The life and work of St. Paul

CTPETJ8. 197
divinity was no Aphrodite Ourania, 1 but the lowest kind of Aphrodite Fandemos
;
that her worship was simply the prostitution of religion to the excuse
of lust. Nor is it strange that under such circumstances there should he
deadly opposition between the Jews and the Greek or Phoenician inhabitants,
such as existed of old between the Jews and Canaanites. The mutual hatred
thus engendered culminated in the internecine war which so soon broke out
between the rival populations ; it may have been one of the reasons why in
Cyprus we read of no preaching to the heathen.
After their residence in Salamis the three missionaries traversed the whole
island. 8
It is about a hundred miles in length from Salamis to New Paphos ;
and they probably followed a main road along the coast, diverging to places
like Citium, the birthplace of Zeno the Stoic ; Amathus, one of the shrines of
Venus ; and any towns where they would find the little Ghettos, whoso
conversion to the faith was their prime object.
But not one incident of their
journey is preserved for us until they reached the town of Paphos. By this
name is intended, as the narrative shows, not the old and famous Paphos, the
modern Kuklia, to which wanton pilgrimages were yearly made in honour of
the old shrine so " famous-infamous " for many ages, but Nea-Paphos, 3 the
modern Baffa, now a decayed and mouldering village, but then a bustling
haven, and the residence of the Boman Proconsul Sergius Paulus.*
It does not in any way impugn the claim of Sergius Paulus to be regarded
as a person of intelligence that he had with him, apparently residing in his
house, a Jewish impostor named Bar-Jesus, who had arrogated to himself the
complimentary title of Elymas, the Ulemah, or "Wizard. 5 A notorious infidel
like Philippe galite*, though in other respects a man of ability, could yet try
to presage his fate by the sort of cup-augury involved in examining the
grounds of coffee (K.v\nco/j.dt>Tfta ; cf . Gen. xliv. 5). A belief in some personal
Power, the arbiter of man's destiny, above and beyond himself, is a primary
necessity of the human mind. Mankind can never dispense with this belief,
however superfluous, in certain cases, and for a time, it may seem to be to the
individual. The noble Romans who had lost all firm hold on the national
religion, felt themselves driven by a kind of instinctive necessity to get such a
connexion with the unseen world as could be furnished them by the mysticism
of Oriental quacks. A Marius had resorted to the prognostications of the
Jewess Martha. At this particular epoch augurs, haruspices, Babylonians,
1 The Virgin Mary is adored by Cypriotes under the name Aphrodvtissa I (Lohber,
Cyprus, p. 105.)
2 Acts xiii. 6, tu\06rm M 5\r,v -njv tnj M, A, B, 0, D, E. In omitting ^ our version
follows G, H.
3 "
The dance, music, and song of the sacred processions of 3,000 years ago have been
replaced by the coo-coo-vaie of the owl, and wild cries of other night-birds, and the
*
-.i^" 1118 bark of famished dogs, left behind by no less famished masters, to roam the
8. 1
'
. village in search of carrion. This is the Paphos of to-day " (Cesnola's Cyprus,
P- 2 }'
-
XVL, " The Proconsulate of Sergius Paulua."
tf81** -
-^ys, " filim ou sage .... mot arabe dont le pluriel est ovttma.
owever, ,, .
^. u ,j en aramgen ce QUJ ren