The life and work of St. Paul

BEGINNING OF THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOUBNEY. 261
forth we never find him without at least two associates at this time
Silas and Timothy ; afterwards Titus and Timothy in Macedonia and Achaia,
and Luke and Aristarchus in his journey to Rome.
It may surprise us that the first step he took was to circumcise Timothy ;
and that since the rite might be performed by any Israelite, ho did it with hia
own hands. 1 Wo have, indeed, seen that he was in all probability driven to
circumcise tho Gentile Titus ; but we are not told of any pressure put upon
him to perform the same rite for Timothy, who, though the son of a Jewess,
had grown up without it. Nothing is more certain than that, in St. Paul's
opinion, circumcision was valueless. His conduct, therefore, can only be re-
garded as a second conces-sion to. or rather a prevention and anticipation of,
prejudices so strong that they might otherwise have rendered his work impossible.
St. Luke says that it was done " on account of the Jews in those
regions j for they all knew that his father was a Greek." Now, if this was
generally known, whereas it was not so widely known that his mother was a
Jewess, St. Paul felt that Timothy would everywhere be looked upon as an
lincircumeised Gentile, and as such no Jew would eat with him, and it would
be hppeless to attempt to employ him as a preacher of tho Messiah in the
synagogues, which they always visited as the beginning of their labours. If,
on the other hand, it were known that he was by birth a Jewish boy since
the rule was that nationality wont by the mother's side 2 an uncir-
cuincised Jew would be in every Ghetto an object of execration. If,
then, Timothy was to bo ordained to tho work of the ministry, his circum-
cision was indispensable to his usefulness, and his Jewish parentage was sufficient
to deprive the act of the dangerous significance which might much moro
easily bo attached to it in the case of Titus. Obviously, too, it was better
that Paul should do it spontaneously than that it should receive a factitious
importance by being once more extorted from him in spite of protest. Ho
did it, not in order to please himself, but that ho might condescend to the
infirmities of the weak. 3
The circumcision was follovred by a formal ordination. Tiie whole Church
was a-^scinbled ; the youth niado tho public profession oi :
4
his faith tho ; elders
aud Paul htaiself solomuly laid their liands upon his head; 5 the prophetic
voices which had marked him out for a great work 6 were confirmed by
those who now charged him with the high duties vrhich lay before him,
and at the same time warned him of tho dangers wliich those duties
1 By none, however, except an Israelite (AlltAda Zara., f. 27, 1).
3 "
Partus sequitur veutrem " is tho rule of the Talmud (echvroth, 1, 4, c. ;
\Vetst. ad. foe.). If the Jews knew that his moLher was a Jewess, aud yet that he had
-
uot received the "seal of the covenant," they would have treated hiui as a
(See Ewald, AllcrUi. 257.)
'o Koia. xv. 1 1 Cor. ix. 20.
;
* 1 Tini. vi. 12, ifioX&yijiTos rr)v KoXrji' ii.o\oyiav~_lv>&iriov iroXAii' ftoprupuv.
5 1 Tiin. iv. 14, rb x*Pt)