The life and work of St. Paul

318 THE Lira AHD WORK o? ST. PAUL.
the nature of their trado seems to have made It desirable for them to move
from place to place. At Corinth, as subsequently at Ephcsus, Paul worked
in their employ, and shared in their profits. These profits, unhappily, were
scanty. It was a time of general pressure, and though the Apostle toiled
night and day, all his exertions were unable to keep the wolf from the door.1
He knew what it was to suffer, even from the pangs of hunger, but not even
when he was thus starving would he accept assistance from his Achaian eon-
verts. He had come to an absolute determination that, while willing to receive
necessary aid from churches which loved him, and which he loved, he would
forego at Corinth the support which he considered to be the plain right of an
Apostle, lest any should say that he too, like the mass of traffickers around
2
him, did but seek his own gain. Contentedly, therefore nay, even gladly, did
he become a fellow-labourer with the worthy pair who were both compatriots
and brethren and even when he was ;
working hardest, he could still bo giving
instruction to all who sought him. But now, as ever, the rest of the Sabbath
furnished him with his chief opportunity. On that day he was always to be
found in the Jewish synagogue, and his weekly discourses produced a deep
impression both on Jews and Greeks. ,-l...i,{;
But when the peiiod of his solitude was ended by the arrival of Silas from
Beroea, and Tiinotheus from Thessalonica, he was enabled to employ a yet
more intense activity. Not only did he find their presence a support, but they
also cheered him by favourable intelligence, and brought him a contribution
from the Philippians, 8 which alleviated his most pressing needs. Accordingly,
their arrival was followed by a fresh outburst of missionary zeal, and he bore
witness with a yet more impassioned earnestness to his Master's cause.* At
this period his preaching was mainly addressed to the Jews, and the one object
of it was to prove from Scripture the Messiahship of Jesus.' But with them
took the trouble to draw any distinction between Jews and Christians. It is, therefore,
quite possible that these incessant riots may have arisen in disputes about the Messiah.
Dion Cassius, indeed, corrects Suetonius, and says that the Jews were so numerous that
they could not be expelled without danger, and that Claudius therefore contented himself
with closing their synagogues (Dion, bt. 6). Perhaps the decree was passed, but never
really enforced; and Aquila may have been one of the Jews who obeyed it without difficulty
for the reasons suggested in the text. Nay, more, he may have been selected for special
banishment as a ringleader in the agitation, if, as some suppose, he and his wife were
the founders of Christianity at Home. In any case its operation was brief, for shortly
afterwards we again find the Jews in vast numbers at Home (Rom. rvi. 3 ; Acts xxviii.
17). It is not at all impossible that the edict may have been identical with, or a part
of, that De Mathematicis Italid pdhndia which Tacitus mentions as atrox et irritum.
2 Cor. xi. 9 ; 1 Cor. iv. 11, 12 ; ix. 4.
2 See Acts xx. 34 ; 1 Cor. ix. 12 ; 2 Cor. vii. 2; 1 Thess. ii. 9 ; 2 Thess. ffi. 8.
Phil iv. 15 ; 2 Cor. xi. 9.
"was engrossed " (Vulg., instabat verlo), but less correctly.
mentia fuisse impulsum ut iibere palamque de Christo dissereret " (Calvin),
6 1 Cor. xv. 3.
'
Sensus est, majore vehe