(8) Third Missionary journey. At Antioch he abode for some time, and then, accompanied, as is supposed, by Titus, he commenced another extensive tour, in the course of which, after pass ing through Phrygia and Galatia, he visited Ephesus. The importance of this city, in relation to the region of Hither Asia, determined him to remain in it for a considerable time ; and he ac cordingly continued preaching the gospel there for three years, with occasional brief periods of absence, for the purpose of visiting places in the vicinity. With such success were his efforts crowned, that the gains of those who were in terested in supporting the worship of Diana, the tutelar goddess of the city, began to be seriously affected; and at the instigation of one of these, by name Demetrius, a silversmith, who had en joyed a lucrative traffic by the manufacture of what appear to have been miniature representa tions of the famous temple of Diana (vaok aro porn Apreiziaos, comp. Kuinoel, in Act. xix,24; Neander, Apost. Zeit. § 35o), a popular tumult was excited against the Apostle, from the fury of which he was with difficulty rescued by the sagacity and tact of the town-clerk, aided by oth ers of the chief men of the place, who appear to have been friendly towards Paul. By this occurrence the Apostle's removal from Ephesus, on which, however, he had already determined (Acts xix :21), was in all probability expedited; and, accordingly, he very soon after the tumult went by way of Troas to Philippi, where he appears to have resided some time, and from which, as his headquarters, he made extensive excursions into the surrounding districts, pene trating even to Illyricum, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic (Rom. xv:t9). From Philippi he went to Corinth, where he resided three months, and then returned to Philippi, having been frus trated in his design of proceeding through Syria to Jerusalem by the malice of the Jews. Sailing from Philippi, he came to Troas, where lie abode seven days; thence he journeyed on foot to Assos; thence he proceeded by sea to Miletus, where he had an affecting interview with the elders of the church at Ephesus (Acts xx :17, sq.); thence he sailed for Syria, and, after visiting several inter mediate ports, landed at Tyre; and thence, after a residence of seven days, he traveled by way of Ptolemais and Cxsarea to Jerusalem. This con stituted his fifth visit to that city after his con version.
(9) Arrest at Jerusalem. On his arrival at Jerusalem he had the mortification to find that, whilst the malice of his enemies the Jews was unabated, the minds of many of his brother Chris tians were alienated from him on account of what they deemed his too lax and liberal notions of the obligations of the Mosaic ritual. To obviate these feelings on their part, he, at the suggestion of the Apostle James, joined himself to four persons who had taken on them the vows of a Nazaritc, and engaged to pay the cost of the sacri fices by which the Mosaic ritual required that such should be absolved from their vows. With what success this somewhat questionable act of the Apostle was attended, as respects the minds of his brethren, we are not informed, but it had no effect whatever in securing for him any mitiga tion of the hatred with which he was regarded by the unconverted Jews; on the contrary, his ap pearance in the temple so much exasperated them, that, before his vow was accomplished, they seized him, and would have put him to death had not Lysias, the commander of the Roman cohort in the adjoining citadel brought soldiers to his res cue. Under the protection of Lysias, the Apostle
addressed the angry mob, setting forth the main circumstances of his life, and especially his con version to Christianity, and his appointment to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Up to this point they heard him patiently; but no sooner had he insinuated that the Gentiles were viewed by him as placed on a par with the Jews, than all their feelings of national bigotry burst forth in a tempest of execration and fury against the Apostle. Lysias, ignorant of what Paul had been saying, from his having addressed the people in Hebrew, and suspecting from these vehement demonstrations of the detestation in which he was held by the Jews that something flagrantly vicious must have been committed by him, gave orders that Ile should be examined, and forced by scourg ing to confess his crime. From this indignity Paul delivered himself by asserting his privileges as a Roman citizen, whom it was not lawful to bind or scourge.
Next day, in the presence of the Sanhedrim, he entered into a defense of his conduct, in the course of which, having avowed himself a be liever in the doctrine of a bodily resurrection, he awakened so fierce a controversy on this point be tween the Pharisees and theSadducees in the coun cil that Lysias, fearing he might be torn to pieces among them, gave orders to remove him into the fort. From a conspiracy into which above forty of the Jews had entered to assassinate him he was delivered by the timely interposition of his nephew, who, having acquired intelligence of the plot, intimated it first to Paul, and then to Lysias. Alarmed at the serious appearance which the mat ter was assuming, Lysias determined to send Paul to Coesarea, where Felix the procurator was residing, and to leave the affair to his decision. At Cxsarea Paul and his accusers were heard by Felix; but though the Apostle's defense was un answerable. the procurator, fearful of giving the Jews offense, declined pronouncing any decision, and still retained Paul in bonds. Some time after he was again summoned to appear before Felix, who, along with his wife Drusilla, expressed a desire to hear him'concerning the faith in Christ ;' and on this occasion the faithful and fearless Apostle discoursed so pointedly on certain branches of good morals, in which the parties he was addressing were notoriously deficient, that Felix trembled. and hastily sent him from his presence.
Shortly after this Felix was succeeded in his government by Porcius Festus, before whom the Jews again brought their charges against Paul: and who, when the cause catne to be heard, showed so much of a dispositi2n to favor the Jews that the Apostle felt himself constrained to appeal to Cesar. To gratify King Agrippa and his wife Bernice, who had come to Czesarea to visit Festus, and whose curiosity was excited by what they had heard of Paul, Ile was again called before the governor and 'permitted to speak for himself.' On this occasion Ile recapitulated the leading points of his history, and gave such an account of his views and designs that a deep impression was made on the mind of Agrippa favorable to Christianity and to the Apostle; so much so that, but for his having appealed to Caesar, it is probable Ile would have been set at liberty.