Biblical Geography and History Part 15

=Paul at Bera.= As in his flight from Iconium, he now found refuge at a quiet, retired town. Bera lay fifty miles southwest of Thessalonica, in the midst of groves of trees and flowing streams. It was flanked by a bold mountain range on the west and faced toward the aegean, with a broad expanse of plain lying in the foreground. Here Paul found a n.o.bler type of Jews, probably untouched by the mercenary spirit of those who had been attracted to the great commercial centres like Thessalonica and Philippi. His work among both the Jews and Greeks was very successful until emissaries came from Thessalonica.

Paul's heart was evidently set upon returning to take up his work at the Macedonian metropolis, but events had proved that this was impossible.

=At Athens.= Accompanied by the Christians of Bera, Paul next went southward along the aegean to the home of that civilization which had surrounded him in his boyhood days at Tarsus and profoundly influenced the fields in which he had done his work. Landing at the port of Piraeus, he proceeded along the new road to Athens, beside which stood the altars to the unknown G.o.ds. On entering the city he naturally went to the Agora, on the south of which Mars Hill^{(136)} rose abruptly.

East of this was the Acropolis, crowned by that most peerless product of Greek art, the Parthenon. Athens was still at the height of its artistic splendor, but it had already ceased to be the political and intellectual capital of the Greek world. Superficial philosophy and sophistry had taken the place of real intellectual leaders.h.i.+p. Athens, being aside from the world's commerce, had little attraction for the Jewish colonists. The city, therefore, lacked the religious background which Paul had found helpful in all his previous work. The critical, speculative atmosphere of the city was uncongenial. Paul was accustomed to addressing himself to the vital, crying needs of humanity. He made a strong effort to adapt himself to the new conditions, not without some success, but there is no record of a church at Athens, and he soon left to find a more promising field.

=Importance of Corinth.= Corinth, to which Paul next went, marks an important epoch in his ministry. The city was called by the ancients the "Bridge of the Sea."^{(137)} It lay on the narrow neck of land which connected the Corinthian with the Saronic Gulf. It was on one of the three great highways from the east to the west, and here all cargoes had to be trans-s.h.i.+pped. It was also the bridge that connected the Peloponnesus with northern Greece. By nature, therefore, it was destined to become a great and influential city. It was built on a broad terrace at the end of a gently sloping plain, with an almost impregnable acropolis rising one thousand eight hundred feet above the sea-level. When Paul visited the city it was the metropolis and Roman capital of the province of Achaia. From the days of Julius Caesar it had been a Roman colony. Because of its commercial importance its population was cosmopolitan, including many Jews. Like most cities thus situated, it was exceedingly prosperous and profligate.

=Paul's Work at Corinth.= To this needy and important field Paul addressed himself with superlative devotion. Anxious regarding the results of his work in Thessalonica, hara.s.sed by poverty and weakened by sickness, he nevertheless devoted himself to teaching both Jews and Gentiles, at the same time plying his trade as a tent-maker. Finding the Jews hostile, he devoted his time almost entirely to the Gentiles, making his home with t.i.tus Justus, whose name suggests Roman origin.

Unable to visit the church at Thessalonica, Paul wrote to the Christian community there the two letters known as I and II Thessalonians. At about the same time he appears to have written his famous epistle to the Galatian churches. These letters mark the beginning of that remarkable correspondence which is recorded in the epistles of the New Testament. During this period or at a later visit Paul wrote from Corinth the letter known as the Epistle to the Romans, which contains the fullest and n.o.blest resume of his doctrines.

Corinth was one of the few places which Paul was not compelled to leave under pressure of persecution. After a sojourn of about two years he departed for Syria, stopping for a short time at Ephesus, and finally landing at Caesarea.

=His Third Journey.= After visiting the churches at Jerusalem and Antioch, Paul set out, probably early in the spring, on this third great missionary tour. As in his second journey, his aim was to visit the churches which he had established and to proclaim the Gospel in the city of Ephesus. He first revisited the region of Galatia and Phrygia, and thence, following westward the great caravan route, he apparently went on directly to Ephesus by the higher and more northern road. Ephesus, for the next year or two, became the head-quarters from which he made journeys to the churches in Macedonia and Achaia.

Apparently at certain points, as for example at Illyria on the Adriatic, he extended still farther the sphere of his influence.

=Situation and Importance of Ephesus.= Ephesus was at this time the chief commercial city of eastern Asia Minor. Here converged the great highways from the east and north. The town lay opposite the island of Samos, on the bank of the Cayster River. Like most Greek cities, it was built on and about an imposing hill and was enclosed by a great wall. It was a characteristic Roman city, with a huge theatre,^{(138)} a beautiful agora, a stadium seating over six thousand, a forum, and streets lined with colonnades; but its dominant life and ideas were Greek. This western culture was deeply influenced by that of the Orient, for Ephesus, by virtue of its position, was pre-eminently the place where the East and West met and blended. The population of the city was as cosmopolitan as its civilization. Here also Roman, Greek, Alexandrian, and oriental thought met and mingled. Next to Delphi, its temple was the most important religious force in the Greek world, but its influence, on the whole, was immoral and debasing. Here, in the face of active persecution, Paul and the Christian workers whom he gathered about him established what later proved to be the most influential church in Asia Minor. Paul did not leave the aegean until he had established a Christian community at Troas, which he had visited on his second journey, and at the important cities of Colossae and Laodicea, east of Ephesus, on the great caravan road from Syria and the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. The latter churches appear to have been established by his co-workers, for in his letter to the Colossians Paul implies that he had never personally visited their city.

