Life of Saint Apostle Paul

Contents Life in Judaism Conversion to Christianity Inconsistency of explanation with historical legends about Paul's conversion. Based on unproven assumptions. It refutes itself. Time of Pavlov's conversion Paul's first labors of conversion Paul's first apostolic journey Paul's second apostolic journey Paul's third apostolic journey Paul's bonds in Jerusalem Pavlov's voyage to Rome Pavlov's first bonds in Rome Paul's fourth apostolic journey and his last bonds in Rome Remarks regarding the appearance, natural gifts, character and writings of the Apostle Paul, his veneration by the Fathers of the Church Paul (translated from Latin - “small, lesser”), before converting to Christianity - Saul (“longed for”), one of the greatest teachers of the Church of Christ, who after the other Apostles turned to faith in Jesus Christ, but more than any of them contributed to the conquest of His power throughout the world, descended from Jewish parents, “from the family of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin” (Phil. 3:5). Many of the Fathers of the Church 1, with their characteristic spiritual insight, found in some places of the Old Testament (especially in verse 28 of Psalm 67) predictions about the origin of Paul from this tribe. The expression: “A Jew of Jews,” used by Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians (Phil. 3:5) to indicate his origin, means a person among whose ancestors there was not a single one who was not circumcised according to the rite of Moses - an advantage that was worth it in the time of the Apostle, when many of the Jews came from pagans who had converted to Judaism, or were even once pagans themselves. The significant education for which Paul was deliberately sent to Jerusalem, his acquaintance in his youth with the leading figures in the Jewish capital, the refined communal knowledge, traces of which are very often found in his epistles (1 Cor. 10:6; 2 Cor. 11:1, 6, 12:11), make one think that he did not come from a low, or at least not from a poor, class. The time of Paul's birth, despite all attempts to establish it, still remains uncertain. It is only likely that it is not far from the time of the Nativity of Christ. It is known that Paul’s homeland was Tarsus (Acts 9:11, 21:39, 22:3) - the main city of Cilicia, which lay near the Mediterranean Sea and constituted one of the flourishing regions of the Roman Empire. Blessed Jerome of Stridon reports that Pavlov's parents moved to Tarsus from the Jewish city of Giskala after it was taken and devastated by the Romans. The surname Pavlova, as is clear from the Acts of the Holy Apostles (Acts 22:28), had the right of Roman citizenship, which was very important in those days. Where does this right come from? According to the legend of Dion Chrysostomos, the city of Tarsus, for its adherence to Julius Caesar, which cost its inhabitants great disasters from Cassius, received many rights and advantages during the reign of Augustus, from which some writers concluded that all residents of Tarsus enjoyed the rights of Roman citizens. But when listing these advantages, no mention is made of the right of Roman citizenship. On the contrary, Latin writers call Tarsus only a free city, and freedom, as a privilege, is much lower than the right of Roman citizenship. Moreover, if all the inhabitants of Tarsus had the right to Roman citizenship, then the Roman tribune, as described in Acts (Acts 21:39), who knew about Paul’s origin from this city, would not have dared to subject him to corporal punishment without a trial, and Paul would not have needed to declare that he was a Roman citizen in order to avoid torture. It is more likely that one of Paul's ancestors acquired the right of Roman citizenship for their offspring either through services provided to the Caesars during civil strife, or for money. According to the testimony of Dion Cassius, Julius Caesar granted this right to many foreigners. And Josephus says that the Jews very willingly bought it from the selfish Roman rulers. A much more important question is: did Paul receive a Greek education in his youth? Most writers, ancient and modern, answered it in the affirmative. In fact, Tarsus was so famous for the sciences that its inhabitants, as Strabo noted, competed in enlightenment with the inhabitants of Athens and Alexandria, and therefore it seems incredible that Paul’s parents did not use the means that were, so to speak, at hand to educate their son. Pavlova's very epistles, apparently, give reason to assume knowledge of Greek writers, since he cites in them the poems of some poets: Aratus (Acts 17:28), Menander (1 Cor. 15:32), Epimenides (Tit. 1:12). Despite this, it is much more likely that the education Paul received in Jerusalem was not preceded by the study of Greek wisdom at Tarsus, for Saul was sent to Jerusalem in his very youth. “My life,” he says, “from my youth, which I first spent among my people in Jerusalem, is known to all Jews” (Acts 26:4). The same, no doubt, means the expression: “well-bred... at the feet of Gamaliel,” which Paul applies when speaking about himself (Acts 22:3). Paul's parents belonged to the Pharisaic sect, and the Pharisees, according to Josephus, abhorred not only the sciences, but also the very language of the uncircumcised. Upon careful examination of the letters of the Apostle Paul, in the very manner of their presentation, much evidence is revealed that the writer of them was not familiar with any other education than the rabbinical one, which was in use among the Palestinian Jews of that time. As for the Greek language, it is clear from everything that it is written by a Jew, brought up in Palestine, accustomed to Hebrew expressions and writing 2 . The opinions of the Greek poets cited by Paul are such that they could be known to any educated person even without special training in Greek literature. They are like proverbs, as some poems by favorite writers often become. However, the Apostle could very often hear them during his travels in Greece, where the best poets were reread by many by heart. His very treatment of the believing pagans provided him with much similar information. In addition, we know that the Apostle devoted his free time from work to reading books 3. It can be assumed that among these books there were also some Greek ones. Paul, as can be seen from the Acts (Acts 17:23), considered it necessary to first know the spirit and morals of those people to whom he intended to preach. In this regard, many Greek poets could be very useful to him. The desire to give their son the best education, however, in the spirit of the native Jewish religion, the example of their fellow citizens who used to send their children to travel to improve them in the sciences, and, perhaps, the family ties that Saul’s parents had with the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Acts 23:16), disposed them to send their son to study in Jerusalem, which was still revered then as the center of Jewish wisdom. As the son of a Pharisee, Saul joined the sect of the Pharisees and became a disciple of Gamaliel, the most famous of the then Jewish teachers of the law 4 . If he is the same Gamaliel mentioned in Acts (Acts 5:34), then he is worthy to be the mentor of such a disciple as Paul was. His review of Christianity shows him to be a sane man, who expects from Providence and time the resolution of perplexities aroused by extraordinary events related to religion, in the firm belief that a human invention, no matter how much it is covered with the guise of Divine origin, cannot long withstand the character of Divinity and, with the passage of time, disappears by itself (Acts 5:35-39). Young Saul was “carefully instructed in the law of his fathers” (cf. Acts 22:3), which was to be expected, judging by the celebrity of his mentor. His extraordinary talents soon distinguished him among his peers, so that few could equal him in the understanding of Pharisaic theology (Gal. 1:14). Natural kindness of heart, and perhaps the example of a mentor, was the reason that Saul, despite his young years, when they usually love to know more than to do what they know, tried to lead a blameless life (2 Tim. 1:3) and was, according to “lawful righteousness, blameless” (cf. Phil. 3:6). As was the custom of the Jews of that time to teach their children some kind of art, 5 Saul combined exercise in the sciences with exercise in crafts. Evangelist Luke calls him (according to our Slavic translation of the Acts) “the tabernacle maker” (Acts 18:3). Whatever this art consisted of (for opinions about it differ 6), from the history of the Apostle’s travels it is clear that he could practice it wherever he went, and that the payment for his work was enough to support him and his colleagues in the work of preaching. The Apostle Paul himself in some way characterizes the spirit of the education he received from Gamaliel, when he calls the teaching of the Pharisees “the strictest” in his fatherly confession of religion (Acts 26:5). The morality of the Pharisees in the New Testament appears, for the most part, in an ugly form: they are everywhere portrayed as hypocrites, who, under the guise of strict piety, hide hearts filled with pride and greed - traits, no doubt taken from nature! However, the founders of the Pharisaic sect could also make decent impressions. In the writings of the rabbis, who usually adhered to Pharisaism, elegant rules of morality are often found. In the works of Josephus, who also belonged to the Pharisees, a sound way of thinking and, often, a pure moral sense prevails. If among the Pharisees many only wore the guise of piety, then some, they were probably still what others only wanted to appear to be. At least, one cannot think that hypocrisy was taught in their schools. And therefore, Paul’s education in the Pharisees’ school under such a teacher as Gamaliel could have had a beneficial effect on the development of his moral character, at least it could not have damaged the purity of character as much as some might think, based on the bad concept of the Pharisees. Reading the books of the Old Testament, which was constantly practiced in the schools of the Pharisees, contributed to enriching the memory of Saul with the best rules of morality and high examples of piety; Their favorite exercise - to explain many passages in an allegorical sense - paved the way in his mind for that holy art - to extract from “dead writing the life-giving spirit” (cf. 2 Cor. 3:6), which marked all his epistles, especially to the Hebrews and Galatians. Even what was reprehensible in Pharisaic education: excessive attachment to human traditions and the opinions of teachers, the passion to bring everything under the rules, leaving nothing to the moral sense, the relegation of morality from the realm of the spirit to the circle of external, often mechanical actions - all this later, under the beneficial influence of the Christian religion, could turn into good. People with a strong mind and lively character, when mental changes occur to them, usually deviate in the opposite direction, and deviate far. This happened to Paul too. After converting to Christianity, he everywhere discovers a way of thinking opposite to his previous one, even where he speaks without the direct inspiration of the Spirit of God, according to his own feelings (for example, see 1 Cor. 7:25-40). At the very beginning of his apostolic ministry, he not only rejected unclean human traditions, which were also rejected by the other Apostles, admonished in their insignificance by the teaching and example of Jesus Christ (Matthew 15:1-9), but also preached the freedom of Christians from the ritual law - an act that for a long time was subject to almost universal criticism, but was completely consistent with the spirit of the New Testament teaching. Thus, Providence, which chose Saul from his mother’s womb (Gal. 1:15) for the great service of the apostleship, also revealed wise guidance in allowing him to spend his youth “at the feet of Gamaliel” (Acts 22:3). Paul, in all likelihood, received his first understanding of Christianity in the school of Gamaliel, for it is impossible to think that the Pharisees’ teachers left their disciples ignorant of the so-called “new sect,” which from its very beginning became very significant and threatened all the traditions of the Pharisees. It even seems incredible that Saul never saw Jesus Christ during His earthly life. This is how, however, all subsequent history and all his messages make one think. Paul does not mention anywhere that he saw Jesus Christ, although in many cases it would be very decent and even necessary to mention this (for example, see Gal. 1, 12 - cf. Acts 1, 21, etc.). On the contrary, he often says something from which one must conclude that Jesus Christ was not known to him personally (for example, see: Acts 9:5). Moreover, if Paul had ever been among the listeners of Jesus Christ, the evangelists would probably have noticed this circumstance, especially