Mvi.

19

whereof had

him the hatred of the

Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the His execution 20 heavenly vision. But first to those at Damascus and Jerusa- brought on lem, and throughout all the land of Judæa,' and also to the Jews. Gentiles, I proclaimed the tidings, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works worthy of their repentance.

21

22

For these causes the Jews, when they caught me in the Temple, endeavored to kill me.

yet his teach

ing accorded Jewish Scrip

with the tures.

Therefore, through the succor which I have received from God, I stand firm unto this day, and bear my testimony both to small and great; but I declare nothing else than what the 23 Prophets and Moses foretold, That the Messiah should suffer, and that He should be the first to rise from the dead, and should be the messenger of light to the house of Israel, and also to the Gentiles.

8

Here Festus broke out into a loud exclamation, expressive of ridicule and surprise. To the cold man of the world, as to the inquisitive Athenians, the doctrine of the resurrection was foolishness: and he said, "Paul, thou art mad: thy incessant study is turning thee to madness." The Apostle had alluded in his speech to writings which had a mysteri ous sound, to the prophets and to Moses' (vv. 22, 23); and it is reason able to believe that in his imprisonment, such "books and parchments," as he afterwards wrote for in his second letter to Timotheus,10 were brought to him by his friends. Thus Festus adopted the conclusion that he had before him a mad enthusiast, whose head had been turned by poring over

1 This does not at all prove, as has sometimes been supposed, that Saul did not preach in Arabia when he went there soon after his conversion; see pp. 89, 90.

2 How are we to reconcile this with St. Paul's statement (Gal. i. 22) that he continued personally unknown to the churches of Judæa for many years after his conversion? We must either suppose that, in the present passage, he means to speak not in the order of time, but of all which he had done up to the present date; or else we may perhaps suppose that St. Luke did not think it neccessary to attend to a minute detail of this kind, relating to a period of St. Paul's life with which he was himself not personally acquainted, in giving the general outline of this speech.

8 The conjunction here cannot mean "however."

The "if" in the original is equivalent to

our "that" (" if, as they assert"). Compare note on Acts xxvi. 8 above.

• Compare Col. i. 18. Also 1 Cor. xv. 20. • Something more than merely "show" (A. V.).

7 Observe the mention of the "loud voice," coupled with the fact that Paul "was speaking for himself." Both expressions show that he was suddenly interrupted in the midst of his discourse.

The original has the definite article here. See again v. 27, where St. Paul appeals again to the prophets, the writings to which he had alluded before.

10 2 Tim. iv. 13. These, we may well believe, would especially be the Old Testament Scriptures, perhaps Jewish commentaries on them, and possibly also the works of Heathen poets and philosophers.

strange learning. The Apostle's reply was courteous and self-possessed, but intensely earnest.

xxvi

I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth 25 and soberness. For the king has knowledge of these matters; and more- 26 over I speak to him with boldness; because I am persuaded that none of these things is unknown to him, for this has not been done in a

corner.

Then, turning to the Jewish voluptuary who sat beside the Governor, he made this solemn appeal to him:

King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou be- 27 lievest.

The King's reply was: "Thou wilt soon1 persuade me to be a Christian." The words were doubtless spoken ironically and in contempt: but Paul took them as though they had been spoken in earnest, and made that noble answer, which expresses, as no other words ever expressed them, that union of enthusiastic zeal with genuine courtesy, which is the true characteristic of "a Christian."

I would to God, that whether soon or late, not only thou, but also all 29 who hear me to-day, were such as I am; excepting these chains.

This concluded the interview. King Agrippa had no desire to hear more; and he rose from his seat,2 with the Governor and Berenice and those who sat with them. As they retired, they discussed the case with one another, and agreed that Paul was guilty of nothing worthy of death or even imprisonment. Agrippa said positively to Festus, "This man' might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed to the Emperor." But the appeal had been made. There was no retreat either for Festus or for Paul. On the new Governor's part there was no wish to continue the

1 The phrase here cannot mean "almost," as it is in the Authorized Version. It might mean either "in few words" (Eph. iii. 3), or "in a small measure," or "in a small time." The latter meaning agrees best with the following, "in little or in much." We might render the passage thus: "Thou thinkest to make me a Christian with little persuasion." We should observe that the verb is in the

present tense, and that the title "Christian
was one of contempt. See 1 Pet. iv. 16.
2 V. 30.

8 V. 31.

Again the expression is contemptuous. See the remarks on Acts xvi. 35 (p. 268). Caludius Lysias uses a similar expression in his letter to Felix, xxiii. 27.

6 Compare xxviii. 18.

procrastination of Felix; and nothing now remained but to wait for a convenient opportunity of sending his prisoner to Rome.

