & 18. 11.by the river of Gozan, and in the Cities of the Medes; and these never (I mean any considerable part of them) returned to dwell again in their own Country: of these therefore (at least chiefly) we are to understand those to have been which the story here calls Parthians, Medes and Elamites; Elamites, that is, Persians, of the Province Elymais. For in those Countries which these names comprehend were the Ten Tribes placed by the Assyrian, and there still dwelt and thereabouts in our Saviour and his Apostles time, and long after. S. Hierome upon those words Ioel 3. 6. The children of Iudah and the children of Ierusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, (which he understands of the Captivity by Vespasian and Titus) tells us thus much; Filii (saith he) Iuda & Ierusalem, nequaquam Israel & decem Tribuum, quae usque hodie in Medorum urbibus & montibus habitant; The children of Iudah and Ierusalem, not of Israel and the Ten Tribes, which even to this day have their habitation in the Cities and Mountains of the Medes. The second Captivity was by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, of the Two Tribes, Iudah and Benjamin, more than a hundred years after that of the Ten. Now a good part of these at seventy years end returned again, under Cyrus and his Successors, to dwell again in their own Land, re-edified the Temple and City of Ierusalem, and re-erected their Commonwealth, which continued till our Saviour's time and a little after. Notwithstanding all those that were Captives in Babylon returned not; no, it may be not much more than the half of them; certain it is, that a great number of them stayed there still, those especially which were rich and well accommodated, having no mind to stir: whence in our Saviour's and the Apostles times there were an innumerable company of them in those parts, where they flourished with Academies and Schools, and had Doctors not inferior to those of Ierusalem it self. Yea from them proceeded the Chaldee Paraphrase, and that great Doctor and Patriarch of Rabbies, R. Hillel. Of these therefore we have reason to think were those which are here enumerated by the name of Dwellers in Mesopotamia, foreign. Where note by the way, that foreign are comprehended in the number of those whom my Text saith were foreign which confirms my interpretation, that foreign there signifies sojourning, and not dwelling, for that they could not be said to dwell in both places.
These two Dispersions beyond the River Euphrates, how numerous they were in our Saviour's and the Apostles times, we may gather from those words of King Agrippa, in Iosephus, De bello Iud. l. 2. c. 16. Gr. foreign.in that Oration he made unto the Iews before that fatal siege, disswading them from rebelling against the Romans, their party being too much too weak to maintain themselves against that mighty Empire. foreign foreign, &c. What associates (saith he) will you have from some Country not inhabited, to aid you against the Romans? For all those that at this day dwell in any part of this world that is inhabited, are Romans. Except some of you hope for help from beyond Euphrates, thinking that your Countrymen in *Adiabene is a part of Assyria.Adiabene will help you. He goes on, But they are more wise than to engage themselves rashly in so dangerous a war: Nor would the Parthians suffer it, if they should be so unwise as to appear in such a quarrel. Mark then, that they were under the dominion of the Parthians. Iosephus himself testifieth as much in his Prologue to his De Bello Iudaico; where he informs us, that that History of his he had first penned foreign in his own Country language, for the use of those of his Nation in the East: which he thought good also to publish in Greek, for the better information of the Greeks and Romans concerning the true gests of that war. foreign, &c. For I could not (saith he) but judge it to be very unbecoming, and no way commendable, for me to take all that pains only for the Parthians, Babylonians, and the remotest Arabians, as also those of our Nation inhabiting beyond Euphrates, together with those of Adiabene; that these through my writings should be made acquainted with the true account of both the rise and end, as also the main occurrences and chief events, of that War: and to take no care at all to inform and undeceive the Grecians and such of the Romans as were not in the War; who being abused by the false reports or the flatteries of others, know very little of the true story of these affairs. Observe here the rehearsal of his Nation; Parthians, Babylonians, Arabians, the Mesopotamian Iews or those beyond Euphrates, and those o… Adiabene. Besides he tells us in the same place, That the Iews believed that all those of their Nation, even those who dwelt beyond Euphrates, would have joyn'd with them in their rebellion against the Romans.