since he, judging by his character, could not be a silent listener or spectator of the Messiah. This strangeness can be partly explained by the fact that the time of Jesus Christ's open ministry to the human race was short and that most of it was spent traveling around Palestine, especially in that part of it called Galilee. Jesus Christ came to Jerusalem only on holidays, and then for a short time, always almost moved away from noisy gatherings of the people and preached for the most part not where His enemies believed (John 11:54-57). That is why there were also people who, despite all their desire to see Him, did not have such a chance (Luke 23:8). On the other hand, Gamaliel, in accordance with his character, probably tried to keep his disciples, especially young ones like Saul, away from all public meetings, which at that time rarely did without sad consequences. Only after completing his education could Saul leave Jerusalem for Tarsus to join his parents. And is it possible to list all the reasons that could have prevented Paul from seeing Jesus Christ during the days of His earthly life? Saul emerged from the school of Gamaliel as a disciple of a Pharisee should have emerged - “an ardent zealot for the traditions of his fathers” (cf. Gal. 1:14). The ardor of his character and the youth of his age were the reason that he did not adopt from his mentor the best, perhaps, part of his instructions - the art of combining cold-blooded reasoning and prudent tolerance with zeal for the faith (Acts 5: 33-39). Complicity in the murder of Archdeacon Stephen, apparently, was not the first experience of Saul’s adherence to paternal traditions, for it was not so significant that the Jewish high priests, as a result of this, decided to authorize the young Pharisee to carry out those bloody persecutions that, as we will see, followed the death of the first martyr (Acts 26:10). The inclination of many of the Jews of that time towards pagan customs very often presented cases for the discovery of patriotic jealousy. It is unlikely that even Saul (carried away by the ardor of his character) was not in some relationship with the terrible sect of the Zealots in those days 7 . The title “I am zealous,” which he gives to himself (Gal. 1, 14), the disposition towards him of the murderers of Stephen (Acts 7, 58), who, in all likelihood, were Zealots 8, make this guess plausible. When in this way the disciple of Gamaliel, “having a zeal for God, but without reasoning, and not understanding the righteousness of God, ...strived to establish my own righteousness” (cf. Rom. 10:2-3), the righteousness of faith in Jesus Christ, meanwhile, was already exerting its beneficial effect on many of his brothers according to the flesh. Despite the vile slander of the high priests about the theft of the body of Jesus by His disciples and the strict measures against the heralds of His Resurrection, all of Jerusalem was filled with the glory of the name of the Crucified: “the word of God grew, and the number of disciples continually multiplied, ... of the very priests of the Jews, very many submitted to the faith” (cf. Acts 6:7). Judaism, already long shaken by the various movements of the ruling sects, was threatened by a new greatest danger from the emerging Christianity. What should Saul have thought and felt in these circumstances - a young man with an ardent character, a patriotic feeling, with a strong mind, but darkened by prejudices, a Pharisee, wholeheartedly committed to the fatherly law and customs, who sacredly revered not only Moses and the Prophets, but also the traditions of the elders, so incongruous with the spirit of Christianity? Could he exchange the seductive dream of the Messiah, the conquering king, for the veneration of the Cross, which until recently had been the subject of ridicule for Jerusalem? Could he expect anything good for himself from that “sect”, whose Founder so strictly and often armed himself against the vicious life of the Pharisees - his mentors and educators? Saul saw only the danger from Christianity, and therefore had only disgust for it. The miracles of Jesus Christ and His Apostles could be explained to them in the same way as the Pharisees generally explained them - through the assistance of evil spirits, the gullibility of the people, and the like. The internal superiority of Christian teaching also could not touch him: this required a calm deepening into the spirit of the Christian religion and into one’s conscience, for which a mind occupied with prejudices was not capable. Only experienced and sensible people, like Gamaliel, could expect Providence to resolve the perplexities caused by the successes of Christianity. Paul thought that he “should do much against the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 26:9) - and he did! Saul's first experiences of hostility towards the name of Christ probably consisted of disputes with its heralds (Acts 6:9). But the school learning of the Pharisees could not for long resist Stephen, filled with the Spirit of God (Acts 6:10). The power of the word was replaced by the violence of lies (Acts 6:13). The rightness of Pavlov's character does not allow us to think that he participated in weaving slander against Stephen, but it is certain that he approved of his murder (Acts 8:1) and guarded the clothes of Stephen's inhuman murderers (Acts 7:58). In this case, he acted according to his conscience, but only in error. On it, according to the remark of St. John Chrysostom, the words of the Savior came true exactly: “He who kills you will think that he thereby serves God” (John 16:2). It seemed to him that he was making the most pleasant sacrifice to the God of his fathers when he persecuted the spreaders of the “new heresy,” which, in his opinion, was aimed at the overthrow of the Jewish religion. If he had seen, like Stephen, Jesus, “sitting at the right hand of God the Father” (Acts 7:58), then, without fear of Stephen’s fate, he would have at that very moment confessed Him as the Son of the Living God. But if the persecutor did not know Whom he was persecuting, then the Persecuted One already matured in him as a “chosen vessel” (Acts 9:15). An inscrutable Providence allowed Saul's hatred of Christians to be revealed in new, striking phenomena, so that, as the Apostle himself explains, in him “all the long-suffering of God would first appear as an example to those who will believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:16). The dispersion of believers after the death of Stephen gave rise to the idea in the minds of his killers that intensified persecution would put an end to the “new heresies.” At least, Saul, in his blindness, dared to commit new cruelties. Having received from the high priests the power to persecute Christians, for this purpose he went “to all the synagogues,” not content with this, he entered their houses, did not spare either gender or age, with torture “forced... them... to blaspheme the name of (Jesus), ... imprisoned them and, when they killed them, gave his voice to it" (cf. Acts 26, 10–11). This is what a person with the most pious conscience can do when he has not penetrated into the true quality of love for God and neighbor! The successes of the scattered Christians, who preached the name of Christ wherever they went, gave Saul the opportunity to extend persecution against them beyond the borders of Palestine. Still breathing threats and murder, he asked the high priests for letters to the Damascus synagogues 9 (Acts 9:2) in order to bind the Christians there and transport them to Jerusalem. Damascus, very richly populated by Jews 10, seemed to Paul the most extensive field for his action. The Roman government, which did not tolerate such phenomena as the murder of Stephen, had no power there, for Damascus was conquered shortly before by Aretas, king of Arabia (2 Cor. 11:32). His new ruler favored the Jews 11 The letters of the high priest, already respected in foreign synagogues, in Damascus should have had the force of law and complete success, which actually followed, only in a completely different form! The journey to Damascus was the time that Providence chose for Saul's conversion to Christianity. The more extraordinary this incident is, the more strikingly the Divinity of the Christian religion is revealed in it, the more precious it is for us that we have very detailed and undoubted information about it, reported by the Evangelist Luke (Acts 9:1-25) and twice by Paul himself (Acts 22:5-16, 26:12-19). “In the middle of the day,” he narrates, “on the way I saw... a light from heaven, surpassing the radiance of the sun, which shone on me and those walking with me. We all... fell to the ground, and I... heard a voice to me saying in the Hebrew language: Saul, Saul! why are you persecuting Me? It is difficult for you to go against the pricks” (Acts 26:13-14). It is easy to imagine how strong an impression this extraordinary phenomenon must have made in the ardent soul of the persecutor! He was sure that all his hostile actions against Christians directly relate to the glory of God, that he imitates Phineas and Elijah in this matter, and on the very path that testified to his zeal for God, he sees a phenomenon that he could not help but recognize as Divine, hears a voice from heaven complaining about persecution! At that moment, all the atrocities he had inflicted on the faithful in Jerusalem should have been renewed in his memory; the death of Stephen, the inhumanity of his killers, the meek calm and heavenly kindness of the martyr himself should have appeared in his imagination. Conscience, of course, was already telling him who he was guilty of, but still, as if not trusting the injustice of his case, as if wanting to let him know that he did not persecute anyone with evil intentions, he always acted according to the law, Saul in trepidation dared to ask: “Who are you, Lord? ...I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (Acts 9:5, 26:15), - this was the answer to him! You need to imagine yourself in Paul's place to feel the power of these words. There was no longer any room for doubt about the Divinity of the face of Jesus; there was only room for fear and horror. Saul did not yet know that Jesus is the God of mercy and generosity, that He came to seek and save the lost, and for this purpose He ascended to the Cross in order to draw to Himself all those burdened with sins. In accordance with his earthly concept of the Messiah, he, without a doubt, thought to see in Him a strict avenger for the desecration of His name, for the torment of His servants, and expected for himself the fate of Dathan and Aviron. But the Persecuted One appeared not to punish the persecutor, but to make him His Apostle. “Rise up and stand on your feet,” said the Lord, “for this is why I appeared to you, to make you a minister and a witness of what you have seen and what I will reveal to you, delivering you from the people of Judah and from the pagans, to whom I am now sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, and by faith in Me they may receive forgiveness of sins and a lot with those who are sanctified.” Acts 26:16–18). Encouraged by these comforting words, Saul desired to know what was required of him to fit the new ministry entrusted to him, and received the answer that it would be revealed to him at Damascus. After that, the vision ended, leaving deep marks on Savlov’s eyes (he became blind) and even deeper in his heart. The people walking with him saw only the light and heard the voice, but they did not see the One who spoke to him and did not understand what he was saying 12. Saul, led by his companions, came to Damascus. His blindness lasted three days, which he spent without food or drink. His state of spirit at that time was the most painful for the old man, but all the more gracious for the new man: all the powers of the mind and heart had to be reborn, as it were, for a new life in Christ Jesus 13 . Deprived of external light, he turned to the internal - he prayed, and received a vision in which it seemed to him that one of the Christians, named Ananias, restored his sight (Acts 9:12). At the same time, a revelation followed to Ananias 14. Jesus Christ Himself (He cared so much about His persecutor!), appearing to him, commanded him to go to Saul to restore his sight. Ananias was horrified, imagining the cruelty of this man and his hatred of Christians, but was reassured by the fact that the former persecutor was now the chosen instrument of the glory of Christ. Finding Saul in the house of a certain Jew named Judas, he laid his hands on him and said: “Brother Saul! The Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the way... sent me to you so that you could receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” The words were immediately followed by action: it was as if some scales had fallen from Saul’s eyes, he received his sight and immediately received baptism, no doubt at the hands of Ananias (Acts 9:10-18). The