The life and work of St. Paul

180 ?BE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL.
Of these scenes Saul and Barnabas may have been eye-witnesses OB their
return journey from Jerusalem to Antioch. The order of events in St. Luke
may indeed be guided by the convenience of narrating consecutively all that
he had to say about Herod Agrippa, and above all of showing how the sudden
onslaught on the Church, which seemed to threaten it with nothing short of
extermination, was checked by the deliverance of Peter, and arrested by the
retribution of God. This would be the more natural if, as there seems to be
good reason to believe, the ghastly death of Herod took place in the very same
month in which, by shedding the blood of the innocent in mere pursuit of
popularity, he had consummated his crimes.1 If Saul and Barnabas were at
Jerusalem during Peter's imprisonment, they may have been present at the
prayer meeting at the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, and the kinswoman
of Barnabas. If so we can at once account for the vivid minuteness of the
details furnished to St. Luke respecting the events of that memorable time. 2
In any case, they must have heard the death of Agrippa discussed a
thousand times, and must have recognised in it a fresh proof of the immediate
governance of God. But this was to them a truth of the most elementary
character. Their alleged indifference to public questions simply arose from
their absorption in other interests. Their minds were full of deeper concerns
than the pride and fall of kings ; and their visit to Jerusalem was so purely
an episode in the work of St. Paul that in the Epistle to the Galatians he
passes it over without a single allusion.3 There is nothing surprising in the
omission. It is the object of the Apostle to show his absolute independence
of the Twelve. This second visit to Jerusalem had, therefore, no bearing on
the subject with which he was dealing. More than eleven years had already
elapsed since the Crucifixion, and a very ancient tradition says that twelve
years (which to the Jews would mean anything above eleven years) was the
period fixed by our Lord for the stay of the Apostles in the Holy City.*
Even if we attach no importance to the tradition, it is certain that it approximates
to known facts, and we may therefore assume that, about this time, the
Apostles began to be scattered in various directions. St. Paul passes over
this eleemosynary visit, either because in this connexion it did not occur to
his memory, or because the mention of it was wholly unimportant for his
purpose.
Yet there was one circumstance of this visit which was fraught with
1 Saul and Barnabas seem to have started from Antioch with the intention of
arriving at Jerusalem for the Passover of April 1, A.D. 44. The martyrdom of James
immetliately preceded the Passover, and the imprisonment of Peter took place during
the Paschal week (Acts xii. 3 6). It was immediately afterwards that Herod started
for Csesarea and if the ;
object of his visit was to celebrate the return of Claudius from
Britain, it must have been in this very month. For Claudius returned early in A.D. 44,
and it would take some little time for the news to reach Jerusalem. Further, Josephus
says that Agrippa reigned seven years (Antt. xix. 8, 2), and as he was appointed in
April, A.D. 37, these seven years would end in April, A.D. 44. See the question fully
examined in Lewin, Fasti Sacri, p. 280.
2 In D is mentioned even the number of steps from Peter's prison to the street.
Gal. ii. 1.
See Apollon. ap. Euseb. H. E. v. 18; Clem. Alex. Strom, vL p. 762, ed. Potter.