Pauls Life

In Corinth.

Side by side with the religion of the city and of the family, polytheistic and utilitarian in the main, stood the "mysteries" or esoteric cults, which were sought out and participated in by the individual for the satisfaction of essen tially personal religious needs. Clearly those trained by such mysteries would be more drawn than ordinary polytheists to his gospel, with its doctrine of mystical yet real union with the Divine in Christ, and with its message of life through death. This being so, we shall not be surprised to find, especially at Corinth, traces of the reaction of conceptions proper to the mysteries upon the ideas and practices of Paul's converts (cf. I Cor. xv. 29), and even upon the language in which he set forth his meaning to them (see ii. 6 sqq.). Whether Paul himself was influenced by such ideas, e.g., in relation to the sacraments, is another question.

Third Great Journey.

After some 18 months in Corinth, Paul decided to break fresh ground—now at last, perhaps, at Ephesus, the key to the province of Asia. He took with him his fellow-workers Priscilla and Aquila, and left them at Ephesus while he himself visited Syria. After some stay there, he started, before autumn A.D. 53, for his third great campaign. Passing through south Galatia, where he further fortified his converts (xviii. 23), he would reach Ephesus before winter closed in. Already his circle of helpers had gained a fresh member of great gifts, the Alexandrine Jew Apollos (q.v.). He had been brought into fuller sympathy with the Pauline gospel by Priscilla and Aquila; and, learning from them the situation in Corinth, had gone to try to overcome Jewish criticism there (xviii. 24-28). At first Paul taught in the synagogue, until hostility drove him to "separate the disciples" and transfer his headquarters to "the school of Tyrannus." This was a lecture-room such as "sophists" or rhetors were wont to use for their "displays," and many doubt less would at first regard Paul as a new lecturer on morals and religion. His influence radiated throughout the whole province of Asia, partly through visitors to Ephesus, and partly through lieutenants, such as Timothy and Epaphras (Col. i. 7; iv. 13). The latter part of his stay at Ephesus was full of trials due to his success affecting trades dependent on the cult of the Ephesian Artemis. His words, "humanly speaking, I fought the beasts at Ephesus" (I Cor. xv. 32), may mean that he was almost torn in pieces by mob fury. Indeed he lived much of his time in Ephesus as one under daily sentence of death, so constant was his danger.

At this point of the narrative we are brought to the most pain ful episode in Paul's career, a psychological crucifixion of which we have the vivid record in his correspondence with the Corin thian church (see CORINTHIANS). There were misunderstandings on the part of large sections of it, which strained relations with Paul and impaired his apostolic authority in their eyes. In this connection the presence of interloping Jewish "apostles," with their claims for themselves and their insinuations as to Paul's motives (2 Cor. xii. 14-16), greatly complicated and embittered

the situation on both sides. In the end, as 2 Cor. shows, the bulk of the Church saw its mistake and proved its loyalty.

The Second Epistle to the Corinthians was written from Philippi or Thessalonica (ix. 2) ; and Timothy joins in its opening salutation. He had, it seems, been summoned from Ephesus by a hurried note of Paul's from Macedonia, on the way to Corinth. In it he is informed that Erastus had remained in Corinth, while Paul had been deprived also of the help of Trophimus, so that Timothy was unexpectedly needed at his side.

For us the great event of this visit to Corinth is the writing of that epistle which shows that his mind was now bent on the extension of his mission westwards to the metropolis of the empife itself. To Rome his thoughts had been turned for many a year, but he had time and again checked the impulse to visit it (Rom. xv. 22 seq.). The city had long been occupied by the Gospel in one form or another; and it was a point of honour with him to preach "where Christ was not named," not to build on others' foundations (xv. 2o). But his eye was now fixed on Spain, if not also on south Gaul. It was, then, largely as basis for his mission to the western Mediterranean that Paul viewed Rome. Yet after all Rome was the focus of the world. Paul could not simply pass by it (i. I I seq.). Paul looked westwards at this time. Yet his heart turned also to Judaea, where he felt his line of march still threatened by the danger of disunion in the very Body of Christ. At all cost this must be averted. The best hope lay in a practical exhibition of Gentile sympathy with the Mother Church in Jerusalem. The means for such a thank offering for benefits received, ultimately from Jerusalem (Rom. xv. 27), had been collected with patient labour; and the delegates to accompany Paul with it had already assembled at Corinth (xx. 4). Paul had intended to cross the Aegean from Corinth with his party, by the direct route to Syria. But a Jewish plot, to take effect on the voyage, caused him to start earlier by the longer land-route, as far as Philippi ; whence, after waiting to observe the Days of the Unleavened Bread, he sailed to join his fellow-almoners at Troas. There is no need to follow all the stages of what follows (see Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller). But every personal touch is meant to tell, even Paul's walk from Troas to Assos, perhaps for solitary meditation, away from the crowded ship; and all serves to heighten the feeling that it was the path to death that Paul was already treading (xx. 23). This lies at the heart of his impressive farewell to the Ephesian elders, a discourse which gives a vivid picture of his past ministry in Ephesus. Its burden, as Luke is at pains to emphasize by his comment upon the actual parting, is that "they should behold his face no more." But Paul, though moved in his feelings, was not to be moved from his purpose.