conversion of Paul is one of the most extraordinary events for which the Apostolic Church became famous. That is why the Holy Fathers remembered it so often and delved into it with such pleasure in meditation. It serves as a most comforting example for all sinners, especially those who have had the misfortune to harbor zeal for God without reasoning, and at the same time this conversion is one of the most tangible proofs of the Divinity of the Christian religion. Indeed, it is not a meek person by nature, who would in himself have a disposition towards the beneficial teaching of Christians, not a listener of Jesus Christ, of whom one could say that he was carried away by the sweetness of His words - not such a person sees Jesus, Whom the Jews considered dead, but the most persistent defender of Judaism, an implacable enemy of the name of Christ, a cruel persecutor of His admirers, in whom the high priests saw a reliable bulwark against the overflowing stream. “new heresy”, the very name of which made people like Ananias tremble, whose arrival in Damascus was expected by Christians as the wrath of God, and by Jews as a guardian sent from above - in a word, Saul sees Jesus, recognizes Him as the Messiah, the Son of God, and becomes a zealous proclaimer of His name, despising death itself for the truth of the new teaching. What encouragement for persecuted Christians! What a fear for the Jews! What horror for the murderers of Stephen - for the murderers of Jesus Christ! Saul could not expect any earthly benefits from Christians. Was he looking for honor? It was provided to him by the Supreme Council of the Jews, which entrusted him with the most important task: to destroy the emerging Christianity. The fulfillment of this commission would cover him with new glory and he could gain the right to the highest position among the Pharisees. On the contrary, Christians themselves did not have honors, nor could they promise them, being persecuted and despised by the Jewish authorities. Was he looking for wealth? Christians were poor, many of them lived on the mercy of their brothers in faith, their last property was subject to plunder, life itself was in constant danger. On the contrary, the sect of the Pharisees abounded in all temporary blessings and, enjoying great respect among the people, could provide their favorites with everything they desired. Did he hope to be an important person among Christians, the leader of their “heresy”? But what kind of glory is it to be the head of a society consisting of people of low birth, poor, weak, unfamiliar with worldly enlightenment, preaching voluntary poverty and self-sacrifice? Moreover, could Saul hope to be trusted by Christians after his repeated cruelty to them? The entire subsequent life of Saint Paul serves as the clearest proof that he became a Christian not for any earthly reasons, but solely because he was completely convinced of the Divinity of Christianity by the miraculous appearance of Jesus Christ. Everywhere he shows the strictest unselfishness: having every right to receive support from those who owe him their salvation, he feeds, for the most part, on his own labors; collects alms from the Churches planted by him, but not for himself, but for the poor Christians of Jerusalem; seeks glory, but only that which consists in the faithful fulfillment of the high duties of the apostleship; does not tolerate any of his converts being called by his name, “Pavlov”; calls himself the last of the Apostles; wants to be considered no more than a servant of Jesus Christ; He constantly says out loud that he was a persecutor and a blasphemer and was pardoned solely by the mercy of the Savior. But Saul not only did not look for any temporary differences for himself among Christians, but also had to, when converting to Christianity, abandon those that he had in Judaism. Having become a Christian, he had to lose the glory of the first zealot and defender of Judaism, had to overthrow the fatherly traditions to which he had become accustomed since childhood, had to break the most tender ties of kinship and friendship, for his relatives and friends remained in Judaism. This is not enough. For his faith in Jesus Christ, he inevitably had to become the object of hatred of all the Pharisees, the entire Sanhedrin, and the entire Jewish people. Saul was not a dreamer who regards the suggestions of his own feelings and the play of his imagination as Divine inspirations. Enthusiastic daydreaming comes either from excessive attachment to favorite opinions, or from melancholy, or from a vivid but uneducated imagination, or from childish gullibility. Saul had a strong passion, but not for Christianity, but for the traditions of the Pharisees; Meanwhile, when I learned the truth, I immediately rejected them once and for all. His character was not gloomy. No matter what dangers, sorrows, or hardships he was exposed to during the continuation of his apostleship, for all that there was not the slightest sign of cowardice in him, he was completely satisfied with his fate, rejoicing in the midst of the suffering. If he wanted the end of his life, it was only because he could quickly unite with his beloved Savior. There was nothing impatient or enthusiastic about this desire; That’s why when he saw that it was more necessary for his disciples that he remain in this life, he used all fair means to delay its end. Saul had a vivid imagination, but how strictly it was subordinated to reason! Reading his messages, we find strong outbursts of feeling - this is an involuntary outpouring of a heart filled with love for God and neighbor - but they never go beyond limits. Nevertheless, one can assume gullibility and imprudence in him. From one story of his one can extract similar rules of Christian prudence. He constantly instilled in his disciples to try everything in order to accept one good thing, reproached them when, like children, they were “tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine” (cf. Eph. 4:14), warned them against false revelations and prophecies, never demanded blind faith for themselves, on the contrary, he wanted them to act according to the conviction of their own mind. Is this what people with a dreamy character do? It is all the more regrettable for the heart of a Christian when he finds that in our times some of the so-called Christian philosophers are attempting to explain the miraculous conversion of the Apostle Paul in a natural way. And even though their explanations would be truly natural, on the contrary, they are such that they could hardly earn the approval of Paul’s enemies themselves—the Jews. It is very likely that those who “have wisdom beyond what is written” think so (cf. 1 Cor. 4:6), as if Saul, after the death of Stephen, began to doubt the justice of the persecution brought against Christians. On the way to Damascus, this doubt seemed to intensify even more. “What,” he thought, “if Christians are innocent, if everything that they tell about Jesus Christ is true, if this Jesus, by me persecuted, is really the Messiah? What should His enemies expect, what should I expect? Oh, if He appeared to me and assured me of His Divinity, I would immediately become a Christian! " When Paul's soul was filled with such thoughts, suddenly a cloud appeared, thunder struck, and Saul, blinded by lightning, fell to the ground. Since the Jews revered thunder as some kind of Divine revelation, the meaning of which they explained. in accordance with the state of his spirit, this natural occurrence was honored by Saul for such a revelation. It seemed to him that he saw Jesus Christ Himself and was talking with Him, meanwhile, this conversation was nothing more than a rant between him and his own conscience. Deciding as a result of this phenomenon to turn to Christ, he reaches Damascus, enters into communication with Christians and, having more thoroughly learned the holiness and purity of their teaching, is baptized. This explanation, no matter how hard they try to give it the appearance of plausibility, cannot in any way be consistent with the historical legends about Paul’s conversion, is based on unproven assumptions and refutes itself. Inconsistency of explanation with historical legends about Paul's conversion. 1. Paul testifies that he heard a voice speaking in Hebrew (Acts 26:14): this is an indisputable feature of a real conversation with a real person, for thunder cannot speak either in Hebrew or in any other language - this is absurdity! On the other hand, it cannot be argued that Paul was thinking to himself in Hebrew - this is also absurd! 2. Paul says that his companions heard his voice, but saw no one (Acts 9:7). If by voice we mean thunder, then the words “there was no one in sight” would be completely unnecessary, for who, hearing thunder, would think that it was some person speaking? If the voice heard by Paul was of such a quality that in his companions it should have evoked the idea of ​​the person speaking, then this is a sure sign that this voice was articulate, similar to a human voice. 3. Paul describes in great detail the appearance of Jesus Christ, notes the place and time when it happened; How could he not mention to him that the voice that spoke to him came out of the cloud (Acts 9:3, 22:6)? On the contrary, he claims that it happened suddenly at midday, that is, when the sky was completely clear and one could not expect such a phenomenon from the sky. 4. When thunder strikes are heard close to a person, then in this case the sound follows directly after the light, but Paul first saw the light, and then, having fallen to the ground, he heard the voice. If lightning struck far from Saul, it could not damage his vision. 5. In one place in the Acts it is said that Paul’s companions heard the voice (Acts 9:7), and in another it is written that they did not hear the words of the One who spoke to Saul (Acts 22:9). Such a contradiction will remain inexplicable if by voice we mean thunder. For in this case, “not hearing” simply means “not hearing,” not feeling with hearing, but is it possible to both hear and not hear? However, this contradiction disappears by itself when the voice heard by Paul is taken to be an articulate voice, for the companions could hear the sound of the words and not understand their meaning. Thus, it could be said about them that they both heard the voice and did not hear. Based on unproven assumptions. The idea that Saul, before traveling to Damascus, began to waver in his adherence to Judaism, repenting of the cruelties and persecutions inflicted on Christians, is an arbitrary guess that contradicts history. For in what frame of mind did he go to Damascus? “Breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). Is this a sign of a person beginning to repent? During the journey there was no opportunity for him to change his way of thinking. From the question he asked Jesus Christ: “Who are you, Lord?” it is clear that immediately before that he had not thought at all, as is supposed, about Jesus Christ, otherwise the Savior’s reproach: “Why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:5, 26:15) - would immediately awaken in his soul the thought that this is Jesus, whom he is persecuting. The assumption that the Jews at the time of Jesus Christ revered thunder as some kind of Divine revelation is no more valid. Its inventors and defenders, instead of convincing evidence, refer to the Gospel of John (Jn. 12, 26), but this place, without obvious violence to the structure of speech, cannot be considered proof. They also refer to Josephus, but for him thunders are only a sign of the presence of God - an opinion, in all likelihood, derived from the memory of the Sinai legislation, in which the presence of God was revealed by thunders. It is assumed that Saul was blinded and thrown to the ground by lightning, and at the same time it is assumed that, thrown to the ground, he could calmly reflect with himself, ask questions, answer, condemn his previous deeds, and decide to change his faith. Don't these two oppositions destroy themselves? Is a person struck by lightning capable of such thoughts? Experience shows that such people lose their senses. So, it must be argued that Paul’s conversation with his conscience did not take place during thunderclaps, but as he continued his journey or in Damascus. But if this is so, then could Paul imagine it in the form of a conversation with Jesus Christ Himself that took place during thunder? Only a poet, not an Apostle, could do this. In addition, it should be noted: a) that Paul repeatedly puts the appearance of Jesus Christ to him (1 Cor. 9:1, 15:8; Gal. 1:1, 16) on a par with His actual appearance to the other Apostles and deduces from this the truth and divinity of his apostleship, but all this can only be correlated with the correctness of Paul’s character, as on the condition that Jesus Christ really appeared to him; b) the other apostles and all Christians, no doubt, accepted Saul into their community no earlier than after a