The Text adopted in this Edition is that of Dr Scrivener's Cambridge Paragraph Bible. A few variations from the ordi- nary Text, chiefly in the spelling of certain words, and in the use of italics, will be noticed. For the principles adopted by Dr Scrivener as regards the printing of the Text see his In- troduction to the Paragraph Bible, published by the Cambridge "The Apostolic Letters, which made glad The young and foe-girt Churches of the Lord." ART THOU THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE BLESSED?—AND JESUS SAID, I AM: AND YE SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, AND COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. THE CITY OF THESSALONICA. MOST of the ancient cities in which St Paul laboured have in the course of ages either perished or sunk into insignificance. Rome still remains, "the eternal city," holding a unique place amongst the world's great capitals. And along with Rome, though in a far inferior position, Thessalonica has retained its identity and its importance throughout the immense changes of the last two thousand years. The town first appears in Greek history under the name of Therma,-so called from the warm mineral springs in its vicinity. Its later designation was given to it by Cassander, who on seizing the vacant throne of Alexander the Great in Macedonia married his sister Thessalonica. Her name was, no doubt, a memorial of some victory gained by her father Philip of Macedon over his neighbours in Thessaly. Founding a new city upon this site in 315 B.C., the usurper called it after his highborn wife. Cassander's foundation rapidly grew into a place of commercial and political consequence. After the Roman conquest of Macedonia (168 B.C.), Thessalonica was made the head of one of the four districts into which the kingdom was divided, and on their subsequent reunion became the capital of the whole province. It was declared a "free city," with important rights of self-government, after the civil war which ended with the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi (42 B.C.), having fortunately sided with the victors. Hence the Thessalonian magistrates are correctly designated "politarchs" in Acts xvii. 6. At the same time, it was the seat of the Roman proconsular administration of Macedonia, and an important military station. The geographer Strabo (about 24 B.C.) describes Thessalonica as the most populous town of Macedonia; a contemporary author speaks of it as "the mother of all Macedonia." It is referred to in similar terms by Lucian in the second century, and by Theodoret in the fifth. At the beginning of the tenth century it is computed to have held a population of above 200,000. To-day, under the Turkish rule, Saloniki (or Salonica) numbers perhaps 100,000 souls, and is rapidly increasing. In size it is the third, and in importance quite the second, city of Turkey in Europe. The Jews still flourish here, even more than in the Apostle's time; they form a third or more of the population. The remainder are chiefly Greeks, mixed with Turks and Bulgars. The city is now, as it was in the first century, the emporium of Macedonia and one of the chief ports of the Ægean. Saloniki is moreover the terminus of the great trunk line of railway recently completed, running south through the heart of the Balkan peninsula, which will give it largely the command of the trade of Central Europe with the Levant. It is destined still to play, in all probability, an important part in the political and religious history of SouthEastern Europe. The city owes its importance to its geographical position. It stands in a remarkably fine and picturesque situation, on a hill sloping down to the sea, and guarded by high mountain ridges on both sides. Below the city there stretched far to the south-west the broad and well-sheltered Thermaic Gulf (now Gulf of Saloniki), with the snowy heights of Mount Olympus, the fabled home of the Greek gods, bounding the horizon. This bay forms the north-western corner of the Ægean Sea, occupying the angle which the Greek peninsula makes with the mainland. It lies moreover near the mouth of the chief passes leading down from the Macedonian uplands, with the wide Danubian plains spread beyond them in the north. And in Roman times the city held a special importance from its situation midway between the Adriatic and Hellespont along the Via Egnatia, the great military road which formed the main artery linking Rome to her eastern provinces: posita in gremio imperii nostri, says Cicero. See the map facing the title-page. Cicero spent some months in Thessalonica during his exile from Rome in 58 B.C., and again in Pompey's winter camp, pitched here before the fatal battle of Pharsalus (48 B.C.); here he also halted on his way to and from Cilicia, his province in the East (51-50 B.C.); and from Thessalonica he wrote a number of characteristic letters, which it would be interesting to compare with those of the Apostle Paul addressed to the same place. St Paul visited Macedonia a second time, on his way from Ephesus to Greece during the third missionary journey (Acts xx. 1, 2), spending doubtless considerable time at Thessalonica; and we find two Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus (Acts xx. 4), attending him on his subsequent voyage to Jerusalem. Aristarchus remained with the Apostle a long while, and is honourably mentioned in Col. iv. 10, as "my fellow captive," during his imprisonment at Rome. It was from Macedonia (the subscription states, conjecturally, "from Philippi") that St Paul addressed, in 58 (or 57) A.D., his second Epistle to the Corinthians (2 Cor. ii. 13, vii. 5, viii. 1). Writing to the Philippians (c. 63 A.D.) from his Roman prison, the Apostle "trusts in the Lord" that he will "come" to see them "shortly" (Phil. ii. 24). And we find him some time after his release fulfilling this intention: "on my way to Macedonia” (1 Tim. i. 3). The last reference found in the N. T. to Thessalonica is in 2 Tim. iv. Io, and is an unhappy one: "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved the present world; and is gone to Thessalonica." If Demas wished to make a fortune, Thessalonian trade would have more attraction for him than the company of a doomed and penniless prisoner in Rome. Perhaps he was a Thessalonian. Singularly enough, Thessalonica claims another Demetrius (Demas is probably short for Demetrius), a martyr of the Diocletian persecution (c. 303 A.D.), as her patron saint. |