Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

THE PAULINE EPISTLES. IxiJl
idea under some celebrated name. In no Epistle, however, is there
any prominent idea which is remote from the circle of Pauline doc-
trine, and seems to be a foreign idea clothed with the costume of
Paul's style. AVe rather find every where the same main thoughts
which actuated the life of Paul, running through the entire collec-
tion, and giving their stamp to the whole.
The principal evidence, however, of the genuineness of the Paul-
ine Epistles, regarded in a liistorical light, is the circumstance, th,at
we can assign to the Epistles their exact places in the life of the
Apostle Paul by following the Acts of the Apostles. Thus are they
most fuUy and firmly bound one to another, and aU to the Acts of
the Apostles. This arrangement of the individual Epistles in accordance
with the thread of Paul's life, is effected in such a manner
as to show in chronological order the occasions of their composition,
and their strict relations to his known movements.
Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, who, as is well known,
was at first named Saul, was a native Jew of the tribe of Benjamin,
and was born in Tarsus in Cilicia. In order to perfect himself in
the knowledge of the law of his native country, he early betook him-
self to Jerusalem, where he was taught by the celebrated Gamaliel.
His zeal for the hereditary obseiTances of his countrymen caused
him to persecute the Christians, as soon as he had obtained knowledge
of them, with all the vehemence of his fiery nature. At the
death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, he was busy keeping
the clothes of his murderers while they stoned him. (Acts vii. 57
seq.) From Jerusalem Paul betook himself to Damascus, to stir up
the Jews there also against the Christians ; but the Lord Jesus appeared
to him before the city in his divine gloiy, and showed him
who it was that he persecuted. (Acts ix. 22—26). As Paul had
not persecuted the Christians from intentional wickedness, or from
carnal selfishness, contrary to his interior conviction, but rather with
the honest idea that he was thereby doing God service, the divine
light which enlightened his dark mind by this vision at once produced
an entire change in his feelings. With the same ardent zeal
for truth and right which he had manifested in persecuting the
Gosjiel, he now defended it ; though his zeal was indeed purified
and made holier by the Spirit of the Lord. After a season of quiet
reflection and repose, such as he needed to perceive the greatness
of that internal change which he had undergone, and the depth of
the new principle of life within him, Paul began to make known the
conviction he had just obtained. It was in Antioch (about 44 a. d.)
that Paul began formally to preach ; and he taught in this city,
along with Barnabas, a whole year. After a journey to Jerusalem,
•whither he carried money that had been collected for the poor in