The life and work of St. Paul

646 THE LIFE AND WOEK OF ST. PAUL
we cannot doubt that, with his kindly human interest in life and youth, ths
Apostle, who knew that heathendom too was redeemed in Christ, whoso boyhood
had been passed in a heathen city, who loved man as man because he saw
a vision of all humanity in God would have talked often to the weary soldiers
who guarded him would have tried ;
by wholesome and courteous and profitable
words it) dissipate their tedium, until we can well imagine that the legionaries
who had to perform the disagreeable task would, in spite of intense national
repugnances, prefer to bo chained to Paul the Jewish prisoner than to any
wlium caprice, or justice, or tyranny consigned to their military charge.
Doubtless the soldiers would tell him in what countries they had been stationed,
What barbarians they had helped to subdue. He would ask them in what
tumult they had got that fracture in the helmet, in what battle that dint upon
the shield, by what blow they had made that hack in the sword. 1
They would
tell him of the deadly wrestle with foes who grappled with them in the melee,
and of the falaricae? the darts wrapped round with flaming tow, from which
their shields had saved them in the siege. And thinking of the sterner
struggle against deadlier enemies, even against the world-rulers of this darkness,
against the spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies, 3 in which
all God's children are anxiously engaged, he bids the Christian converts assume,
act " the straw-armour of reason," but the panoply of God, that they may be
able to withstand in the evil day. Let spiritual truth be their baldric or bind-
ing girdle;* moral righteousness their breastplate; zealous alacrity in the
5
cause of the Gospel of Peace their caligae of war and in addition to ;
these,
6
let faith bo taken up as their broad shield against the darts of the evil one,
however fiercely ignited. Their one weapon of offence is to be the sword of
the Spirit, which is the Word of God. 7
Prayer and watchfulness is to be
their constant attitude ; and in their prayers for all saints he begs also for
their prayers on his own behalf, not that his chains may bo loosed, but that he
may boldly and aptly make known the mystery of the Gospel, on behalf of
1 The pilum, or heavy javelin, which a soldier would not bring with him to the
guard-room, is omitted.
* Or mallcoli (Ps. vii. 13).
3 The Kabbinical vranp-DDV' Similarly, in 2 Cor. Iv. 4, St. Paul goes so far as to call
" the Prince of the power of the air," 6 flcb? rov oUwvos TOVTOV. (Of, 1 John v. 19 ; John xiv.
30 ; xvi. 11.) "The spirituals of wickedness in the heav-enlies" are the Gdstcrchaft of
iniquity in the regions of space ; but one would expect inrovpaviot.?. The E.V. conceals
the difficulty by its " high places ;" but if eTi-ovpaWois be right, it can only be in a physical
sense. As for mortal enemies: "vasa sunt, alius utitur; organa sunt, alius jungit"
* " Veritas astringit hominem, mendaciorum magna est laxitas" (Grot.).
'> Cf. Horn. iii. 16 ; x. 15; ero^aa-la. may, however, mean "basis," "sole" ()i3O, Ezra iii.
3 Ps. Ixxxviii. 15, LXX.). The Gospel of Peace gives a secure foothold even in war.
'
*
Faith, not merit, as in "VVisd. v. 19. (Cf. Ps. xviii. 31, &c.) Notice the emphatic
position of ireirupu^eVa.
7 Dr. Davidson finds this a tedious and tasteless amplification of 1 Thess. v. 8,
2 Cor. x'. 3, 4, and has many similar criticisms (Introd. i. 388, 390). It is impossible to
argue' against such criticisms as bearing on the question of genuineness. The general
metaphor is not uncommon (Isa. Ibc. 1619 ; 1 Thess. v. 8 ; Wisd. v. 1720 ; Bleeck,
Zend Arfstn, p. 90; Davies, p. 61). (See the account of the arms In the Interpreter's
House in Pilgrim's Progress, and Gurnall's Christian Annow,)