The life and work of St. Paul

382 THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL.
iii. And then had come another set of Judaisers one man in particular
to whom the name of even Kephas was unsatisfactory.
He apparently was-
or, what is a very different thing, he professed to be an adherent of James, 1
and to him even Peter was not altogether sound. He called himself a
follower of Christ, and disdained any other name. Perhaps he was one of
the Desposyni. At any rate, he prided himself on having seen Christ, and
known Christ in the flesh. Now the Lord Jesus had not married, and James,
the Bishop of Jerusalem, was unmarried ; and this teacher evidently shared
the Essene abhorrence of marriage. He it was who had started all the
subtle refinements of questions respecting celibacy and the married life. He
it was who gathered around him a few Jews of Ebionite proclivities, who
degraded into a 2
party watchword even the sacred name of Christ.
9. Thus, as St. Paul now learnt fully for the first time, the Church of Corinth
was a scene of quarrels, disputes, partisanships, which, in rending asunder
its unity, ruined its strength. On all these subjects the Corinthians, in their
self-satisfied letter, had maintained a prudent but hardly creditable silence.
Nor was this all that they had concealed. They had asked questions about
spiritual gifts ; but 'it was left for the household of Chloe to break to St.
Paul the disquieting news that the assemblies of the Church had degenerated
into scenes so noisy, so wild, so disorderly, that there were times when any
heathen who dropped in could only say that they were all mad. Sometimes
half a dozen enthusiasts were on their legs at once, all pouring forth wild
series of sounds which no human being present could understand, except that
sometimes, amid these unseemly and might they not at times, with some of
these Syrian emissaries, be these half-simulated ecstasies, there were heard
words that made the blood run cold with shuddering horror. 3 At other
times, two or three preachers would interrupt each other in the attempt to
gain the ear of the congregation all at the same moment. Women rose to
give their opinions, and that without a veil on their heads, as though they
were not ashamed to be mistaken for the Hetairae, who alone assumed such an
unblushing privilege. So far from being a scene of peace, the Sunday services
had become stormy, heated, egotistic, meaningless, unprofitable.
10. And there was worse behind. It might at least have been supposed
that the A gapae would bear some faint traditional resemblance to their name,
and be means of reunion and blessedness worthy of their connexion with the
Eucharistic feast ! Far from it ! The deadly leaven of selfishness display-
We cannot for a moment believe that Peter and James really approved of the
methods of these men, because to do so would have been a flagrant breach of their own
compact (Gal. ii. 9). But it is matter of daily experience that the rank and file of
parties are infinitely less wise and noble than their leaders.
2 About the Christ party there have been three main views : (1) That they were
adherents of James (Storr, &c.) ; (2) that they were neutrals, who held aloof from all parties
(Eichhorn, &c. ) ; (3) that they were a very slight modification of the Peter-party (Baur,
Paul. i. 272 292). It is remarkable that to this day there is in England and America
a sect, which, professing to disdain human authority, usurps the exclusive name of
" Chriatians " (see Schaff . Apost. Ch. i. 339).
3 1 Cor. xii. 3 (cf. 1 John ii. 22 ; iv. 13) ; 'A