The life and work of St. Paul

ANTIOCH IK FISIDIA. 209
daced upon his mind by the speeches he had hoard from St. Peter and from
St. Stephen. From the latter of these he borrows his use of what may be
called the historic method; from the former, the remarkable Messianic
argument for the Resurrection which he founds on a passage in the Second
Psalm. 1
Beginning with a courteous address to the Jews and Proselytes, and
bespeaking their earnest attention, he touched first on that providence of God
in the history of Israel of which they had just been reminded in the Haphtarah.
He had chosen them, had nurtured them in Egypt, had delivered them from its
bondage, had carried them like a nursing father in the wilderness, had driven
out seven nations of Canaan before them, had governed them by judges for
450 years, and then for forty years, as tradition said, had granted them for
their king one whom with an allusion to his own name and tribe which is
inimitably natural he calls " Saul, the son of Kish, of the tribe of
Benjamin." Then fusing three separate passages of scriptural encomium oik
David into one general quotation (13-22) he announces the central truth which
it was his mission to preach : that, of David's seed, God had raised up accord-
ing to His promise One who, as His very name signified, was a Saviour, and to
whom the groat acknowledged prophet, John the Baptist, had borne direct
witness. It was true that the rulers of Jerusalem and on this painful side of
the subject he dwells but lightly had, less from deliberate wickedness than
from ignorance, put Him to death, thereby fulfilling the direct prophecies of
Scripture. But and this was the great fact on which ho relied to remove the
terrible offence of the Cross GOD HAD EAISED HIM FKOM THE DEAD (23-31).
This was an historic objective fact, to which, as a fact tested by their living
senses, many could bear witness. And lest they should hesitate about this
testimony, he proceeded to show that it was in accordance with all those prophecies
which had been for centuries tho most inspiring part of their nation's
faith. The Resurrection to which they testified was the highest fulfilment of
the Psalm in which God had addressed David as His son. And there were
two special passages which foreshadowed this groat truth. One was in Isaiah,
where the Prophet L;td promised to God's true children tho holy, the sure,
mercies of David; tho other was that on which St. Peter had dwelt in his
speech at Pentecost the confident hope expressed in that Michtain or " Golden
Psalm "
that God would not leave his eoul in hell, or suffer His holy one to
see corruption. More must have been involved in that yearning conviction
than could possibly all'oct David himself. He had died, he had seen corruption
; but He of the seed of David whom God had raised of Him alone was
it true that His soul was not left in the unseen world, and His flesh had not
seen corruption. What they had to preach, then, was forgiveness
of sins
doubtedly the right reading, as against Snrtpsf, which is found in M and the other uncials,
which is simply a correction, because the quotation is from Psalm ii. 7 ; and it was overlooked
that among the Jews in St. Paul's time the Second Psalm was regarded as tht
First, the First being " an introduction to the Psalter."
1
Compare Acts xiii. 3537 with St. Peter's speech in Acts ii. 87.
8