The life and work of St. Paul

BEGINNING OF THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOUBNEY. 257
close bonds wliieh united him with the Jewish Christians, is a sufficient proof
that he was a man of large nature and as a ;
recognised prophet of Jerusalem
and Antioch, his companionship went far to fill up the void left in the mission
by the departure of Barnabas. His name Silvanus, 1 and the fact that ho,
too, seems to have been a Eoman citizen, 2
may perhaps show that he had some
connexion with the Gentile world, to which, therefore, he would be a more
acceptable Evangelist. In every respect it was a happy Providence which
provided St. Paul with so valuable a companion. And as they started on a
second great journey, carrying with them the hopes and fortunes of Christianity,
they were specially commended by the brethren to the grace of God.
St. Paul's first object was to confirm the Churches which he had already
founded. Such a confirmation of proselytes was an ordinary Jewish con-
ception, 3 and after the vacillations of opinion which had occurred even at
Antioch, Paul would be naturally anxious to know whether the infant communities
continued to prosper, though they were harassed by persecutions
from without, and liable to perversion from within. Accordingly he began
his mission by visiting the Churches of Syria and Cilicia. It is probable that
ho passed along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Issus, and through the
Syrian and Ainanid Gates to the towns of Alexandria and Issus.4 There the
road turned westward, and led through Mopsuestia and Adana to Tarsus.
From Tarsus three routes were open to him one running along the shore of
the Mediterranean to the Cilician Seleucia, and then turning inland through
the Lycaonian Laranda to Derbo ; the other a narrow and unfrequented path
the third, which in all probability he chose
through the mountains of Isauria ;
as the safest, the most frequented and the most expeditious, through the
famous Cilician Gates, 6 which led direct to Tyana, and then turning southwestward
ran to Cybistra, and so to Derbe, along the southern shore of Lake
Ak Ghieul. 8 And if, indeed, Paul and Silas took this route and passed
through the narrow gorge under its frowning cliffs of limestone, clothed here
and there with pine and cedar, which to the Crusaders presented an appearance
so terrible that they christened it the Gates of Judas, how far must they
have been from imagining, in their wildest dreams, that their footsteps the
footsteps of two obscure and persecuted Jews would lead to the traversing
of that pass centuries afterwards by kings and their armies. How little did they
dream that those warriors, representing the haughtiest chivalry of Europe, would
hold the name of Jews in utter execration, but would be sworn to rescue the
traditional tomb of that Christ whom they acknowledged as their Saviour,
1 Silas may be of Semitic origin. Josephus mentions four Orientals of the name
(Krenkel, p. 78).
3 Acts xvi. 20, 87.
3 See Schleusner, s.v.