=Return to Palestine.= Having planted the Christian faith in all the great strategic centres along the main thoroughfares which led to Rome, Paul set out by boat from Miletus^{(139)} to return to Jerusalem. Following the usual course along the southern sh.o.r.e of Asia Minor, he landed at Tyre. Thence he went by land to Jerusalem, stopping at Ptolemais and Caesarea. The bitter persecution which he experienced at the Jewish capital and his long, wearisome confinement at Caesarea are familiar chapters in the life of the apostle.^{(115)} They only intensified his oft-expressed desire to visit the capital of the great empire, whose strength and weakness he fully appreciated.

Again his Roman citizens.h.i.+p enabled him to escape his persistent persecutors and to reach Rome, although as a prisoner.

=Journey to Rome.= In this last long journey his courage and faith, as well as his wide experience as a traveller, were dramatically ill.u.s.trated. Sailing from Caesarea, he, with his Roman guard, trans-s.h.i.+pped at Myra, a city of southern Lycia, on an Alexandrian merchant s.h.i.+p. Thence the usual sea route was followed along the southern sh.o.r.e of Crete until the storm drove them south of their course, past Sicily, to the island of Melita, the modern Malta. There the s.h.i.+p was wrecked and they were obliged to remain through the winter. Then by another Alexandrian merchantman they sailed northward, landing at Puteoli, and thence proceeded by land to Rome along the Appian Way.^{(140)} At last at this goal of all his missionary journeying, Paul was able to extend widely the bounds of the church, already established in the capital, and through the medium of letters and messengers keep in close touch with the churches which he had founded.

=The World-wide Conquests of Christianity.= Whether or not Paul was able later to visit distant Spain, as certain early church traditions a.s.sert, cannot be definitely determined. At least it is certain that the goal which he had set before himself had been, in one sense, fully attained. Within less than thirty years after the death of Jesus, active, growing Christian communities were to be found in all of the important cities of the eastern and northern Mediterranean. Two or three centuries later heathenism was vanquished and Christianity was master of the empire. This marvellous achievement would have been impossible if Rome, in the course of its natural development, had not broken down all national and racial barriers and bound together the peoples of that ancient world into one great empire. It had opened and developed the natural highways, making communication comparatively quick and easy. The natural trend of civilization was also from the east to the west, and Christianity moved on the crest of a great wave which was sweeping over the western world. Thus the faith of the Hebrew prophets and of Jesus, first proclaimed among the hilltops of Judea and Galilee, was able to enter upon that world-wide conquest which is the most significant fact in human history.

APPENDIX I

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE PHYSICAL CONTOUR AND CHARACTERISTICS OF PALESTINE

Baedeker, _Palestine and Syria_, 1911.

Buhl, _Geographie des alten Palastina_, 1896.

Conder, _Heth and Moab_, 1883.

---- _Tent Work in Palestine_, 1895.

Dawson, _Egypt and Syria. Their Physical Features in Relation to Bible History_, 1885.

Dunning, _To-day in Palestine_, 1907.

Forbush, _The Travel Lessons on the Old Testament_, 1900.

Fullylove, _The Holy Land Painted by John Fullylove._ Described by John Kelman, 1902.

Guerin, _Description de la Palestine_, 1868-89.

Guthe, _Palastina_, 1908.

Hull, _The Survey of Western Palestine_, 1888.

Huntington, _Palestine and Its Transformation_, 1911.

Libbey and Hoskins, _The Jordan Valley and Petra_, I, II, 1905.

Lynch, _Narrative of U. S. Exploration in 1848._

MacMillan, _Guide to Palestine and Syria_, 1903.

Masterman, _Studies in Galilee_, 1909.

Meistermann, _New Guide to Palestine_, 1909.

Merrill, _East of the Jordan_, 1870.

Murray, _Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine_, 1892.

Oliphant, _Land of Gilead_, 1880.

Petrie, _Tell el-Hesy_, 1891.

Palestine Exploration Fund, _Quarterly Statement_, 1869-1911.

----, _Survey of Eastern Palestine_, 1889.

----, _Survey of Western Palestine_, 1888.

Robinson, _Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea_, I, III, 1841.

----, _Later Biblical Researches in Palestine_, 1856.

Schumacher, _Northern Ajlun_, 1890.

----, _Pella_, 1889.

----, _The Jaulan. Survey of the German Society for the Exploration of the Holy Land_, 1888.

Stanley, _Sinai and Palestine_, 1883.

Stewart, _The Land of Israel_, 1907.

Tristram, _Bible Places, or the Topography of the Holy Land_, 1897.

----, _Landscapes of the Bible_, 1901.