Not Paul, But Jesus. Bentham Jeremy

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СКАЧАТЬ persecution, by which, with the exception of the Apostles themselves, to all of whom experience seems, without exception, to have imparted the gift of prudence, the whole fraternity had so lately been driven from their homes, and scattered abroad in various directions.

      With the Christians at Damascus, that projected junction was actually effected by him: but, in this state of things, to return to Jerusalem was not, at that time, to be thought of. In the eyes of the ruling powers, he would have been a trust-breaker – a traitor to their cause: in the eyes of the Christians, he would have been a murderer, with the blood of the innocent still reeking on his hands: no one would he have found so much as to lend an ear to his story, much less to endure it. In Damascus, after making his agreement with his new brethren, there remained little for him to do. Much had he to inform himself of concerning Jesus. Damascus – where Jesus had already so many followers – Damascus was a place for him to learn in: not to teach in: – at any rate, at that time.

      Arabia, a promising field of enterprise – Arabia, a virgin soil, opened to his view. There he would find none to abhor his person – none to contradict his assertions: there his eloquence – and, under the direction of his judgment, his invention – would find free scope: in that country the reproach of inconsistency could not attach upon him: in that foreign land he beheld his place of quarantine – his school of probation – the scene of his novitiate. By a few years employed in the exercise of his new calling – with that spirit and activity which would accompany him of course in every occupation to which he could betake himself – he would initiate himself in, and familiarize himself with, the connected exercises of preaching and spiritual rule. At the end of that period, whatsoever might be his success in that country, such a portion of time, passed in innocence, would at any rate allay enmity: such a portion of time, manifestly passed, in the endeavour at any rate to render service to the common cause, might even establish confidence.

      At the end of that time, he might, nor altogether without hope of success, present himself to the rulers of the church, in the metropolis of their spiritual empire: "Behold, he might say, in me no longer a persecutor, but a friend. The persecutor has long vanished: he has given place to the friend. Too true it is, that I was so once your persecutor. Years spent in unison with you – years spent in the service of the common cause – have proved me. You see before you, a tried man – an ally of tried fidelity: present me as such to your disciples: take me into your councils: all my talent, all my faculties, shall be yours. The land of Israel will continue, as it has been, the field of your holy labours; the land of the Gentiles shall be mine: we will carry on our operations in concert; innumerable are the ways in which each of us will derive from the other – information, assistance, and support."

      To Arabia he accordingly repaired: so, in his Epistle to the Galatians, Gal. i. 17, he himself informs us: in that little-known country, he continued three whole years – so also, in the same place, he informs us. There it was, that he experienced that success, whatever it was, that went to constitute the ground, of the recommendation given of him by Barnabas to the Apostles. From thence he returned to Damascus: and, in that city, presenting himself in his regenerated character, and having realized by his subsequent conduct the expectations raised by his promises at the outset of his career18; he planned, and as will be seen, executed his expedition to Jerusalem: the expedition, the object of which has just been brought to view. "Then," says Paul himself, "I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days." Gal. 1:18. There, says the author of the Acts, Acts 9:27, 28, "Barnabas took him and brought him to the Apostles … and he was with them coming in and going out of Jerusalem."

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      1

      To prevent, if possible, an embarrassment, which might otherwise be liable to have place on the part of the reader, – and therewith, the idea of inconsistency, as having place here and there in the work, – the following indication may be found to have its use.

      A cloud of uncertainty, to the length of one or two years, hangs over the duration of the period embraced by this work: namely, that between the point of time at which the conversion of Paul is stated to have taken place, and the point of time at which the history, intituled The Acts of the Apostles, as therein declared, concludes: – a point of time, posterior by two years to that of his arrival at Rome.

      2

      For making the requisite separation, between the two religions of Jesus and the religion of Paul, – an instrument, alike commodious and unexceptionable, has – for these many years, though, assuredly, not with any such view, – been presented to all hands, by Doctor Gastrell, an English and Church of England Bishop: namely, in a well-known work, intituled The Christian Institutes: date of the 14th Edition, 1808. It is composed of a collection of points of faith and morality, and under each are quoted the several texts, in the New Testament, which are regarded by the author as affording grounds for the positions indicated. If then, anywhere, in his composition of the ground, passages, one or more, from this or that Epistle of Paul, are employed, – unaccompanied with any passage, extracted from any of the four Gospels, – the reader may, without much danger of error, venture to conclude, that it is to the religion of Paul alone, that the point of doctrine thus supported appertains, and not to the religion of Jesus. As to any of the Ep

1

To prevent, if possible, an embarrassment, which might otherwise be liable to have place on the part of the reader, – and therewith, the idea of inconsistency, as having place here and there in the work, – the following indication may be found to have its use.

A cloud of uncertainty, to the length of one or two years, hangs over the duration of the period embraced by this work: namely, that between the point of time at which the conversion of Paul is stated to have taken place, and the point of time at which the history, intituled The Acts of the Apostles, as therein declared, concludes: – a point of time, posterior by two years to that of his arrival at Rome.

2

For making the requisite separation, between the two religions of Jesus and the religion of Paul, – an instrument, alike commodious and unexceptionable, has – for these many years, though, assuredly, not with any such view, – been presented to all hands, by Doctor Gastrell, an English and Church of England Bishop: namely, in a well-known work, intituled The Christian Institutes: date of the 14th Edition, 1808. It is composed of a collection of points of faith and morality, and under each are quoted the several texts, in the New Testament, which are regarded by the author as affording grounds for the positions indicated. If then, anywhere, in his composition of the ground, passages, one or more, from this or that Epistle of Paul, are employed, – unaccompanied with any passage, extracted from any of the four Gospels, – the reader may, without much danger of error, venture to conclude, that it is to the religion of Paul alone, that the point of doctrine thus supported appertains, СКАЧАТЬ