strict examination of all the circumstances of his miraculous conversion, being completely convinced that he had not been deceived by his own imagination. That they were not gullible towards their former persecutor is clear from the Apostolic Acts (Acts 9:27-28). For many reasons, it is useful to know in what year after the Ascension of Jesus Christ the conversion of the Apostle Paul took place. But the attempt to determine exactly this point, so important in relation to the chronology of the Acts of the Apostles, is fraught with great inconvenience, not only because of the lack of clear evidence, but also because of the disagreement of hidden indications, from which we must, through reasoning, derive the most plausible opinion. Let us, however, do what we can, if we cannot do everything. Many of the previous biblical chronologists believed that Paul turned to Christ in the first year after the Ascension of the Lord (Acts 9:27–28). But, having accepted this opinion, it must be argued that the incidents described in the book of Acts up to chapter 9, which contains the story of Pavlov’s conversion, happened over the course of several months, which, judging by their quantity and quality, is unlikely. It is also incredible that in such a short time Christians multiplied in Damascus so much that Saul had to be sent there to exterminate them. Moreover, Paul himself says that at the time of his conversion Damascus was under the rule of the Arabian king Aretas, but Syria in the years 33 and 34 still belonged to the Romans and was under the rule of Vitellius. True, the defenders of the above opinion guess that Aretas, at the very beginning of the war with Herod Antipas because of Herodias (this war began in 34), attacked Damascus in order to thus warn the Romans, whose affection and assistance to Herod, his enemy, he could not doubt. But this guess is very unfounded, for Aretas, of course, was not so reckless as to turn the lords of light against himself with his attack on the Roman regions. History, on the contrary, says that Vitellius, the ruler of Syria, remained a calm spectator of the struggle between Herod and Aretas and demanded from Caesar a command as to how he should act in this case. But if Aretas, before Vitellius received orders from Tiberius to deliver him alive or dead to Rome, took possession of Damascus, then it remains inexplicable why the fame-loving and courageous Vitellius, who once forced the Parthian king to sacrifice to the statues of Augustus and Caligula, did not immediately repulse the force by force, as required by the honor of the Roman name and his own reputation? He, without a doubt, would have done this even if Aretas had only dared to surround Damascus with his troops, as the words of Pavlov [“guarded the city of Damascus” (2 Cor. 11:32)] chronologists very convincingly explain. Even less can one assume in Aretas a determination to besiege Damascus after Vitellius, as a result of Tiberius’ command to help Herod with all his might, gathered his troops for war with the Arabians. But didn’t Aretas conquer Damascus and, therefore, could Paul’s conversion to Christianity have followed in the year 39 after the Nativity of Christ, when Vitellius, having received news of the death of Tiberius, returned his troops to winter quarters? It is also incredible, because a Roman military leader would never have allowed an Arabian ruler to plunder and appropriate the areas under his control with impunity. In general, as long as Vitellius was proconsul of Syria (until 39), Damascus could not be taken from the Romans. This means that Paul's conversion could not have followed until at least 39 AD, or five years after the Ascension of the Lord. It is most likely that it occurred in the year 40 after the Nativity of Christ. Syria was then no longer under the control of the victorious Vitellius. The inactivity and recklessness of Tiberius's successor, Caligula, served as encouragement to the enemies of the Roman Empire, and therefore Aretas, who three years earlier had defeated Herod's troops, could, proud of his success, dare to conquer Damascus. The most important chronological indications for the time of Pavlov’s conversion, which are found in his epistles and in the Acts of the Apostles, are consistent with this opinion. From the Epistle to the Galatians it is clear that Paul's first journey to Jerusalem followed three years after his conversion (Gal. 1:18). Since Paul here calls James the Younger, with whom he saw, the brother of the Lord in order, of course, to distinguish him from James the Elder, one must think that the latter was alive when the Apostle went to Jerusalem for the first time. During Paul's second visit to Jerusalem, James the Elder was killed. The death of the Apostle must precede the death of King Agrippa, his murderer, by only a few months, for the Evangelist Luke tells about the latter immediately after the first. And the death of Agrippa, as is reliably known, occurred in the fourth year of Claudius’s reign, or in 44 AD. So, if Paul’s conversion, as we have seen, could not have followed before the year 39, and if James the Elder was alive during Pavlov’s first stay in Jerusalem and dead during the second, that is, in the year 44, then this means that Paul’s first journey to Jerusalem occurred in the year 43, and, therefore, his conversion should be dated to the 40th year after the Nativity of Christ, or to the sixth year after the Ascension of the Savior. The same is confirmed by the very reason why the Apostle undertook his second journey to Jerusalem. The famine from which Judea was suffering at that time and which prompted the Antiochians to send alms to Jerusalem through Paul, began in the fourth year of Claudius' reign (in the year 44 after the Nativity of Christ) and lasted, according to Josephus, for about two years. Paul, according to the prophecy of Agabus, was, in all likelihood, supposed to go to Jerusalem at the very beginning of the disaster in order to deliver benefits to “the Christian brothers living in Judea” (Acts 11:29). Therefore, his second journey took place in the year 44, the first in the year 43, and, therefore, his conversion should have followed in the year 40. What we have said appears to be contradicted by the Epistle to the Galatians, where the Apostle says that he undertook a second trip to Jerusalem not four, but fourteen years after his conversion: “Then after fourteen years I went up to Jerusalem again” (Gal. 2:1). But the best of the ancient and modern critics believe that in the indicated place it is necessary to read not “fourteen”, but “four” 15. However, there is no particular need to make changes to the present writing, since our opinion may be fully consistent with it. Namely, Paul does not say that the journey he mentions in the Epistle to the Galatians (Gal. 2:1) was exactly the second, but only reports that fourteen years after his conversion he again went to Jerusalem. Judging by this time and the affairs in which he was engaged there, it is very likely that he meant by this his third journey to Jerusalem, described in the 15th chapter of Acts. The reason why Paul mentioned immediately after the first about his third journey and passed over the second in silence was that, when talking about his stay in Jerusalem, he intended to show his equality with the other Apostles, in confirmation of which the second journey did not provide anything else. Paul's first labors of conversion In the order of things, one should assume that Paul, upon his conversion to Christianity, would seek an opportunity to join the community of the Apostles, so that, having learned from them the sacraments of the new faith, he would participate in their apostolic labors. Perhaps anyone else would have acted this way, but not Paul. Called to Christianity and the apostleship “not by men and not through man” (Gal. 1:1), but by Jesus Christ Himself, he expected instruction from Him alone in his great ministry, not considering it necessary to consult about it “with flesh and blood” (Gal. 1:16), with any of the people similar to himself. Ananias, who baptized him, could have taught Paul some of the first concepts about the objects of faith, but could he have given him “the understanding of all the mysteries of Christ” (cf. Eph. 3:4), which later turned out to be revealed in Paul’s epistles, and some of them [for example, the mystery of converting the pagans to Christ (Eph. 3:4-8)] were then also sealed for the Apostles themselves? The Gospel to the Hebrews, from which, according to some critics, the Apostle borrowed information about the life of Jesus Christ and the spirit of His teaching, did not yet exist in the first years after Paul's conversion. From the fact that this Gospel mentions the appearance of Jesus Christ to the Apostle James [an incident not mentioned by other evangelists, but mentioned by Paul (1 Cor. 15:7)], it does not follow that it was read last. Paul also mentions some other incidents described by the evangelists [for example, the institution of the Last Supper (1 Cor. 11:23–29)], but it can be argued that he learned about them not from the Gospels, but from direct revelation. He repeatedly declares in his epistles (and we must listen to him, leaving all guesses aside) that everything he taught was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10). With such a teacher there was no need for earthly mentors. From a cruel persecutor of Christianity to a zealous preacher of the Gospel, from a Pharisee darkened by prejudices to a great teacher of languages ​​preaching the wisdom hidden in God - the distance is great! But for Paul it did not exist. As soon as he received bodily insight from Ananias, he immediately, in accordance with the prediction of Jesus Christ (Acts 26:18), began to open the spiritual eyes of others. To be a Christian and to preach the name of Christ meant the same thing to him. He already had all the qualities required for high apostolic service. The apostle should have been a witness of Jesus Christ - Paul saw Him, and, more importantly, saw Him not in a state of humiliation, but in a state of glory. The apostle must be chosen by Jesus Christ Himself - Paul accepted the lot of ministry from no other person than from Christ Himself. The Apostle had to receive the Holy Spirit - Paul was constantly the temple of the Holy Spirit. Could the Damascus rabbis resist the new preacher of Christianity? They had only one option, so pleasing to fanaticism, to resort to violence. It was immediately put into action: they decided to kill Paul. The Damascus mayor, assisting his enemies, surrounded all the exits from the city with guards so that the victim doomed to slaughter could not escape by flight 16. But the perspicacious care of Pavlov's new brothers in faith was much more effective than the evil foresight of his enemies: during the course of the night he was lowered in a basket along the city wall. Thus, at the very beginning of Pavlov’s apostolic ministry, an immeasurable series of dangers and sorrows opened up, through which he had to go until the very end of his life in order to receive that unfading “crown of righteousness” that the “Lord... on that day” would prepare for him (cf. 2 Tim. 4:8). From Damascus Paul retired to Arabia (Gal. 1:17). One must think that this journey, like all others, had as its goal the preaching of the Gospel. However, its details are unknown to us; Saint Luke does not even mention it. Returning from Arabia, Paul again visited Damascus and, despite the recent danger, again preached Christ there. About three years had passed since his conversion to Christianity, and he decided to visit Jerusalem to see Peter (Gal. 1:18). He could have been drawn to this journey partly by the need to determine the circle of his apostolic ministry in accordance with the actions of the other Apostles, partly by the desire to see the Mother of Churches - the Church of Jerusalem - and to be comforted with those who witnessed the life of Jesus Christ with the prosperity of Christianity among the Jews and, finally, partly by a zealous desire to proclaim the name of Christ in the very place where he appeared as a stubborn persecutor of Him. Jerusalem Christians could not help but hear about Paul's miraculous conversion. But his three-year stay in Arabia, with which the Palestinian Jews, especially at that time, had no communication, could have led to the oblivion of his unfeigned zeal for the new faith, which he showed in Damascus. Meanwhile, they very vividly remembered the death of Stephen, the bonds and prisons into which Saul the persecutor plunged the believers. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Jerusalem Christians moved away from him, not believing that he was a disciple of Jesus, despite the fact that, having come to Jerusalem, he tried in every possible way to join them. Paul had to present a surety for the sincerity of his intentions, and he found one in Barnabas, who probably met him in Damascus. He, taking advantage of the trust of the entire Jerusalem Church, introduced Paul to the Apostles, telling in detail both his miraculous conversion and his zeal for the name of Christ. Suspicions ended, giving way to brotherly love, and from then on Paul began to communicate with the Apostles on equal terms (Acts 9:28). His stay in Jerusalem was fraught with great danger: three years of absence could not lead to the oblivion of his betrayal (as, no doubt, the Jews called Paul's conversion to Christ) before the Great Sanhedrin - a very sufficient reason to refrain from preaching the Gospel in Jerusalem. But Paul knew no fear in the work of preaching and fearlessly proclaimed out loud to one and all that the crucified Nazarene, whom he had previously persecuted, was the true Messiah, the Son of God! The Jews of Jerusalem in this regard were no better than those of Damascus: a conspiracy was formed against the life of the preacher. All believers saw the danger; only Paul did not want to notice it. In vain the brethren advised and asked him to leave - his soul was occupied with one thought: that Jerusalem, which was a witness to his persecution of Christians, should also become a witness to his zeal for the Christian religion (Acts 22:17). He was ready, in the face of the Sanhedrin, to wash away with his blood the shame of complicity in the murder of Stephen, but Providence, which predestined him for great exploits, did not accept this sacrifice. As usual, Paul went up to the church to pray. It seems, along with other things, he prayed that Providence would enlighten him on whether he should stay in Jerusalem or, following the advice of his brothers, leave it. In the middle of prayer, he was delighted: Jesus Christ appeared to him and commanded him to leave Jerusalem, because the Jews would not accept his testimony about Him. In an excess of holy zeal, Paul imagined that the Jerusalemites, seduced by his previous cruelty towards Christians, would not be able to hear the preaching of the Gospel from anyone with such conviction as from him, and that his example could return to the right path those who, like him before, had zeal without reasoning. But the Lord declared to him that he was destined to be an Apostle to the Gentiles, and not to the Jews (Acts 22:17–21). Paul obeyed and was escorted by the believers first to Caesarea, and then to Tarsus - the place of his birth (Acts 9:30). It was at the beginning of 44 after the Nativity of Christ. “Meanwhile, the Christians, scattered from the persecution that followed Stephen,” carried the word of the Gospel to “Phoenicia, ... Cyprus and Antioch” (Acts 11:19). In the latter, the gospel sermon prevailed over so many souls that the Jerusalem Christians, having heard about it, considered it necessary to send Barnabas there to strengthen the newcomers in the faith. The Lord blessed the labors of this virtuous man, but the harvest was so rich that it required not one, but many workers. Knowing Paul’s excellent talents and zeal for the Lord, and also seeing his destiny to be a teacher of the pagans, of whom the Church of Antioch consisted for the most part, Barnabas went after him to Cilicia and, finding him in Tarsus, brought him with him to Antioch (Acts 11:25). Here Paul, together with Barnabas, worked for a whole year on the formation of the Church. The success was so great that the Church of Antioch subsequently became, as is known, the Mother of the Eastern Churches. Saint Luke notes in this regard that “the disciples in Antioch... were the first to be called Christians” 17 (cf. Acts 11:26). Since this is believed to have happened from the frequent use of Christ’s name, one can guess that it was constantly imprinted not only on the hearts, but also on the tongue of Paul’s disciples. So faithfully and constantly did he fulfill his intention not to seem to know anything other than Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified! The Prophet Agave's prediction of an imminent famine, which was to occur especially among the Jerusalem Christians, who had suffered plunder of property from the Jews, disposed the Antiochians to send them fraternal aid. On this occasion, Paul again went to Jerusalem to deliver the collected alms. If the events described in the 12th chapter of Acts (the murder of the Apostle James by Herod, the imprisonment and miraculous release of Peter, the sudden death of Herod, the murderer of James), happened, as we should think, during Paul’s stay in Jerusalem, then it lasted about a year, and its details are unknown to us. Paul's first apostolic journey Upon his return from Jerusalem, Paul did not remain long in Antioch. The time had already come when he had to show himself in the great field of teacher of the pagans. He had preached the Gospel to them before, but his voice merged with the voices of other preachers; he edified on the foundation already laid by his other predecessors, while zeal for the spread of the truth prompted him to preach where the name of Christ was not yet known. Paul was prepared for such a great feat by a new, extraordinary revelation, which he mentioned in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians and which, according to the most probable chronological consideration, should be attributed to this time. The essence and image of this revelation are described by Paul himself in the following words: “I know a man in Christ, who fourteen years ago (whether in the body - I don’t know, or out of the body - I don’t know: God knows) was caught up to the third heaven. And I know about such a person (/only/ I don’t know - in the body or outside the body: God knows) that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words that a person cannot retell” (2 Cor. 12:2-4), which a person cannot retell. Although the Apostle speaks here of himself in the third person, there is no doubt that he is portraying himself here. The short introduction that begins the story of revelation leads to this conclusion: “It is not good for me to boast, for I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord” (2 Cor. 12:1). The same conclusion is demanded by the words that follow this narrative: “And so that I would not be exalted by the extraordinaryness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, the angel of Satan, to oppress me, so that I would not become exalted” (2 Cor. 12:7), which will be unnecessary, at least completely unexpected, if the preceding narrative does not imply the Apostle himself. The very purpose for which revelation is mentioned does not allow these words of his to be attributed to anyone other than Paul, for he wanted to prove by this the truth of his apostolic dignity to the false teachers who doubted it. In this regard, the account of someone else's experience would not convey anything new in favor of Paul. Regarding the revelation itself, the following questions are of interest: What kind of condition was Paul in? Where was he taken and what did he hear? Why was such a revelation given that it is impossible for a person to retell? Paul's condition during the revelation revealed to him was such that he could not give an account of it to himself. “Was I in the body,” he says, “at that time, was the body with me, or outside the body, only the soul remained? I don’t know: God alone knows.” And other holy men, when they received revelations, were freed, more or less, from the bonds of the bodily nature, ascending into the realm of their spirit, but for Paul, during the continuation of the revelation, these bonds seemed to not exist at all. He was all in the spirit, and the spirit was all in God. For the omnipotence of God, of course, it did not mean anything for a time to completely capture Paul’s soul from the body, but it is difficult to see the need for such a separation of the soul from the body in a living person, unprecedented for the most pious people, as St. John Chrysostom writes about this in his commentary on the Second Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. The spiritual world, where Paul was caught up, as not subject to space, exists everywhere and nowhere, and therefore it is only required that the ability to communicate with it be revealed in the spirit of a person, and he, remaining in the body, without any change of place, can be in heaven - in the company of Angels and blessed souls. The revelation of such an ability is necessarily associated with a weakening of the ordinary union of the soul with the body, with some inaction of the lower, sensual nature, “for... the body... perishable,” as the wise Solomon notes, “burdens the soul, and the earthly dwelling burdens the mind” (Wis. 9:15) and does not allow it to ascend into its characteristic realm of the spirit. The spiritual region in which the Apostle resided is called the third heaven and paradise. The later Jews celebrate seven heavens, 19 but their third heaven is low for Paul. In the Holy Scriptures, in addition to the airy and starry sky, mention is made of “heaven x heaven” (cf. Ps. 148:4). These heavens were probably what the Apostle meant by the third heaven. The name of the spiritual region as paradise, although also not entirely definite, nevertheless characterizes the concept of the third heaven. Based on the meaning of this word, it should be assumed that Paul was caught up into the spiritual world, into the blessed dwelling of the celestials. It was here that he heard words that were impossible to retell. Apparently, if one could hear it, one could retell it, but Paul heard them while in an exalted, supernatural state of mind. After he descended from this height to his usual state, his spirit was again imprisoned in the prison of the flesh, although some idea of ​​celestial objects remained in his soul, but there were no longer words in human language to express them. Such a revelation, despite the fact that it could not be retold to others, had a beneficial effect both in relation to the Apostle himself and to all believers. It showed, as St. John Chrysostom notes, that Paul was no lower than the other Apostles, and could serve to console and encourage the Apostle in his difficult field. In the same way, all believers can draw edification and consolation from it. In the Apostle Paul, raptured into heaven, we have an obvious witness of the future bliss of the righteous. Having mentioned the revelation given to Paul, one cannot pass over in silence another circumstance that he mentions immediately after this revelation. “And so that I would not become exalted by the extraordinaryness of the revelations,” says Paul, “a thorn was given to me in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me, so that I would not become exalted” (2 Cor. 12:7). Some, following St. John Chrysostom, believed that this refers to opponents with whom Paul had to fight, such as Alexander the coppersmith, about whom he complained in the Second Epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:14). In fact, an angel of evil or a messenger of Satan, according to the use of these words in the Old Testament, could be called some stubborn opponent of the truth, encouraged by Satan. But the expression: “a thorn in the flesh” shows that the source of the Apostle’s suffering was hidden in his body, in some bodily ailment, which tormented the Apostle especially because it hindered his zeal in preaching. The most ancient legend agrees with this opinion. Tertulian also understood the sting of the flesh as a disease of the ears, and Blessed Jerome meant a disease of the head in general. This disease was called a messenger of Satan not because it was supposedly a direct product of the spirit of malice, for, in the words of St. John Chrysostom, could the devil have power over the body of Paul when he himself was subject to his power as a slave? But this disease could be so named either because of its severity, or because of its actions, which were harmful to Christianity and, therefore, in favor of the kingdom of darkness. The very journey of the Apostle to preach to the pagans was undertaken as a result of a revelation to some of the primates of the Apostolic Church. The Holy Spirit commanded them that “Saul... and Barnabas were singled out for the work for which He... called them” (Acts 13:2), that is, to preach to the pagans. Instead of all the parting preparations, they, “having fasted and prayed, ... laid hands on the elect and sent them on their way” (Acts 13:3). John, nicknamed Mark, a relative of Barnabin, also went with them, but time will soon show that he was still unable to share with Paul the labors of the apostleship. Who, looking at these poor, inglorious travelers, could have thought that they would soon overthrow all the idols, before which, after some unsuccessful experiences of confrontation, the ornate wisdom of the philosophers of Greece and Rome bowed with reverence, that they, among the most depraved cities of Asia and Europe, where wickedness was authorized by law, where the very throne of Satan was, from their own depraved citizens would form within a few years the most perfect