of deceit and mischief, and as one who sought to pervert and distort that which God saw and approved as right. He proceeded to denounce an instantaneous judgment; and, according to his prophetic word, the "hand of the Lord" struck the sorcerer, as it had once struck the Apostle himself on the way to Damascus ;-the sight of Elymas began to waver,' and presently a darkness settled on it so thick, that he ceased to behold the sun's light. This blinding of the false prophet opened the eyes of Sergius Paulus. That which had been intended as an opposition to the Gospel, proved the means of its extension. We are ignorant of the degree of this extension in the island of Cyprus. But we cannot doubt that when the Proconsul was converted, his influence would make Christianity reputable; and that from this moment the Gentiles of the island, as well as the Jews, had the news of salvation brought home to them. And now, from this point of the Apostolical history, PAUL appears as the great figure in every picture. Barnabas, henceforward, is always in the background. The great Apostle now enters on his work as the preacher to the Gentiles; and simultaneously with his active occupation of the field in which he was called to labor, his name is suddenly changed. As "Abram" was changed into " Abraham," when God promised that he should be the "father of many nations; "-as "Simon" was changed into "Peter," when it was said, "On this rock I will build my church;" -so "Saul" is changed into "Paul," at the moment of his first great victory among the Heathen. What "the plains of Mamre by Hebron " were to the patriarch, what " Cæsarea Philippi," by the fountains of the Jordan, was to the fisherman of Galilee, that was the city of "Paphos," on the coast of Cyprus, to the tent-maker of Tarsus. Are we to suppose that the name was now really given him for the first time,that he adopted it himself as significant of his own feelings, or that Sergius Paulus conferred it on him in grateful commemoration of the benefits he had received, or that " Paul," having been a Gentile form of the Apostle's name in early life conjointly with the Hebrew "Saul," was now used to the exclusion of the other, to indicate that he had receded from his position as a Jewish Christian, to become the friend and teacher of the Gentiles? All these opinions have found their supporters both in ancient and modern times. The question has been alluded to before in this work (p. 43). It will be well to devote some further space to it now, once for all. 1 The word in Acts xiii. 10 expresses the cleverness of a successful imposture. 2 With Acts xiii. 10 compare viii. 21. 8 Acts xiii. 11. This may be used, in Luke's medical manner, to express the stages of the blindness. Compare the account of the recovery of the lame man in iii. 8. * See Gen. xiii. 18, xvii. 5; Matt. xvi. 1318; and Prof. Stanley's Sermon on St. Peter. It cannot be denied that the words in Acts xiii. 9-"Saul who is also Paul" are the line of separation between two very distinct portions of St. Luke's biography of the Apostle, in the former of which he is uniformly called "Saul," while in the latter he receives, with equal consistency, the name of "Paul." It must also be observed that the Apostle always speaks of himself under the latter designation in every one of his Epistles, without any exception; and not only so, but the Apostle St. Peter, in the only passage where he has occasion to allude to him,' speaks of him as "our beloved brother Paul." We are, however, inclined to adopt the opinion that the Cilician Apostle had this Roman name, as well as his other Hebrew name, in his earlier days, and even before he was a Christian. This adoption of a Gentile name is so far from being alien to the spirit of a Jewish family, that a similar practice may be traced through all the periods of Hebrew History. Beginning with the Persian epoch (B.c. 550-350) we find such names as "Nehemiah," "Schammai," "Belteshazzar," which betray an Oriental origin, and show that Jewish appellatives followed the growth of the living language. In the Greek period we encounter the names of "Philip," and his son "Alexander," and of Alexander's successors, "Antiochus," " Lysimachus," "Ptolemy," " Antipater; " the names of Greek philosophers, such as "Zeno," and "Epicurus;" even Greek mythological names, as "Jason " and " Menelaus." Some of these words will have been recognized as occurring in the New Testament itself. When we mention Roman names adopted by the Jews, the coincidence is still more striking. 66 Crispus," ," "Justus," "Niger," are found in Josephus 10 as well as in the Acts. "Drusilla" and "Priscilla" might have been Roman matrons. The "Aquila" of St. Paul is the counterpart of the "Apella" of Horace." Nor need we end our survey of Jewish names with the early Roman empire; for, passing by the destruction of Jerusalem, we see Jews, in the earlier part of the Middle Ages, calling themselves," Basil," "Leo," " Theodosius," " ""Theodosius," "Sophia ;" and, in the latter part, "Albert," "Benedict," "Crispin," "Denys." We might pursue 1 2 Pet. iii. 15. 2 Matt. x. 3; Acts vi. 5, xxi. 8; Joseph. Ant. xiv. 10, 22. 8 Acts xix. 33, 34. See 2 Tim. iv. 14. Alexander was a common name among the Asmonæans. It is said that when the great conqueror passed through Judæa, a promise was made to him that all the Jewish children born that year should be called "Alexander." 1 Macc. xii. 16, xvi. 11; 2 Macc. iv. 29; Joseph. Ant. xiv. 10. These names are in the Mischna and the Berenice Inscription. 8 • Jason, Joseph. Ant. xii. 10, 6; perhaps Acts xvii. 5-9; Rom. xvi. 21; Menelaus, Joseph. Ant. xii. 5, 1. See 2 Macc. iv. 5. 7 Acts xviii. 8. 8 Acts i. 23. 9 Acts xiii. 1. 10 Joseph. Life, 68, 65, War, iv. 6, 1. Compare 1 Cor. i. 14; Acts xviii. 7; Col. iv. 11. 