[194] 1. ACROSS ASIA. (XVI 6) AND THEY, HAVING MADE PROGRESS THROUGH THE PHRYGIAN REGION OF the province GALATIA, AND HAVING BEEN PREVENTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM SPEAKING THE WORD IN the Province ASIA, (7) AND HAVING REACHED A POINT OVER AGAINST MYSIA (or perhaps, on the skirts of Mysia), WERE ATTEMPTING TO MAKE THEIR WAY INTO the province BITHYNIA; AND THE SPIRIT OF JESUS SUFFERED THEM NOT; (8) AND, NEGLECTING MYSIA, THEY CAME DOWN TO the harbour TROAS. (9) AND A VISION APPEARED TO PAUL BY NIGHT: THERE WAS A CERTAIN MAN, A MACEDONIAN, STANDING, AND EXHORTING HIM AND SAYING, "COME OVER TO MACEDONIA, AND HELP US". (10) AND WHEN HE SAW THE VISION, IMMEDIATELY WE SOUGHT TO GO OUT from Asia INTO the province MACEDONIA, ASSUREDLY GATHERING THAT "GOD HAS SUMMONED US TO BRING THE GOOD NEWS TO THEM".

Paul and his companions made a missionary progress through the Phrygian Region of the province Galatia (p. 104), and then crossed the frontier of the province Asia: but here they were prevented from preaching, and the prohibition was made absolute for [195] the entire province. They therefore kept to the north across Asian Phrygia with the intention of entering the adjoining Roman province Bithynia; but when they came opposite Mysia, and were attempting to go out of Asia into Bithynia, the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not. They therefore kept on towards the west through Mysia, without preaching in it (as it was part of Asia), until they came out on its western coast at the great harbour of Alexandria Troas.

The expression marks clearly the distinction between the prohibition to preach in Asia, while they were actually in it, and the prohibition even to set foot in Bithynia. It was necessary for them to cross Asia in order to fulfill the purpose. for which they were about to be called.

The geographical facts of this paragraph are stated with great clearness in the text followed by the Authorised Version and the older editions; but the reading which they give is rounded on Manuscripts of an inferior class (while the great MSS. have a different text), and is characterised by the sequence of three participial clauses, a sequence almost unique in Luke's writings, and therefore suspected and altered. But the strange form of construction by a succession of participles suits so perfectly the strange and unique character, the hurry, and the deep-lying emotion of the passage (see § 2) that, as Lightfoot's judgment, Bibl Essays, p. 235, perceived, the inferior MSS. must here be followed. The text of the great MSS., though it does not quite conceal the feeling of the passage, yet obscures it a little, and, by approximating more to Luke's ordinary form of sentence, loses that perfect adaptation of form to sense, which so [196] often strikes us in this history. We have already noticed, p. 115, that Luke loves the triple iteration of successive words or clauses to produce a certain effect in arresting attention.

The reading of the inferior MSS. suits the South-Galatian theory admirably; but that fact never weighed with me for a moment in the choice. As long as the question between the two theories was alone concerned, the thought of following the inferior MSS. did not even present itself: I followed the great MSS. and interpreted them in the best way possible, neither looking aside nor feeling the slightest wish to adopt the rival text. But when the question of literary feeling came up, after the delicate adaptation of expression to emotion throughout Acts gradually revealed itself, it became clear that here the choice lay between a cast of sentence unusual in this author, and one that was quite in his ordinary style, in a place where the feeling and the facts were strange and unique: hesitation was then impossible: the unusual emotion demanded the unusual expression. See note, p. 211 f.

In this passage the distinction observed by Luke between Roman provincial designations and the older national names is specially clear. Wherever he mentions districts of mission work, he classifies according to the existing political (Roman) divisions (as here, the Phrygo-Galatic Region, Asia, Bithynia, Macedonia); but where he is simply giving geographical information, he either uses the pre-Roman names of lands (e.g., Mysia), or omits the land from his narrative.

The "neglecting"of Mysia is a remarkable expression, one of those by which Luke compels attention at a critical [197] point. As a rule he simply omits a country where no preaching occurred (p. 90 f.); but here he accumulates devices to arrest the reader. His effects are always attained, not by rhetorical devices, but by order and marshalling of facts; and here, in a missionary tour, the "neglecting"of a great country is a fact that no one can pass over. Not catching the intention, many understand "passing without entering"({parelthontes}): Dr. Blass rightly sees that a traveller cannot reach Troas without crossing Mysia; but he goes on to alter the text, following the Bezan reading ({dielthontes}; see p. 235).

The journey across Mysia led naturally down the course of the river Rhyndacos, and past the south shore of the great lakes. A tradition that Paul had travelled by the sacred town of the goddess Artemis at the hot springs of the river Aisepos can be traced as early as the second century, accompanied with the legend that he had rounded a chapel in the neighbourhood. If he went down the Rhyndacos, it is practically certain that he must have passed close to, or through, Artemaia on his way to the great harbour. Under the influence of this tradition, the Bezan Reviser changed the text of v. 8, reading "making a progress through Mysia ". But evangelisation on the journey across Mysia was forbidden,v. 6. The tradition, however, is interesting, and there is further trace of very early foundations in this quarter, which will be treated elsewhere.

The rapid sweep of narrative, hurrying on from country to country, is the marked feature of this paragraph; yet it merely places before us the facts, as Paul's missionary aims found no opening, and he was driven on and on. But. on the current North-Galatian theory, [198] this effect, which is obviously intended, is got, not by simply stating facts, but by slurring over one of Paul's greatest enterprises, the evangelisation of North Galatia and the rounding of several Churches in a new mission district. But the first words of v. 6 describe a progress marked by no great events, a steady continuance of a process fully described in the context (p. 72).