societies of people, such as Plato himself could only wishing without having the hope of actually seeing? But where God’s work is done, everything becomes possible. God intended to save the world by the violence of preaching, and Paul's preaching was to produce miracles. Having been sent by the Holy Spirit, the travelers had no other guide on their journey except Him. They first arrived in Seleucia, a seaside city lying opposite the island of Cyprus. “From there they sailed to Cyprus” - the fatherland of Barnabas (cf. Acts 13:4, 4:36). This last circumstance, and perhaps the rumor that some Christians were already in Cyprus, was the reason why this populous island was the first to hear the gospel. Having announced the 20 synagogues of Salamis in the name of Jesus Christ, the preachers then walked the entire island to the city of Pafa, famous for its service to Venus 21 . Here the miraculous power of God was revealed (as far as is known) for the first time in Paul. The local proconsul, Sergius Paulus, whom the author of Acts calls “a wise man, ... wished to hear the word of God.” However, a certain Jew, named Variesus, who pretended to be a magician and enjoyed the confidence of the proconsul, tried in every possible way to turn him away from the faith. But Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him and said: “O full of all deceit and all evil, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness! will you stop turning aside from the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you: you will be blind and will not see the sun until the time comes” (Acts 13:7-12). And the sorcerer immediately became blind, and the proconsul, amazed at this miracle, immediately accepted baptism. From then on, the Evangelist Luke, in his narrative of the Apostle’s travels, constantly calls him Paul, whereas before preaching the word of God in Cyprus he always called him Saul. This change of names allows us to think that around this time the Apostle changed his former name to a new one. Blessed Jerome strongly believed that Saul named himself Paul on the occasion of the conversion of the proconsul Paul to Christianity, so that in his new name he would have some sign of such a glorious victory over the famous Roman, just as Roman military leaders received nicknames from the names of the cities and regions they conquered. But such a sign is obviously incompatible with the humility of the Apostle, who always attributed the entire success of his preaching not to himself, but to God’s grace. Therefore, many Fathers of the Church (Saints John Chrysostom, Ambrose of Milan and others) were of the opinion that the Apostle changed his name even at baptism. In support of this, they point to the custom of the Jews to designate important events in their lives by changing their name. But if this is so, then why did Saint Luke begin to use the name Paul no earlier than upon the appeal of the proconsul? It must be admitted that these two events (the proconsul's appeal and the change of name) are connected. So what is this connection? Probably, out of love and respect for Paul, the proconsul offered him his name, as other famous Romans did with people they loved and respected, and Paul did not renounce the perception of this name, which in its meaning was completely consistent with his humility, since he called himself “... the least of the apostles” (1 Cor. 15:9). However, the proconsul’s appeal could have influenced the use of the name Paul even if Saul adopted it even at baptism. Until now, it, as still little known, remained unused. But from that time on, the Apostle, out of respect for the faith of the proconsul and, perhaps, at his request, began to constantly apply it to himself, and the former name Saul thus fell out of use. Most incredible is the opinion of those who assume that the Apostle changed his name so that he would not be recognized as the former persecutor of Christians. I would like to give myself the name “Paul”, which, due to the similarity of sound, involuntarily brought to mind “Saul”. Equally unfounded is the opinion of those who say that the Apostle received two names even at circumcision. Indeed, the Jews sometimes gave two names when performing this ritual, but they always chose those that were dissimilar in sound. From Paphos the preachers sailed to solid land, to Asia Minor. Here Mark, “separating himself from them,” returned to Jerusalem against the wishes of Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:13, 15:38). The latter, through Pergia Pamphylia, reached Antioch of Pisidia 22. On the Sabbath day, the Apostle and his companions appeared in the local synagogue. After the usual reading from the law and the Prophets, her leaders invited the visitors to say something for the edification and comfort of the people. A better opportunity for preaching could not have been expected. The vast field presented itself and Paul began to sow the seeds of the gospel with a generous hand. Recalling the good deeds with which God rewarded the Jewish people (how He brought them out of Egypt, miraculously nourished them in the wilderness, gave them judges to govern and protect, and finally chose Saul as king, and then David, a man after His own heart), Paul argued that the promise given to David about the Messiah coming from his descendants was fulfilled in Jesus, who, before appearing to His people, was announced by John Baptist, but not recognized by the high priests, he was condemned to death and crucified in accordance with the predictions of the Prophets about Him. However, God raised Him from the dead, and He appeared after His Resurrection to many of the disciples, which was also foretold by the Prophets and David himself. In the name of this Risen Messiah, remission of sins and justification, which the Mosaic Law could not provide for them, is proclaimed to those who believe in Him. Therefore, the Jews must be careful so that, following the example of the high priests, rejecting Jesus Christ, they do not suffer the terrible execution with which God will punish “he despised” His Son (cf. Acts 13:41). This speech made a strong impression on the listeners. Many of the Jews and proselytes (pagans who turned to the Jewish religion) followed the Apostle to receive from him thorough instruction in the faith. “The next Saturday almost the whole city gathered to listen to the Word of God” (Acts 13:44). But such a happy beginning did not match the ending worthy of this business. The Jewish rabbis could not look indifferently at the fact that the poor newcomers aroused the respect of the entire city; Perhaps they were also tempted by the freedom with which the Apostles, contrary to the custom of the Jews, treated the pagans. Filled with envy and malice, instead of using their example to win others over in favor of the new teaching, they began to contradict the preachers and slander them. “You,” Paul answered them with boldness, “should have been the first to preach the word of God, but since you reject it and make yourselves unworthy of eternal life, now we are turning to the pagans. For so the Lord commanded us” (Acts 13:46-47). These words all the more favored the Gospel of the pagans, who had never noticed such impartiality in the Jewish rabbis, for the latter always emphasized the great difference between Jew and Greek. But at the same time, the hatred of the Jews towards them increased no less. Not being able to act against the Apostles on their own, they incited against them some women who were famous for their piety and the celebrity of their family (a favorite weapon of fanaticism). The influence of the latter on the city rulers led to the fact that Paul and his companions, “shaking... the dust from their feet,” left Antioch (cf. Acts 13:44–52). Paul's preaching in Iconium brought similar fruits. A large number of pagans and Jews recognized the victory of the Gospel over themselves, but some of the latter were so stubborn that they turned others away from the faith. The constancy of the Apostles, who, despite the danger, continued to work on the conversion of the lost, gave time to the malice of their enemies to mature. It reached the point of open indignation: the whole city was divided into two parts, one of which revered Paul and Barnabas as messengers of God, and the other accused them as enemies of the Russian religion. Already a frantic crowd of people, led by their blind leaders, flowed to kill the witnesses of the truth, but they, having been warned in advance about the danger threatening them, withdrew to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe (Acts 14: 1-7). Here Pavlov’s miraculous power produced the most extraordinary effect on the hearts of the city’s residents. The following case proves this. In Lystra, among Paul's listeners there was a certain beggar who had not been able to use his legs since birth. The power of the word, and perhaps the hearing about the extraordinary deeds of the new preachers, so disposed him towards Christianity that, in the spirit of living faith, he expected healing from them. Paul, looking at him and reading this on his face, in the name of Jesus Christ, ordered him to get up and walk. The lame man jumped up as if he had never been crippled. The miracle revealed was supposed to assure everyone of the direct assistance of God to the person who performed it, but in the eyes of the idolatrous Lycaonians it seemed to be a sign of the direct presence of the gods themselves. “The gods,” they said, “have come to us in human form” (Acts 14:11). Barnabas, being the eldest in years, was revered as Zeus, and Paul, distinguished by the gift of speech, as Hermias (Hermes). 23 The news of the appearance of the gods immediately spread throughout the city. The priest of the idol of Zeus hastened to prepare the sacrifice and took oxen crowned with wreaths outside the city (where the miracle was performed) to perform the sacrifice together with the people. The wonderworkers, no less than the Lycaonians, were amazed when they learned that divine honor was being prepared for them. Having torn their clothes, they rushed into the midst of the people (who probably moved somewhat away from them out of reverence), exclaiming: “Brothers, what are you... doing? ...We are not gods, but people, like you... We preach that you leave the false gods you worship and turn to the one true God...Who is the Creator of heaven and earth. He allowed the pagans to go their own ways for the time being” (cf. Acts 14:15-17), to follow their unclean way of thinking about God, however, never leaving them without evidence of His existence. The benefits that you enjoy, the rains falling from the sky, the goodness of the air, the fruitfulness of your fields and vineyards - everything is a gift from His Fatherly right hand. These striking words hardly convinced the superstitious people to abandon their insane intention and not make sacrifices to them. Such incredible respect of the Lycaonians for Paul and Barnabas made it possible to expect that their entire city would turn to Christ. This, of course, would have been the case, but the Jews misinterpreted their words, accusing them of lying. Having hindered the successes of preaching the Gospel in Antioch and Iconium, they could not indifferently hear about the successes of the Apostles in the Lycaonian cities. Arriving at Lystra, the Jews, with their slander, brought the foolish people to such a state that they stoned the very man who had recently been revered by them as Hermes. Exhausted by the blows of the stones, Paul fell to the ground and, considered dead, was dragged out of the city as a villain unworthy of burial. What a triumph for his evil enemies! But truth is immortal. Those of the Listrians who remained faithful to Christ gathered around their half-dead teacher. Strengthened by grace and a clear conscience, he gathered his strength, stood up and, accompanied by his admirers, returned to the city. Since it was impossible to expect success in preaching among the embittered people, Paul withdrew from Lystra to Derbe. The misfortune that they had to endure in the first was rewarded with spiritual consolation in the last: here many with all zeal joined the number of the Lord's disciples (Acts 14). It is impossible not to notice that among the opponents of the Christian religion, the Jews were almost always the first and most persistent - a remark confirmed not only by the history of Pavlov’s apostolic ministry, but also by the entire history of Christianity in the first centuries. The inveterate prejudice that they alone, as a result of God’s covenant with Abraham, have the right to the benefits of God sent down in the person of the Messiah, the false opinion that the fulfillment of the ritual law is sufficient to justify oneself before the judgment of God, and other errors fueled by pride and greed, blocked the path to the hearts of the Jews for the beneficial teaching of faith in Jesus Christ. They did not need a religion that would equate them with the pagans they despised, but