11 Hor. 1. Sat. v. 100. Priscilla appears under the abbreviated form "Prisca," 2 Tim. iv. 19. our inquiry into the nations of modern Europe; but enough has been said to show, that as the Jews have successively learnt to speak Chaldee, Greek, Latin, or German, so they have adopted into their families the appellations of those Gentile families among whom they have lived. It is indeed remarkable that the Separated Nation should bear, in the very names recorded in its annals, the trace of every nation with whom it has come in contact and never united. It is important to our present purpose to remark that double names often occur in combination, the one national, the other foreign. The earliest instances are "Belteshazzar-Daniel," and "Esther-Hadasa."1 Frequently there was no resemblance or natural connection between the two words, as in "Herod-Agrippa," "Salome-Alexandra," "Juda-Aristobulus," "Simon-Peter." Sometimes the meaning was reproduced, as in At other times an alliterating resemblance of sound seems to have dictated the choice, as in "Jose-Jason," " HillelJulus," "Saul-Paulus"-" Saul, who is also Paul." "Malich-Kleodemus." 2 Thus it seems to us that satisfactory reasons can be adduced for the double name borne by the Apostle, without having recourse to the hypothesis of Jerome, who suggests that, as Scipio was called Africanus from the conquest of Africa, and Metellus called Creticus from the conquest of Crete, so Saul carried away his new name as a trophy of his victory over the Heathenism of the Proconsul Paulus - or to that notion, which Augustine applies with much rhetorical effect in various parts of his writings, where he alludes to the literal meaning of the word "Paulus," and contrasts Saul, the unbridled king, the proud self-confident persecutor of David, with Paul, the lowly, the penitent,—who deliberately wished to indicate by his very name, that he was "the least of the Apostles," and "less than the least of all Saints." Yet we must not neglect the coincident occurrence of these two names in this narrative of the events which happened in Cyprus. We need not hesitate to dwell on the associations which are connected with the name of "Paulus," on the thoughts which are naturally called up, when we notice the critical passage in the sacred history, where it is first given to Saul of Tai sus. It is surely not unworthy of notice that, as Peter's first Gentile convert was a member of the Cornelian House (p. 108), so the surname of the noblest family of the Emilian House was the link between the Apostle 1 Dan. x. 1; Esther ii. 7. So Zerubabbel was called Sheshbazzar. Compare Ezra v. 16 with Zech. iv. 9. The Oriental practice of adopting names which were significant must not be left out of view. 2 See p. 43, n. 7. 8 1 Cor. xv. 9. 4 Eph. iii. 8. or 5 Paulus was the cognomen of a family or the Gens Emilia. The stemma is given in Smith's Dictionary of Classical Biography, under Paulus Emilius. The name must of of the Gentiles and his convert at Paphos. Nor can we find a nobler Christian version of any line of a Heathen poet, than by comparing what Horace says of him who fell at Cannæ," animæ magnæ prodigum Paulum," with the words of him who said at Miletus, "I count not my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus."1 And though we imagine, as we have said above, that Saul had the name of Paul at an earlier period of his life, and should be inclined to conjecture that the appellation came from some connection of his ances tors (perhaps as manumitted slaves) with some member of the Roman family of the Emilian Pauli;2-yet we cannot believe it accidental that the words, which have led to this discussion, occur at this particular point of the inspired narrative. The Heathen name rises to the surface at the moment when St. Paul visibly enters on his office as the Apostle of the Heathen. The Roman name is stereotyped at the moment when he converts the Roman governor. And the place where this occurs is Paphos, the favorite sanctuary of a shameful idolatry. At the very spot which was notorious throughout the world for that which the Gospel forbids and destroys, - there, before he sailed for Perga, having achieved his victory, the Apostle erected his trophy, as Moses, when Amalek was discomfited, "built an altar, and called the name of it JehovahNissi, the Lord my Banner."" CHAPTER VI. Old and New Paphos.-Departure from Cyprus.-Coast of Pamphylia. —Perga. - Mark's THE - - Perga and HE banner of the Gospel was now displayed on the coasts of the Heathen. The Glad Tidings had "passed over to the isles of Chittim," and had found a willing audience in that island, which, in the vocabulary of the Jewish Prophets, is the representative of the trade and civilization of the Mediterranean Sea. Cyprus was the early meetingplace of the Oriental and Greek forms of social life. Originally colonized from Phoenicia, it was successively subject to Egypt, to Assyria, and to Persia. The settlements of the Greeks on its shores had begun in a remote period, and their influence gradually advanced, till the older links of connection were entirely broken by Alexander and his successors. But not only in political and social relations, by the progress of conquest and commerce, was Cyprus the meeting-place of Greece and the East. Here also their forms of idolatrous worship met and became blended together. Paphos was, indeed, a sanctuary of Greek religion: on this shore the fabled goddess first landed, when she rose from the sea: this was the scene of a worship celebrated in the classical poets, from the age of Homer, down to the time when Titus, the son of Vespasian, visited the spot in the spirit of a Heathen pilgrim, on his way to subjugate Judæa.2 But the polluted worship was originally introduced from Assyria or Phoenicia: the Oriental form under which the goddess was worshipped is represented on Greek coins: the Temple bore a curious 1 The general notion intended by the phrases" isles" and "coasts" of "Chittim " seems to have been "the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean to the west and northwest of Judæa." Numb. xxiv. 24; Jer. ii. 10; Ezek. xxvii. 6. See Gen. x. 4, 5; Isai. xxiii. 1; Dan. xi. 30. But primarily the name is believed to have been connected with Citium, which was a Phoenician colony in 2 Tac. Hist. ii. 2-4. Compare Suet. Tit. 5. Tacitus speaks of magnificent offerings presented by kings and others to the Temple at Old Paphos. 3 A specimen is given in the larger edi. tions. |