Coin of Nero and Herod Agrippa II.1

CHAPTER XXIII

Ships and Navigation of the Ancients.—Roman Commerce in the Mediterranean. - CornTrade between Alexandria and Puteoli.-Travellers by Sea.-St. Paul's Voyage from Cæsarea, by Sidon, to Myra. — From Myra, by Cnidus and Cape Salmone, to Fair Havens. — Phoenix.-The Storm.- Seamanship during the Gale.—St. Paul's Vision.—Anchoring in the Night.-Shipwreck.-Proof that it took Place in Malta.-Winter in the Island. - Objections considered. — Voyage, by Syracuse and Rhegium, to Puteoli.

EFORE entering on the narrative of that voyage1 which brought the Apostle Paul, through manifold and imminent dangers, from Cæsarea to Rome, it will be convenient to make a few introductory remarks concerning the ships and navigation of the ancients. By fixing clearly in the mind some of the principal facts relating to the form and structure of Greek and Roman vessels, the manner in which these vessels were worked, the prevalent lines of traffic in the Mediterranean, and the opportunities afforded to travellers of reaching their destination by sea, we shall be better able to follow this voyage without distractions or explanations, and with a clearer perception of each event as it occurred. With regard to the vessels and seamanship of the Greeks and Romans, many popular mistakes have prevailed, to which it is hardly necessary to allude, after the full illustration which the subject has now received.'

1 The nautical difficulties of this narrative have been successfully explained by two independent inquirers; and, so far as we are aware, by no one else. A practical knowledge of seamanship was required for the elucida tion of the whole subject; and none of the ordinary commentators seem to have looked on it with the eye of a sailor. The first who examined St. Paul's voyage in a practical spirit was the late Admiral Sir Charles Penrose, whose life has been lately published (Murray, 1851). His MSS. have been kindly placed in the hands of the writer of this chapter, and they are frequently referred to in the

subject (Longmans, 1848) has already obtained a European reputation. Besides other valuable aid, Mr. Smith has examined the sheets of this chapter, as they have passed through the press. We have also to express our acknowledgments for much kind assistance received from the late Admiral Moorsom and other naval officers.

2 The reference here is to the Dissertation on "The Ships of the Ancients" in Mr. Smith's work on the Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, pp. 140-202. The treatise may be regarded as the standard work on the subject, not only in England, but in Europe. It has been translated into German by H. Thiersch, and it is adduced in Hermann's well-known work on Greek Antiquities as the decisive authority on the difficult points connected with

We must not entertain the notion that all the commerce of the ancients was conducted merely by means of small craft, which proceeded timidly in the day-time, and only in the summer season, along the coast from harbor to harbor, and which were manned by mariners almost ignorant of the use of sails, and always trembling at the prospect of a storm. We cannot, indeed, assert that the arts either of ship-building or navigation were matured in the Mediterranean so early as the first century of the Christian era. The Greeks and Romans were ignorant of the use of the compass: the instruments with which they took observations must have been rude compared with our modern quadrants and sextants; and we have no reason to believe that their vessels were provided with nautical charts; and thus, when "neither sun nor stars appeared," and the sky gave indications of danger, they hesitated to try the open sea. But the ancient sailor was well skilled in the changeable weather of the Levant, and his very ignorance of the aids of modern science made him the more observant of external phenomena, and more familiar with his own coasts. He was not less prompt and practical than a modern seaman in the handling of his ship, when overtaken by stormy weather on a dangerous coast.

The ship of the Greek and Roman mariner was comparatively rude, both in its build and its rig. The hull was not laid down with the fine lines with which we are so familiar in the competing vessels of England and America, and the arrangement of the sails exhibited little of that

the study of ancient ship-building. It is hardly necessary to refer to any of the older works on the subject. A full catalogue is given in Mr. Smith's Appendix.

1 See Humboldt's Kosmos, vol. ii., for the main facts relating to the history of the compass.

2 We have no information of any nautical instruments at the time when we read of Ptolemy's mural quadrant at Alexandria; nor is it likely that any more effectual means of taking exact observations at sea, than the simple quadrant held in the hand, were in use before the invention of the reflecting quadrants and sextants by Hooke and Hadley The want of exact chronometers must also be borne in mind.

8 The first nautical charts were perhaps those of Marinus of Tyre (A. D. 150), whom Forbiger regards as the founder of mathematical geography. See the life of Ptolemy in Dr. Smith's Dictionary.

4 See Acts xxvii. 9-12, also xxviii. 11.

"We are apt to consider the ancients as timid
and unskilful sailors, afraid to venture out of
sight of land, or to make long voyages in the
winter. I can see no evidence that this was
the case.
The cause of their not making
voyages after the end of summer arose, in s
great measure, from the comparative obscurity
of the sky during the winter, and not from
the gales which prevail at that season. With
no means of directing their course, except by
observing the heavenly bodies, they were neces-
sarily prevented from putting to sea when they
could not depend on their being visible."-
Smith, p. 180.

See again what is said below in reference to Acts xxvii. 12.

6 "As both ends were alike, if we suppose a full-built merchant-ship of the present day, cut in two, and the stern half replaced by one exactly the same as that of the bow, we shall have a pretty accurate notion of what these ships were."-Smith, p. 141.