The life and work of St. Paul

8T. PAUL AT CORINTH. 321
no small courage in such a city to preach such a doctrine, and the very vicinity
of the synagogue to the house of Justus must have caused frequent and painful
collisions between the Jews and the little Christian community. Among
all the sorrows to which St. Paul alludes whenever he refers to this long stay
at Corinth, there is none that finds more bitter expression than his complaint
of his fellow-countrymen. He speaks of them to the Thessalonians in words of
unusual exasperation, saying that they pleased not God, and were contrary
to all men, and that by their attempts to hinder the preaching to the Gentiles
of the Christ whom they had murdered, they had now filled up the measure
of their sins. 1 The rupture was open and decisive. If they had excommu-
nicated him, and he was filled with such anger and despair when he thought
of them, it is certain that the struggle between them must have been a constant
source of anxiety and peril. This might even have ended in Paul's withdrawal
to now fields of labour in utter despondency but for the support which
again, as often at his utmost need, he received from a heavenly vision. The
Lord whom he had seen on the road to Damascus appeared to him at night,
and said to him
"
: Fear not, but speak, and hold not thy peace for I ; am
with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee ;
for I have much people
in this city."
But at last the contest between the Jews and the Christians came to a
head. The Proconsul of Achaia 2 ended his term of office, and the Proconsul
appointed by the emperor was Marcus Anuseus Novatus, who, having been
adopted by the friendly rhetorician Lucius Junius Gallic, had taken the name
of Lucius Junius Annseus Gallio, by which he is generally known. Very
different was the estimate of Gallio by his contemporaries from the mistaken
one which has made his name proverbial for indifferentism in the Christian
world. To the friends among whom he habitually moved he was the moat
genial, the most lovable of men. The brother of Seneca, and the uncle of
Lucan, he was the most universally popular member of that distinguished
family. He was pre-eminently endowed with that light and sweetness which
are signs of the utmost refinement, and " the sweet Gallio " is the epithet by
which he alone of the ancients is constantly designated. 3 " No mortal man
is so sweet to any single person as he is to all mankind," 4 wrote Seneca of him.
1 Thess. ii. 1416.
3 The term Proconsul is historically exact. The Government of Achaia had been BO
Incessantly changed that a mistake would have been excusable. Achaia had been Proconsular
under Augustus ; imperial, for a time, under Tiberius (Tac. Ann. L 76) ; Proconsular,
after A.D. 44, under Claudius (Suet. Claud, xxv.) ; free under Nero (Suet. Ner.
24) ; and again Proconsular under Vespasian (Suet. Yap. viiL). See supra, p. 197, md
Excursus XVI.
8 " Dulcis Gallio " (Stat. Sylv. IL 7, 32). See Seekert after God, 16 2L I need not
here recur to the foolish notion that Gallio sent some of St. Paul's writings to his
brother Seneca. On this see Aubertin, Seneque et St. Paul, p. 117. Nor need I
recur to the resemblance between the Roman philosopher and the Apostle, which I have
examined in Seekers after God, 174183, and which is fully treated by Dr. Ughtfoot
(Phil. pp. 268331).
4 "Nemo mortal ium unl tarn dulcis est quam hie omnibus" (Sen. Quaest. N*A. IT.
praef. 11). He dedicates to him his De Ira and Dt Vita Beata, and alludes tc him
in Ep. civ. Consol. ad Udv. 16.