one that would further elevate their imaginary rights and advantages. This was not the condition of the pagans. They had nothing to boast about in the flesh, they did not consider Abraham and David their ancestors, “they were strangers to the covenants of promise, they had no hope and were atheists in the world” (Eph. 2:12). Attachment to soulless idols, weakened by philosophy and common sense, has long been extinguished in many of them. The need for a new and better religion had long been awakened and became an almost universal need of the time. That is why many of the pagans already secretly or openly adhered to Judaism, which, despite all its imperfections, attracted hearts by serving the one God. But the Jews, allowing the pagans to participate in their pious assemblies and share with them the hope of eternal life, did not, however, cease to present their advantages to them, and were not ashamed to repeat that a pagan could enter heaven only under the robe of a Jew. So, could the pagans indifferently listen to the heralds of the Gospel, who opened for them the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven, closed by the rabbis? Could they not glorify the goodness of God (Acts. 13:48), who extended her fatherly gaze to them, giving them the religion that their hearts had long been looking for? Naturally, they bowed more willingly than the Jews to the light yoke of the Gospel and wore it more constantly. On his way back to Antioch, Paul again visited his disciples in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia. In his absence, they had to endure a lot of evil from both the Jews and the pagans who remained in the darkness of idolatry, and therefore his presence was for them the presence of a comforter angel. Earthly consolations could not take place in this case: faith is nourished not by earth, but by heaven. Paul tried to open for them an inexhaustible source of consolation in the very essence of the religion they accepted, admonishing them that the Kingdom of God, an internal union with God in the spirit, can only be achieved through sorrows and temptations. To establish external order among the converts and spread the true faith and good deeds, he ordained presbyters to each Church and, entrusting them to the Lord, set off with his companions on their further journey. Having passed through Perga, in which they preached the word of God, the travelers reached Attalia, from which they sailed back to Antioch. Upon their arrival, the believers immediately gathered: everyone wanted to hear about the success of the sermon. Paul's narrative filled the hearts of all with joy and thanksgiving to Providence, which opened the door of faith for the pagans. The Acts of the Apostles does not say how long Paul's first journey to convert the pagans lasted. We must assume that it lasted about two years. Time was needed for traveling, preaching, and organizing the newly created Churches. Thus, it is said about Paul’s stay in Iconium that it lasted quite a long time (Acts 14:3), despite the fact that the Apostles also preached in some other cities that Saint Luke does not mention (Acts 14:6). After staying quite a long time in Antioch, Paul had to go to Jerusalem for the third time. The reason for this journey was the disorder that occurred in the Antiochian Church, the culprits of which were the Judaizing Christians. Coming from Jerusalem, they grumbled and began to convince the brethren that without observing the ritual law, especially without circumcision, it was impossible to obtain salvation. Paul and Barnabas zealously rebelled against this error, which was so incompatible with Christian freedom. The respect they enjoyed for their apostolic labors gave weight to their opinions, but if necessary, people from Palestine could also refer as an example to the elder Apostles, the customs of the Jerusalem Church, and the like. The disputes that took place on this occasion ended in nothing, and the young Church of Antioch, not being able to independently resolve the perplexities that arose, decided to resort to the advice of its Mother - the Church of Jerusalem, destining Paul and Barnabas to go to the Apostles and elders in Jerusalem on this matter. To ward off suspicions of partiality, they took with them some of the brethren, probably those who held the opposite opinion. Passing through Phenicia and Samaria, the travelers consoled and delighted the Christians there with stories about the successes of their preaching and the conversion of the pagans (Acts 15:3). They listened to their stories about this with the same pleasure in Jerusalem. The triumph of the Christian faith was then the triumph of every Christian. Among the then disciples and followers of the Church of Christ there was not yet that criminal indifference to the successes of their religion, which finally became almost universal, eighteen centuries later. The entire Jerusalem Church gathered to resolve the controversial issue proposed by Paul. But there was no agreement here, as well as in Antioch. The Pharisees who believed in Christianity persistently demanded that converted pagans be subjected to circumcision. They were awaiting the opinion of the chairmen of the council - the Apostles. Peter, enlightened to the mystery of the salvation of the pagans by the revelation that visited him, was the first to suggest that the yoke (ritual law) that the Jews themselves could not bear should not be placed on the pagans. After this, Paul began to speak. Instead of reasoning and proof, he told the congregation the story of his apostolic journey, from which it was most clearly revealed that the Holy Spirit, in pouring out His gifts on Paul's disciples, did not make any difference between the circumcised and the uncircumcised, and that, therefore, circumcision is not a necessary accessory to the New Testament. Finally, the speech of James, who supported what Peter and Paul said with prophecies from the Old Testament, confirmed the triumph of truth over prejudice. In the name of the Holy Spirit, it was decided to grant converting pagans freedom from the ritual law with some necessary restrictions, consisting in the fact that “the pagans should abstain from what is defiled by idols, from fornication, strangulation and blood, and that they do not do to others what they do not want for themselves” (cf. Acts 15:20). Paul and Barnabas were given an answer that was supposed to calm the Antiochian Church. But there were other circumstances of Paul's ministry that caused him concern. The extraordinary successes with which Providence blessed his preaching labors, the gift of miracles given to him in abundance, served as a guarantee for him that he was faithfully fulfilling the high title of Apostle, “not damaging the word of God, like many, but I preach sincerely” (cf. 2 Cor. 2:17). But Paul always remembered that he, like the other Apostles, bears “a treasure grace in earthen vessels" (2 Cor. 4:7), that the gift of the apostleship, like other spiritual gifts, requires from the one who possesses it strict supervision over his actions, constant verification of its proper use, and therefore he wanted to test the purity of his teaching, which he preached to the pagans, having secured the opinion of the other Apostles, so that, as he himself says, he would be convinced whether he had labored and labored in vain in the work of preaching (Gal. 2:2). The enemies of Paul, that is, the enemies of the Cross of Christ, as we will see, will proclaim everywhere that he does not teach what many others preach. In order to stop their mouths, it was necessary to obtain an approving testimony about his teaching from the other Apostles. And Paul, who considered it a law to strive for good “not only before the Lord, but also before men” (2 Cor. 8:21) “and to present himself in the judgment seat of every man’s conscience” (cf. 2 Cor. 4:2), privately proposed to Peter, James and John the gospel he preached to the pagans. They found in him neither excess nor deficiency and unanimously recognized in Paul his great dignity as a teacher of languages, asking for one thing: that he would dispose the converting pagans to help the Palestinian Christians who suffered extreme poverty, which Paul, in his words, “and tried... to do exactly” (Gal. 2:10). Upon his return from Jerusalem, Paul continued to work on the structure of the Antioch Church, confirming the faith and piety of its early Christians (Acts 15:35). His denunciation of Peter, which is mentioned in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, also dates back to this time. Peter, upon his arrival in Antioch, at first, like Paul, freely communicated with the believing pagans and shared their meals with them, but when some of the Jerusalem Jews came from Jacob, he, not wanting to discover Christian freedom before them, began to withdraw from meals with the converted pagans. His example had such a strong effect on others that even Barnabas, a zealous defender of Christian freedom until then, was carried away by this “hypocrisy” (as Paul called Peter’s act). By warning against the temptation of some Jews, Peter thereby already tempted all the pagans, while the latter had a greater right not to be tempted, for they were led by the truth, and the Jews by prejudice. Paul saw this danger of deviating from the truth of the Gospel and in the face of everyone he said to Peter: “If you, being a Jew, live like pagans 24 and not like Jews, then why do you force the pagans to live like Jews” (Gal. 2:14). Paul does not mention what effect his reproof had in Peter. No doubt the latter saw and corrected his mistake. Paul's Second Apostolic Journey By that time, the Antiochian Church was already rich in mentors and, moreover, quite firmly established on the cornerstone - Jesus Christ. Paul's works ceased to be necessary for her. Meanwhile, his heart strove to see his children by faith and give birth to new ones from the incorruptible seed of the word of God. Guided by these feelings, he invited Barnabas to undertake a second apostolic journey. This faithful accomplice of the Pavlovs’ intentions and labors prepared with all zeal to accompany him, but the choice of his collaborators forced them to separate. Barnabas wanted to have John, called Mark, his relative, as a companion. Paul considered the man unworthy of such an honor who, on the previous journey, had abandoned them without any sufficient reason. It was to be feared that he, frightened by the dangers and labors, would leave them again, which would serve as a temptation for the new Christians. Therefore, Paul wanted to take Silas as a collaborator, who came with him from Jerusalem, in whose abilities and zeal he already had the opportunity to be convinced from his preaching of the word of God to the Antiochians. Barnabas disagreed. Paul was even less capable of yielding to him in this for the sake of truth, which is why the “chagrin” occurred 25. The Apostle, taking Silas with him, set off on a journey without Barnabas, who sailed with Mark to Cyprus (Acts 15:35-41). This disagreement did not extinguish the Christian love in the soul of the Apostle for Barnabas and Mark himself. In the letters written by Paul after this, he always mentions the first with praise (Gal. 2:9; 1 Cor. 9:6), and does not forget the latter, testifying that Mark in “cooperating for the Kingdom of God was his delight” (cf. Col. 4:11). This is the property of pure zeal in truth! She always prefers the work of God to human connections and calculations; boldly speaks the truth in spite of the one he loves; ready, if she cannot dissuade him, to move away from him, but never betrays the main law of love; joyfully hears about the successes of the one from whom she moved away; finds in him praiseworthy everything that really deserves praise, and again willingly unites with him, as soon as the cause of separation disappears. Such peaceful zeal is the fruit of mature wisdom and selfless service to Jesus Christ. Having passed through Syria and Cilicia and having become confident in the firmness of the Christians there, Paul reached Derbe and Lystra. In the last city, he found himself a young but tireless colleague, who later became worthy of being told about him to the Philippians: “I have no one equally diligent who would so sincerely care for you” (Phil. 2:20). It was Timothy, a Jew on his mother's side and a pagan on his father's side. Even before the coming of the Apostle, he already knew Christ and by his behavior (probably also by his preaching) gained universal approval not only in Lystra, but also in Iconium. Paul, who himself had the gift of penetrating souls and hearts, immediately noticed the rare abilities of young Timothy and made him his companion. Since it was necessary to fear that Timothy, as an uncircumcised 26, would be a temptation for Jewish Christians, who knew his origins from a pagan, the Apostle performed the rite of circumcision on him. Paul, while still in Jerusalem, did not agree to circumcise Titus (Gal. 2, 3), because he