[102] 4. THE CHURCH AT PISIDIAN ANTIOCH. The deep impression that had already been produced on the general population of Antioch was intensified when the preaching of Paul and Barnabas began to be addressed to them directly and exclusively. The effect was now extended to the whole Region. This term does not indicate the lands immediately around the fortifications of Antioch, and belonging to that city. The free population of those lands were citizens of Antioch; and the term "city,"according to the ancient idea, included the entire lands that belonged to it, and not the mere space covered by continuous houses and a fortified wail. "A city was not walls, but men;"and the saying had a wider and more practical meaning to the ancients than is generally taken from it in modern times. The phrase that is here used, "the whole Region,"indicates some distinct and recognised circle of territories.

Here we have a fact of administration and government. [103] assumed in quiet undesigned fashion:Antioch was the centre of a Region. This is the kind of allusion which affords to students of ancient literature a test of accuracy, and often a presumption of date. I think that, if we put this assumption to the test, we shall find (1) that it is right, (2) that it adds a new fact, probable in itself but not elsewhere formally stated, about the Roman administration of Galatia, (3) that it explains and throws new light on several passages in ancient authors and inscriptions. Without discussing the subject too elaborately, we may point out the essentials.

My friend Prof. Sterrett, of Amherst, Massachusetts, has discovered and published an inscription of Antioch, which speaks of a "regionary centurion" (hekatontarchên hregeõvarion}), evidently a military official charged with certain duties (probably in the maintenance of peace and order) within a certain Regio of which Antioch was the centre.

Partly to guard against a possible objection, partly to show how much may depend on accuracy in a single letter, it may be added that Prof. Sterrett in publishing this inscription makes a conjectural alteration, which would deprive us of the help that the inscription gives. He prints {(l)egeõnarion} but this is an arbitrary change in violation of his own copy.

Thus we have epigraphic authority to prove that Antioch under the Roman administration was the centre of a Region. Further, we can determine the extent and the name of that Region, remembering always that in a province like Galatia, where evidence is lamentably scanty, we must often be content with reasonable probability, and rarely find such an inscription as Prof. Sterrett's to put us on a plane of demonstrated certainty.

[104] It is natural in the administration of so large a province as Galatia, and there are some recorded proofs, that a certain number of distinct Regiones ({chõrai}) existed in Southern Galatia. To quote the exact names recorded, we have {Phrygia or Phrugia chõra, Isauria} or {Isaurikê (chõra)}, Pisidia, Lycaonia or {Galatikê chõra} (with {tês Lukaovias} understood, denoting the Roman part of Lycaonia in contrast with Lycaonia Antiochiana or {Antiochiavê chõra} the part of Lycaonia ruled by King Antiochus). There can be no doubt that Pisidian Antioch (strictly "a Phrygian city towards Pisidia") was the centre of the Region called Phrygia in inscriptions enumerating the parts of the province, and "the Phrygian Region of (the province) Galatia"in Acts XVI 6, or "the Phrygian Region"XVIII 23. This central importance of Antioch was due to its position as a Roman Colony, which made it the military and administrative centre of the country.

Thus, without any formal statement, and without any technical term, but in the course of a bare, simple and brief account of the effects of Paul's preaching, we find ourselves unexpectedly (just as Paul and Barnabas found themselves unintentionally) amid a Roman provincial district, which is moved from the centre to the extremities by the new preaching. It is remarkable how the expression of Luke embodies the very soul of history (p. 200).

A certain lapse of time, then, is implied in the brief words of v. 49. The process whereby the whole region was influenced by the Word must have been a gradual one. The similar expression used in XIX 10 may serve as a standard of comparison: there, during a period of two years in Ephesus, "all they which dwelt in Asia heard the Word". The sphere of influence is immensely wider in that case; [105] but the process is the same. Persons from the other cities came to Antioch as administrative centre, the great garrison city, which was often visited by the Roman governor and was the residence of some subordinate officials: they came for law-suits, for trade, for great festivals of the Roman unity (such as that described in the Acta of Paul and Thekla). 1 In Antioch they heard of the new doctrine; some came under its influence; the knowledge of it was thus borne abroad over the whole territory; probably small knots of Christians were formed in other towns.

How long a period of time is covered by v. 49 we cannot tell with certainty; but it must be plain to every one that the estimate of the whole residence at Antioch as two to six months, is, as is elsewhere said, a minimum.

It may be observed that in the Antiochian narrative a period of some weeks is passed over in total silence, then thirty-three verses are devoted to the epoch-making events of two successive Sabbaths, and then another considerable period is summed up in v. 49.

The action by which Paul and Barnabas were expelled from Antioch has been fully described elsewhere. The expulsion was inflicted by the magistrates of the city, and was justified to their minds in the interests of peace and order. It was not inflicted by officials of the province, and hence the effect is expressly restricted by the historian to Antiochion territory. Slight as the details are, they suit the circumstances of the time perfectly.

A slight addition made in Codex Bezę at this point presents some features of interest. In the Approved Text the Jews "roused persecution"against the Apostles; but in the Codex they roused "great affliction and persecution". [106] The additional words are not characterised by that delicate precision in the choice of terms which belongs to Luke. "Affliction"({thlipsis})refers more to the recipient, "persecution"({diõgmos}) to the agent; hence the "to rouse persecution"is a well-chosen phrase, but "to rouse affliction "is not. The words of Codex Bezę have been added under the influence of the enumeration of his sufferings given by Paul in II Cor. XI 23 (cp. II Tim. III 11). The disproportion between that list and the references to physical sufferings in Acts led to a series of additions, designed to bring about a harmony between the two authorities.

In the additions of this kind made to Codex Bezę we have the beginnings of a Pauline myth. There is nothing in which popular fancy among the early Christians showed itself so creative as the tortures of its heroes. The earliest Acta of martyrs contain only a moderate amount of torture, such in kind as was inseparable from Roman courts of justice; as time passed, these tortures seemed insufficient, and the old Acta were touched up to suit what the age believed must have taken place. Where we possess accounts of a martyrdom of different dates, the older are less filled with sufferings than the later. A similar process of accretion to Acts was actually beginning, but was checked by the veneration that began to regard its text as sacred.

Luke passes very lightly over Paul's sufferings: from II Tim. III 11, we see that he must have endured much. He was three times beaten with the rods of lictors before A.D. 56 (II Cor. XI 25). Now, since the Roman governors whom he met were favourable to him, these beatings must have taken place in "colonies,"whose magistrates were artended by lictors. It is probable that [107] the persecution which is mentioned in Antioch, and hinted .at in Lystra, included beating by lictors. It is noteworthy that the magistrates of these two cities are not expressly mentioned, and therefore there was no opportunity for describing their action. The third beating by lictors was in Philippi, also a colony.

Similarly it can hardly be doubted that some of the five occasions on which Paul received stripes from the Jews were in the Galatian cities, where some Jews were so active against him.

1

1 Church in R. E., p. 396; Cities amd Bishoprics, p. 56.