The life and work of St. Paul

212 THE LIFX AND WORK OF ST. PATH.
till those new-comers had appeared, they were readily induced to look on
them with dislike, especially since they were viewed with disfavour by the
ladies of their families. 1 They joined in the clamour against the Apostles,
and succeeded in getting them banished out of their boundaries. The Apostles
shook off their feet the deep dust of the parched roads in testimony against
them,* and passed on to Iconium, where they would bo under a different
jurisdiction. 3 But the departure did not destroy the infant Church which
they had founded. It might have been expected that they would leave
gloom and despondency among their discouraged converts ; but it was not
so. They left behind them the joy of a new hope, the inspiration of a newfaith,
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of those who had
learnt of the heavenly promise.
CHAPTER XXI.
*HE CLOSE OF THE JOURNEY.
u.-k.
'ATJOTO* y&p Avitaovft &s teal 'A.piffrort\ri5 (ictprvpti. ScHOL. tn Honi- 11. iv. 88.
" WHEN they persecute you in this city, flee ye to another," our Lord had
said to His twelve Apostles when He sent them forth as lambs among
wolves. 4
Expelled from Antioch, 5 the Apostles obeyed this injunction. They
might have crossed the Paroreian range to Philomelium, and so have made
t heir way westwards to Synnada and the Phrygian cities, or to Colossoa and
Laodicea. What circumstances determined their course we cannot tell, bnt
they kept to the south of the Pai'oreia, and, following a well- traversed road,
made their way to the pleasant city of Iconium. For a distance of about sixty
miles the road runs south-eastwards over bleak plains, scoured by wild asses
r:nd grazed 1-y countless hnrds of sheep, until it reaches the green oasis on
which stands the city of Iconinm. 6
It is the city so famous through the
Lliddle Ages, iinder the name of Konieh, as the capital of the Sultans of Roum,
ad the scene of the romantic siege by Godfrey of Bouillon. Here, on the
edge of an interminable steppe, and nearly encircled by snow-clad .hills, they
bad entered the district of Lycaonia, and found themselves in the capital city
of an independent tetrarchy. The diversity of political governments which at
this time prevailed in Asia Minor was so far an advantage to the Apostles,
1 avrai 8 r.ai rovt nrJpas irpoKaXovrrai (Strabo, I.e.). For the indulgence of the Romans
t-jwards the Jews in the provinces, Kenan refers to Jos. Antt, xiv. 10, 11 ; xvi. 6, 2,
4,6.7; Cic. pro Flacco, 28, &o.
* Matt. x. 14.
3 Antioch was a Roman colony, under the general jurisdiction of the Propraetor of
Gtvlatia. Iconium was under a local tetrarch. (Plin. H. N. v. 27.)
4 Matt. x. 25.
5 Acts xiii. 61, ittp*\ov wrote.
6 Strabo, xii. 6. Mentioned in Xen. Anab. i. 2, 19 ; Cic. ad Fam, Hi. 8 ; v. 20 j XT. ^
&G lying &i the intersection of important roads between Ephesus and Tarsus, &c-