The life and work of St. Paul

THESSALO3TICA AND BERCEA, 287
place him in tlio first rank of ancient commentators. It received the title of
"
the orthodox city," because it was for centuries a bulwark of Christendom,
but it was taken by Amurath IE. in 1430. Salouiki is still a great commercial
port of 70,000 inhabitants, of whom nearly one-third are Jews; and the
outrage of Mohammedan fanaticism which has brought its name into recent
prominence is but the beginning of events which will yet change the map and
the destinies of Southern Europe.
At this city blighted now by the curse of Ishm, but still beautiful on the
slopes of its vine-clad hills, with Pelion and Olympus full in view the
missionaries rested, for hero was the one Jewish synagogue which sufficed for
the entire district. 1 After securing the means of earning their daily bread,
wliich was no easy matter, they found a lodging in the house of a Jew, who
had Gracised tho common name of Jesus into Jason. 2 Even if their quarters
were gratuitously allowed them, St. Paul, accepting no further aid, was forced
to daily and nightly labour of tho severest description 3 to provide himself
with the small pittance which alone sufficed his wants. Even this was not
sufficient. Poor as ho was for if ho ever possessed any private means ho had
now lost them all 4 the expenses of the journey from Philippi had probably left
him and his companions nearly penniless, and but for the timely liberality of
the Philippians it would have fared hardly with the Apostle, and he might
even have boon loft without means to pursue his further journeys. 5
There
is no contradiction between the two contributions from Philippi and the
Apostle's account of his manual labours ; for there is nothing to show that he
only stayed in Thessalouica a little more than three weeks.6 In addition to the
fact that the second contribution would be partly wanted for his new journeys,
we find that at this time a famine was raging, which caused the price of wheat
to rise to six times its usual rate. 7 However much this famine may have
enhanced the difficulties of St. Paul and his companions, it must have confirmed
him in the purpose of placing the motives of his ministry above suspicion by
making it absolutely gratuitous. Such disinterestedness added much to tho
strength of his position, especially in the " deep poverty " which must have
prevailed in such times among tho low-born proselytes of a despised religiou.
If St. Paul did not refuse the contributions from Philippi, it was because they
came spontaneously, at an hour of bitter need, from those who could spare the
money, and who, as ho well knew, would bo pained by any refusal of their
1 Acts xvii. 1. 4 mva-po-rf is probably the'right reading, though the ij ia wanting in
, A, B, D. In any case it is evidently meant that there was but one synagogue, and
tradition still points out the mosque once the Church of St. Demetrius, which Li supposed
to stand upon its site. There are now nearly forty Jewish synagogues in
Baloniki.
2 Kom. xvi. 21.
8 1 Thess. ii. 9, j/vsris yap