The life and work of St. Paul

THE LAST JOT7ENEY TO JERUSALEM. 543
added violence to a yet more infuriated reaction in men who felt that they
had been the victims of a successful stratagem, and in the remark of St. Paul
before the tribunal of Felix l I seem to seo though none have noticed it a
certain sense of compunction for the method in which he had extricated him.
self from a pressing danger.
But, as
successful.
we have said, the stratagem was for the time almost magically
Paul's enemies wore instantly at each other's throats. The High
Priest, Ananias, was so singularly detested by the Pharisaic party that
8
centuries afterwards the tradition still lingered of his violence and greed.
There rose a sudden uproar of angry voices, and. the scribes, who sided with
the Pharisees, started up in a body to declare that Paul was
"
innocent. We
find the defendant not guilty ; but if a spirit or angel spoke to him P " *
Again the Jews, even these distinguished Hierarchs and Rabbis, showed their
utter incapacity for self-control. Even in the august precincts of the
Sanhcdrin the clamour was succeeded by a tumult so violent that Paul was
once more in danger of being actually torn to pieces, this time by learned and
venerable hands. Claudius Lysias, more and more amazed at the imprac-
ticability of these Jews, who first unanimously set upon Paul in the Temple,
and half of whom in the Sanhedrin appeared to be now fighting in his defence,
determined that his fellow-citizen should not at any rate suffer so ignoble
a fate, and once more ordered the detachment of soldiers to go down to snatch
him from the midst of them, and lead him to the one spot in Jerusalem where
the greatest living Jew could alone find security the barracks of foreign
conquerors.
St. Paul might well be exhausted and depressed by the recurrence, on two
consecutive days, of such exciting scenes, and even a courage so dauntless as his
could not face unshaken this continual risk of sudden death. The next day
was again to bring a fresh peril ; but before it came, God in His mercy, who
had ever encouraged His faithful servant at the worst and darkest crises, sent
him a vision which saved him from all alarm as to his actual life for many a
long and trying day. As at Jerusalem on his first visit, and as at Corinth, and
as afterwards on the stormy sea, the Lord stood by him and said, " Cheer
thee, Paul ; for as thou didst bear witness respecting me at Jerusalem, so must
thou also bear witness at Rome."
The dawn of the next day sufficed to prove that his manceuvre in the
Sanhedrin had only won a temporary success at the cost of a deeper
exasperation. So unquenchable was the fury against him, and so inflamed
was the feeling of disappointment tliat Lysias sho'uld have snatched him a\Vay
from their revenge, that in the mtfrning no less than fc.ty Jews bound
1 Acts xxiv. 21, which I take to be a confession of his error on this occasion.
8
Derenbourg, Palest. 31.
1 The expression is an aposiopesis, or suppression of the apodosis, not uncommon
after el, as suggesting an alternative. See lay Brief Greek Syntax, % 309. The
t>n ecofiax&pcv of the Received Text (omitted in N, A, B, C, E, the 2Ethiopic, the Coptic,
&c.) is a glass from chap. v. 89. Chrysostom fills up the sentence with ircto
"
What sort of charge i* that?"