Besides these two Captivities by Salmanassar and Nebuchadnezzar, the first whereof never returned again into their own Land, and the second but in part, there happened a third Captivity and Dispersion in the days of Ptolemaeus Lagi, one of the Greek Kings reigning in Egypt; who surprising the City of Ierusalem, carried many of the People of the Country, of the off-spring of those who returned from Babylon, Captives into Egypt, planting them at Alexandria and the places thereabouts; whom many others followed of their own accord, partly allured by the King's favour, who gave them equal priviledges with those of Alexandria, and partly by the fertility of the Country: so that this Colony became a very great one. These were called Hellenists, because they spake the Greek tongue, and used the Translation of the Septuagint (which was made in Egypt) in their Synagogues.
Of these three principal Dispersions came those lesser scatterings in all parts of the Roman Empire and elsewhere. From that of Babylon and Mesopotamia was spread that of Pontus, Gallatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, to which S. Peter, as an Apostle of the Circumcision, writes his two Epistles: which may be gathered, because in his first Epistle he salutes them from Babylon which was their Metropolis. The Church, 1 Pet. 5. 13.saith he, at Babylon, el…cted together with you, saluteth you; that is, the Church of the Circumcision there. From those of Alexandria and Egypt were derived those plantations in Libya and Cyrene, and all other Hellenists whatsoever in several parts of the Roman Empire. Add to these, that many of those of Iudaea it self, that could not live well at home, upon some occasion or other, either alluring them or constraining them, seated themselves abroad among the Gentiles and in their Cities, being together with themselves under the same Dominion of the Romane Empire. Insomuch that King Agrippa, in that fore-mentioned Oration of his before that last siege, disswading them of Iudaea from rebelling against the Romans, in regard of the evil they might bring thereby, not upon themselves only, but upon their whole Nation wheresoever living among the Gentiles, sticks not to say, foreign, For there is no people in the whole world, which hath not some part of ours dwelling amongst them. Marvel not therefore that S. Luke says in my Text, Iews of every Nation under Heaven.
All this is confirmed out of the New Testament it self; forasmuch as before the last Captivity by Titus (which was not till almost forty years after our Saviour's Ascension) and whilst their Commonwealth in the holy Land was yet standing, we read that almost in every City of the Gentiles, whither the Apostles came to preach the Gospel, they found Iews with their Synagogues in them. To which add that S. Iames directs his Epistle,Iames 1. 1. To the twelve Tribes scattered abroad, or, as the Greek hath it, foreign … as I have also before noted that S. Peter doth his unto the Dispersion of Asia.
This is that I had to speak for the illustration of this Story and Text; out of which, besides the right understanding of Scripture, whereto it conduceth, you may observe these four things.
First, The wisdom and providence of Almighty God, in so ordering the first publication of the Gospel, that the same thereof, and of that convincing Miracle which gave authority thereunto, might be carried unto all Nations by so many both ear and eye-witnesses of the same, as those Iews were.
Secondly, A probable reason why the Apostles were so ignorant at the first, as they seem to have been, that the Gospel was to be preached unto the Gentiles, notwithstanding our Saviour's Commission unto them, Go preach this Gospel unto all Nations. For it may be, they thought this Command might be satisfied in preaching the Gospel to those of the Circumcision only, which were of every Nation under Heaven.
Thirdly, The Elogium here given to those who made conscience (as we speak) or Religion, to come unto the House of God to worship; they were foreign so saith my Text, There were sojourning in Ierusalem Iews, devout men, &c. For there appears no other respect why they are so called, but because they came so long a journey to worship God in his House or Temple at Ierusalem.
Fourthly, The blessed opportunities and means for Salvation which they meet with which come thither to worship. For had those Iews staid at home, as the rest of their brethren did, they had not been partakers of such a blessing, nor witnesses of so wonderful a Miracle for confirmation of their faith, as now they were.