[3] IN view of the important part played by the churches of Asia in the development of Christianity during the period 70 - 170 A.D., 1 the proper preliminary to the subject which is treated in this book would be a study of the social and political condition of Asia Minor about the middle of the first century of our era. Such a task is too great for the narrow limits of present knowledge. In place of such a preliminary study, it appeared a more prudent course to describe the travels of St. Paul in the country, as affording a series of pictures of single scenes, each simple and slight in character, and each showing some special feature of the general life of society. 2

But while chronological considerations require that these chapters be placed as a preliminary part, they are, alike in conception and in execution, later than the body of the book. The writer, while composing the opening chapters, had the rest of the work already clear in his mi~d; and there has been unconsciously a tendency to write as if the views [4] stated in the main body of the work were familiar to the reader. In the preliminary part it is important to observe any faint signs of the later idea that Christianity was the religion of the Empire. We trace the rise of this idea from the time when Paul went from Perga into the province Galatia "to the work " (Acts xiii. 14, xv. 38.)

The discussion which is here given of the missionary journeys of St. Paul in Asia Minor is not intended to be complete. It is unnecessary to repeat what has already been well stated by others. The writer presupposes throughout the discussion a general familiarity with the previous descriptions of the journeys. His intention has been to avoid saying again what has been rightly said in the works of Conybeare and Howson, of Lewin, of Farrar, etc.; and merely to bring together the ideas which have been suggested to him by long familiarity with the localities, and which seemed to correct, or to advance beyond, the views stated in the modern biographies of St. Paul, and in the Commentaries on the Acts and the Epistles. 3

The notes which follow may perhaps seem to be unnecessarily minute; but the reason for their existence lies in the fact that it is important to weigh accurately and minutely minute details. Fidelity to the character and circumstances of the country and people is an important criterion in estimating the narrative of St. Paul's journeys; and such fidelity is most apparent in slight details, many of which have, so far as I can discover, hitherto escaped notice. The writer's subject is restricted to the country with which he bas had the opportunity of acquiring unusual familiarity, [5] and about which many false opinions have become part of the stock of knowledge handed down through a succession of commentators. Even that most accurate of writers, the late Bishop Lightfoot, had not in his earlier works succeeded in emancipating himself from the traditional misconceptions; we observe in his successive writings a continuous progress towards the accurate knowledge of Asia Minor which is conspicuous in his work on Ignatius and Polycarp. But in his early work, the edition of the Epistle to the Galatians, there is shown, so far as Asia Minor is concerned, little or no superiority to the settled erroneousness of view and of statement which still characterises the recent commentaries of Wendt and Lipsius; 4 and only a few signs appear of his later fixed habit of recurring to original authorities about the country, and setting the words of St. Paul in their local and historical surroundings, a habit which contrasts strongly with the satisfied acquiescence of Lipsius and Wendt in the hereditary circle of knowledge or error. The present writer is under great obligations to both of them, and desires to acknowledge his debt fully; but the vice of many modern German discussions of the early history of Christianity-viz., -- falseness to the facts [6] of contemporary life and the general history of the period-is becoming stereotyped and intensified by long repetition in the most recent commentators, and some criticism and protest against their treatment of the subject are required. 5 I regret to be compelled in these earlier chapters to disagree so much with Lightfoot's views as stated in his edition of Gatatians perhaps therefore I may be allowed to say that the study of that work, sixteen years ago, marks an epoch in my thoughts and the beginning of my admiration for St. Paul and for him. 6

FOOTNOTES:

1 See below, p.171.

2 Perhaps at some later date, when the investigations, studies, and travel necessary for a projected historical work are completed, it may be' possible to paint a general picture of the state of society in the first century.

3 Considerable parts of Chapters I., II., III. appeared in the Expositor, January, September, October, and November, 1892.

4 Wendt's sixth (seventh) edition of Meyer's Handbuch ueber die ApostelgeschichteEpistle to the Galatians in Holtzmann's Handcommentar zum NT., ii. 2, Freiburg, 1891. These works are referred to throughout the eight opening chapters simply as Wendt and Lipsius. I am sorry to speak unfavourably of Lipsius so soon after his lamented death; but my criticism refers only to his statements about the antiquities of Asia Minor. The obscurity of this subject does not justify wrong statements, and inferences founded on them. Harnack's excellent edition of Acta Carpi shows how a judicious reticence may bu observed in cases where certainty is unattainable.

5 It is hardly necessary to say that my criticism is directed against one single aspect of modern German work in early Christian history. Of the value, suggestiveness, and originality of that work no one can have a higher opinion than I; but I cannot agree with certain widely accepted views as to the relation of the early Christians to the society and the government of Asia Minor and of the Empire generally.

6 The Epistle to the Galatians formed part of the Pass Divinity Examination in the Final Schools at Oxford. It is only fair to acknowledge how much I gained from an examination which I submitted to with great reluctance. Immersed as I was at the time in Greek Philosophy, it appeared to me that Paul was the first true successor of Aristotle, and his work a great relief after the unendurable dreariness of the Greek Stoics and the dulness of the Epicureans.