The life and work of St. Paul

510 THE LIFE AND WORK OP ST. PAUL.
" Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my Gospel, and the
preaching of Jesug Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, buried in
silence in eternal ages, but manifested now and made known by the prophetic
Scriptures, according to the command of the Eternal God unto obedience to the
faith to all nations : To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ to whom be the
1
for ever. Amen."
glory
CHAPTER XL.
THE LAST JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM.
" Show me some one person formed according to .the principles he professes.
Show me one who is sick and happy ; in danger and happy ; dying and happy ;
exiled and happy ; disgraced and happy." EPICTBTUS.
IT was now about the month of February, A.D. 58, and the work which St.
Paul had set before him at Corinth was satisfactorily concluded. Having
been nine months in Europe, 2 he was anxious to get to Jerusalem by the Pass-
over, and intended to sail straight from Corinth to one of the ports of
Palestine. Every preparation was made ; it almost seems that he had got on
board sliip ; when he was informed of a sudden3 plot on the part of the Jews
to murder him. As to all the details we are left in the dark. We know that
the previous plot of the Jews, nearly five years earlier, 4 had been foiled by the
contemptuous good sense of Gallic ; but even if their revenge were otherwise
likely to be laid aside, we cannot doubt that ample fuel had since been heaped
upon the smouldering fire of their hatred. From every seaport of the
JEgean, from the highlands of Asia Minor, from its populous shores, from
Troas under the shadows of Mount Ida, to Athens under the shadow of Mount
Pentelicus, they would hear rumours of that daring creed which seemed to
trample on all their convictions, and fling to the Gentiles their most cherished
hopes. The Jewish teachers who tried to hound the Judaising Christians
against St. Paul would stand on perfectly good terms with them, and these
Judaisers would take a pleasure in disseminating the deadliest misrepresenta-
tions of Paul's doctrine and career. But apart from all misrepresentation,
his undeniable arguments were quite enough to madden them to frenzy.
phenomenon of omission, repetition, transposition, authenticity, must be left for further
investigation." "Westcott (Vaughan's Romans, p. xxv.). One theory is that xii. xiv.
were substituted later for IT. xvi., and then both were accumulated in one copy with
some modifications.
1 Of. Eph. iii. 20, 21. The text, as it stands, involves an anacoluthon, since the but lost sight of it in the length of the sentence. Here, as in
Hab. iii. 6, the word au6>ao? is used in two consecutive clauses, where in the first clause
all are agreed that it cannot mean " endless " since it speaks of things which have
already come to au end.
a He left Ephesus before the Pentecost of A.D. 57.
* Act! TX. 4
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