The life and work of St. Paul

322 THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL.
" Even those who love my brother Gallic to the very utmost of their power
yet do not love him enough," l ho says in another placo. Ho was the very
flower of pagan courtesy and pagan culture a Roman with all a Roman's
dignity 3 and seriousness, and yot with all the grace and versatility of a
polished Greek.8
Such was the man on whoso decision the fortunes of Paul were to depend.
Whoever the former Proconsul had been, he had not been one with whom the
Jews could venture to trifle, nor had they once attempted to get rid of their
opponent by handing him over to the secular arm. But now that a new Proconsul
had arrived, who was perhaps unfamiliar with the duties of his office, and
whose desire for popularity at the beginning of his government might havo
made him complaisant to prosperous Jews, they thought that they could with
impunity excite a tumult. They rose in a body, seized Paul, and dragged him
before the tesselated pavement on which was set the curule chair of the Pro-
consul. It was evident that they had presumed on his probable inexperience,
and on his reputation for mildness; and, with all the turbulent clamour of
their race, they charged Paul with " persuading men to worship God contrary
to the Law." Though Claudius had expelled them from Rome, their religion
was a religio licita i.e., it was licensed by the State but ; the religion of
"
this fellow," they urged, though it might pass itself off under the name of
Judaism, was not Judaism at all it was a spurious counterfeit of Judaism,
which had become a religio illicita by running counter to its Mosaic Law. 4
Such was the charge urged by a hubbub of voices, and, as soon as it had
become intelligible, Paul was on the point of making his defence. But Gallio
was not going to trouble himself by listening to any defence. He took no
notice whatever of Paul, and, disregarding him as completely as though he
had been non-existent, replied to the Jews by a contemptuous dismissal of
them and their charge. With a thorough knowledge of, and respect for, the
established laws, but with a genuinely Roman indifference for conciliatory
language, and a more than Roman haughtiness of demeanour towards a
people whom, like his brother, he probably despised and detested, he stopped
the proceedings with the remark that their accusation against St. Paul, as a
violator of any
utterly
law, Mosaic or otherwise, which he could recognise, was
baseless.
" 5
Had this been a matter of civil wrong or moral outrage
it would have been but right for me to put up with you, and listen to these
charges of yours ; but if it be a number of questions 6 about an opinion, and
1 " Giillionera, fratrem meum. quern nemo non parum amat etiam qui amare plus non
potcst " (Nat. Qu. iv. pracf. 10).
adA.U.C. 818).
Dion Casa. be. 35.
* Hence though Topi rbv r6^ov, ver. 13, means "contrary to the Jewish law " (of. ver.
15), it might in this way come under the cognisance of the Roman law.
* 1 Ver. 14, iiunjfia, a legal injury ; pq&ovpyw" . a moral offence.
8
jmfaaTa infr. A, B, D 2 , E, Coptic, Sahidic, Armenian, &c. "My lord's" Roman
disdain for the yens sceleratissima is heard in every accent.