“779. THE REST OF THE CHURCH—ACTS 9:31”
The Rest of the Church—Act_9:31
The history of the Acts of the Apostles now leaves Saul for a time, and Peter again becomes conspicuous.
We are told, first, that “then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.”
That the churches had rest, implies that the Jews had ceased to persecute. One would like to know how this result was produced, seeing that assuredly the offence of the cross had not ceased, and the doctrine of a crucified Messiah had not become less obnoxious to the Jews than it had been before.
History is silent on the subject; but history does show that circumstances about this tune occurred, which threw the Jewish mind into a ferment of such passionate excitement, as could leave no thought for other matters.
Coin of the Emperor Caius Caligula
The considerations advanced a few evenings back, Note: Forty-Fourth Week—Tuesday. go to show that the condition of affairs which Saul found existing at Damascus, as being then under the power of the Arabian king, Aretas, arose soon after the accession of the Emperor Caligula. Allowing that this state of affairs may have arisen some time prior to his arrival there from Arabia, that he made some stay in Damascus, and that “the rest” is historically placed at some time subsequent to his retirement from Jerusalem, we arrive at a period in Caligula’s reign which, as nearly as can be made out of the absence of distinct dates, coincides with the circumstances to which we shall now call attention.
There were frequent differences, on questions of privilege, between the Greek and Jewish inhabitants of Alexandria in Egypt; and at this time the quarrel rose so high, that both parties sent three deputies to Rome, to obtain the decision of the Emperor. At the head of the Jewish deputation was the celebrated Philo, who has left an account of this affair; and the leader on the other side was the grammarian Apion, a man of great literary reputation in his day, but now chiefly remembered by the answer of Josephus (which we still possess) to a book he wrote against the Jews, whom he intensely hated. Overstepping the proper limits of his commission, Apion unscrupulously endeavored to excite in the mind of the weak and wicked emperor the same hatred of the Jews which filled his own. To this end he wilily accused the Jews of refusing to the emperor the divine honors which he required, and which all his other subjects rendered to him. Other emperors had claimed the same honors; but out of regard to what they regarded as the prejudices of the Jews, they had not insisted upon the reception by them of the images of the deified emperor. But when the matter was thus pointedly brought to the notice of Caligula, he became, as Apion had foreseen, so highly incensed, that he offered nothing but insults to the Jewish delegates, and soon ordered them to return home without attending to their business.
The matter did not end here. Caligula sent Petronius to supersede Vitellius in the government of Syria, and gave him orders to place his statue in the temple of Jerusalem, and, in case of resistance, to compel submission by force of arms. On his arrival in Syria, Petronius soon learned that he had no easy task before him; and he therefore assembled such a force as he thought sufficient to deter or put down resistance. With this force he wintered at Ptolemais, and, while there, many thousands of the principal Jews came to him, and implored him to desist from his purpose, declaring that they would sooner die than see the sanctuary of God thus profaned. Petronius had by this time manifestly acquired a disrelish for his task; but he pleaded the absolute orders of the emperor, which he dared not and could not disobey. To this they retorted, that there was One greater than the emperor, whom they also dared not disobey; and that, confident of His approval, if they suffered in a just cause, they would sooner die than submit to such a violation of their laws.
Petronius began to perceive by this that the mission with which he was charged could not be executed without much bloodshed; and therefore he crossed the country to Tiberias, to learn what the nature of the public feeling was in that quarter. He was not long left in doubt; for multitudes of the Jews repaired to him there also, and still more fervently repeated the same protestations which he had heard at Ptolemais. The governor pointed to the impotency of any warlike resistance on their part against the force under his command. They replied that they by no means purposed to make war with Caesar; but that still they would sooner die than see their sacred laws transgressed; and thereupon they cast themselves upon the ground, and stretched forth their throats as if to meet the knife. These proceedings continued forty days, during which time the utmost agitation prevailed throughout the country—so that, in the most critical season of the year, the urgent labors of the field were neglected, and the agricultural prospects of the year thereby brought into great peril.
Petronius was even more perplexed by this passive resistance than by the hints of men which he had elsewhere heard. At this juncture several very eminent Jews arrived at Tiberias, among whom was Hilkias, surnamed the great, and Aristobulus, the brother of King Agrippa, who was then at Rome, and known to be high in the favor of the emperor. These personages urged Petronius to suspend his measure till he obtained further orders from Rome, writing to the emperor an account of these proceedings, representing the firm resolution of the people, who were, nevertheless, averse to any hostilities with the Roman forces; showing the impolicy of driving them to despair; and pointing out the disturbed state of the country, and the danger to the revenue, which must result from the neglect of tillage. To this step Petronius was at length brought to consent, though fully alive to the danger he incurred.
About this time, however, king Agrippa, at Rome, gave to the emperor a great and costly supper, comprising everything suited to the imperial tastes, which he had studied well. Caligula was ineffably pleased; and when he had well filled himself with wine, and was in a tipsy good humor, he expressed his high satisfaction at the magnificent testimonial of affection which his old friend had now given; and as it became not the emperor to be outdone in such proofs of regard, whatever might yet be needful to Agrippa’s contentment and happiness (for the emperor had already been very bountiful to him) was freely at his service, to the utmost extent of his imperial master’s power.
This was the critical moment, and Caligula fully expected, that Agrippa would ask for some large country in addition to the territories he had already received, or perhaps for the revenues of some flourishing cities. Agrippa begged to be excused, as having already received from his imperial friend’s munificence far more than his ambition ever craved. This parade of disinterested regard, of course, made the emperor the more eager to serve him; and at length Agrippa ventured—at the manifest peril of all his favor, and even of his life—to say, that nothing could be so acceptable to him, he desired no other favor, but that the emperor should withdraw the orders he had given to Petronius, hinting at the same time, that the fact of this indulgence having been obtained through his intercession, would materially promote his own popularity among his future subjects.
Caligula, though taken by surprise, was struck by the disinterestedness of Agrippa, and felt some respect for the public spirit which it indicated. Besides, he could not gracefully draw back from his word at such a time. The request was therefore granted, and orders were dispatched to Petronius not to persist in establishing the emperor’s statue in the temple; but that if he had already done so, he was to let it remain. This dispatch crossed that from Petronius; and when the latter arrived Caligula was greatly enraged. He wrote back, accusing Petronius of having been bribed by the Jews, told him to consider himself as laboring under his sovereign’s deepest displeasure, and threatening to make him an example to that and future ages, of the punishment due to those who dared to palter with their obedience to the imperial commands.
But before Petronius received this dreadful missive, which would probably have induced him, after the Roman fashion, to have become his own executioner, intelligence reached him that the writer was no more.
With the death of Caius Caligula the whole matter fell to the ground. It will be observed, indeed, that in the midst of his wrath with Petronius, he did not retract the concession he had granted to Agrippa, of whose services to them on this occasion the Jews always afterwards retained the most grateful recollection.
This matter occupied the attention of the Jews for a considerable time, and left them little leisure to bestow their attention on the affairs of the Christians; and when the storm had blown over, the interrupted habit of persecuting attention was not immediately resumed. Thus the churches found an interval of rest, until the time when that Agrippa, who has just been mentioned, and whom Luke calls “Herod the king,” commenced a new persecution.
Autor: JOHN KITTO