was a pagan on both his father and mother’s side, and therefore his circumcision would be a tempting violation of Christian freedom for others. Timothy, coming from a Jewish mother, could be circumcised without violating this freedom, because at that time almost everyone believed that circumcision was necessary for a Jew and in Christianity. The teacher of the pagans, here as in other cases, looked at circumcision as an indifferent thing and acted in accordance with his opinion about the use of such things - to use them in such a way as to receive as much benefit from them as possible. “Paul,” says St. John Chrysostom in his commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, “circumcised Timothy in order to abolish circumcision, for the circumcised one will preach the teaching of the Apostle that circumcision is not necessary.” Such an act, according to the remark of the same Father of the Church, reveals that Paul was completely free from prejudices, that, despite all his zeal for Christian freedom, he did not, however, treat circumcision with prejudice, knew its value and knew how to benefit from it. Accompanied by Timothy, Paul visited the former cities, informing the disciples about the determination of the Jerusalem Church regarding the freedom of pagan converts to Christianity from the ritual law. This notification was all the more necessary because reckless zealots of the canopy of law were preparing to leave Palestine in order to hinder the labors and successes of the Apostle. Paul quickly, without stopping for long, passed through those places in which he had previously preached the Gospel, of course, because the seeds of life he had sown spontaneously yielded the desired fruits. However, even a short visit to the villages by the former teacher was accompanied by a daily visible “increase in the number of believers and the strengthening of the weak in the faith” (cf. Acts 16:4-5). At this time, the Galatian Church was founded by Paul, which at first brought its founder a lot of spiritual joy, and then even more heartfelt sadness. Despite Paul's visible poverty and the persecution to which he was subjected everywhere, the Galatians received him with all the respect befitting a messenger of God, and listened to him as an Angel of God, as Jesus Christ Himself. Love for his teaching and devotion to him soon grew in their hearts to the point that they, “if it were possible, ... would pluck out ... their ... eyes in order to give them to him” (cf. Gal. 4:15). Such a blessed sowing, without a doubt, would have brought a rich harvest if the tares of Judaism, sown by the hands of immigrants from Palestine, had not vegetated in this field fertilized by grace, as we will see later (Gal. 2:4-5). From Galatia the Apostle wanted to go to preach the word of God in Asia, 27 but was restrained by the Holy Spirit. In a similar way, Providence stopped him when he intended to cross from Mysia to Bithynia 28. The most obvious proof of how the whole great work of spreading the Christian religion depended on the invisible control of the Spirit of God! Only this Leader, testing hearts and wombs, could unmistakably see where the labors of the preachers of the Gospel would not remain without fruit. Asia and Bithynia, of course, were not yet capable of having the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shine upon them. So instead of Bithynia, Paul ended up in Troas, a city located not far from ancient Troy, on the eastern shore of the Aegean Sea. Here, in a night vision, a certain man 29 appeared to him, begging him to come to them in Macedonia to give spiritual help, from which the Apostle concluded that Providence itself was calling him to preach the gospel there. The preachers immediately sailed to Samothrace, the next day they arrived in Naples, one of the coastal cities of Macedonia, and, without stopping there, hurried to Philippi 30. The local Jews had a prayer house outside the city near the river. Arriving there on Saturday, the Apostle entered into a conversation with the women who had gathered for prayer. His words fell on good soil; One rich and pious woman from Thyatira, who traded in scarlet, named Lydia, was especially touched by them. Having been baptized with all her household, she convinced the preachers to choose her house as their home. After this comforting meeting, a new and very unpleasant one awaited the Apostle. In that city, one maid was possessed by the spirit of divination, who, through predicting the future, brought great income to her masters. Compelled by the spirit of malice or her own conscience, this unfortunate woman accompanied Paul whenever he went to prayer, and shouted loudly: “These people are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation” (cf. Acts 16:17). Paul, who, like his great Teacher, Jesus Christ, did not want the divinity of His teaching to receive evidence from such lips as would be opened for prophecy out of covetousness, in the name of the Lord commanded the unclean spirit to come out of her. The maid’s prophetic lips fell silent, and at the same time her masters realized that their selfish hopes of receiving income were crumbling. The unclean spirit that came out of the first, as it were, passed into the latter. They attacked Paul and his companions and dragged them to the judgment seat. If not conscience, then decency did not allow them to reveal the true reason for their indignation at the virtuous and peace-loving wanderers, and self-interest, as usual, hid behind the guise of love for the fatherland and religion. They said: “These people, ... to Judas and are disturbing our city, ... I preach a divine service, which we, the Romans, ... should not accept and perform” (cf. Acts 16: 20-21). The accusation worked. The rebellious people rushed in a crowd against the slandered preachers of the Gospel. The judges themselves, forgetting their dignity, showered them with blows. Ulcerated, they were thrown into prison, the chief of the guards of which was ordered to tighten supervision over them. For greater safety, the prisoners' feet were hammered into a block. “But there are no bonds for the word of God” (2 Tim. 2:9). At midnight, when the earthly judges were no longer thinking about the prisoners, Paul appealed to the Heavenly Judge, but not in order to beg Him for vengeance, but in order to pour out before Him feelings of praise and gratitude in the spirit of faith and holy devotion. Deafened by murmurs and cries of despair, the prison, perhaps for the first time, resounded with the sounds of pure equal-angel prayer - a touching sight for anyone who has not become stubborn in sin, capable of awakening the conscience of the most stubborn sinner! The prisoners listened to the Apostles silently, with attention. He also heard, before Whom not a single innocent tear, not a single sigh of truth will be hidden. The earthquake that occurred suddenly shook the foundations of the prison with such force that all its doors dissolved by themselves. By the way, something happened that an ordinary earthquake could never produce - all the bonds fell off the prisoners. The touching manifestation of unwavering devotion to God's Providence was followed by the manifestation of heartfelt contrition and spiritual insight. The open doors of the dungeon did not allow any doubt that the prisoners would take advantage of this opportunity for their salvation. Moreover, one had to fear for Paul and his companions, who were placed under special supervision. Therefore, the chief of the prison guard drew his sword and wanted, having killed himself, to follow the imaginary fugitives and flee from this world. He did not know the God of Pavlov, did not know that the Apostles had other bonds that could not be dissolved by any upheaval not only of the earth, but also of heaven, that they were bound by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:22). “Do yourself no harm,” Paul exclaimed, “we... for everyone... is here” (Acts 16:28). At these words, the disastrous confusion of the soul - despair, gave way to a new confusion of feelings in the soul of the Roman. He entered the dungeon with trepidation and, no longer seeing the prisoners’ bonds, became convinced that none of them was thinking about escaping. Was it possible not to fall in awe before such triumphant innocence? The Roman fell at the feet of Paul and Silas and begged to be released from his own bonds, the bonds of spiritual blindness in which idolatry held him. Such is the power of the influence of good on the human heart! While the code of Roman laws and the threat of executions could not correct criminal hearts, one prayerful outpouring of heartfelt feelings made by a prisoner had such a strong effect on the criminals in prison that they showed an example of obedience to the laws worthy of the time of Regulus! But this prisoner was Pavel! Imbued with the fear of God, the chief of the prison guards no longer thought about human fear. The preachers were taken to his house, their wounds were washed, and he was given baptism. When in this way the heartfelt gratitude of his new children in the faith was shown with zeal to Paul and his colleagues, the very malice of the enemies had to bow before their meekness and innocence. The city rulers, struck by the horror of the extraordinary earthquake, which seemed to them a punishment for the injustice and rashness shown, examined the matter more impartially and, finally, learning about what had happened in the prison, sent an order to the head of the prison guard to release the Apostles. He hurried to fulfill it with pleasure, but in vain. “How,” objected Paul, “we, ... citizens of Rome, were publicly beaten without trial and thrown into prison, and now are being secretly released? No! Let the judges come and set us free" (cf. Acts 16:37). In fact, to punish a Roman citizen with rods and, moreover, without trial (as Paul was punished) meant to insult the greatness of Rome and Caesar 31. Those punished in this way could expose their judges to the strictest responsibility. 32 But this is not what Paul wanted. He wanted only one thing - to prevent the temptation that could occur if the Apostles secretly left Philippi: his enemies would not fail to divulge that the preachers of the Gospel saved themselves by shameful flight, taking advantage of the earthquake that destroyed the prison. Therefore, when the city governors appeared 33 and, admitting their guilt to Paul, humbly begged him to leave the city, he unquestioningly obeyed their wishes. Only one thing could still keep the preachers in Philippi - the need to confirm the converts in the faith, but the miracle of the earthquake, as St. John Chrysostom rightly notes, should have placed the Philippians even more strongly in favor of the Gospel after the departure of those for whom it was produced by Providence; moreover, instead of the preacher, the converted captain of the prison guard remained with them. From the fact that the Apostles did not decide, contrary to the requests of the mayors, to stay in the city, although they had every right to do so, it is clear how carefully they avoided all cases of causing public concern. Through Amphipolis and Apollonia, Paul came to Thessalonica, the main city of the second region in Macedonia. As usual, his sermon was initially addressed to his fellow tribesmen. Over the course of three Saturdays (days of ordinary meetings in synagogues), he spoke to them from the Scriptures, proving from the prophetic books that the Messiah had to suffer and rise again and that the Jesus he preached was the true Messiah. Many Jews, proselytes, and including noble women became his disciples. Paul treated them as a mother treats a baby (1 Thess. 2:7), without, however, hiding from them the disasters to which they might be subjected for sincerely confessing Christ (1 Thess. 3:4). As a warning and consolation to the brethren, he revealed to them the teaching about the last times and the last enemy of Christianity - the Antichrist, which, as we will see, served for some of them, due to the superstition of people, as a reason for misunderstandings (2 Thess. 2:2-12). Despite the fact that preaching did not leave the Apostle time for other matters, he did not want to receive food from his disciples and supported himself with his own labors, working at night (1 Thess. 2:9), and partly with alms that the Philippians sent him (Phil. 4:16). The Thessalonians felt his apostolic selflessness and “received his word not / as / ... human, but / as / the word of God” (cf. 1 Thess. 2:13). There was no shortage of stubborn enemies of the truth. Having persuaded some bad people, they caused indignation among the people. A frantic crowd rushed screaming to Jason's house, where Paul and his companions were staying, and, not finding them, dragged Jason to the judgment seat. “These world-wide troublemakers,” they shouted, “came here, and Jason received them, and they all act against the commands of Caesar, considering ... not him as king, but another - Jesus” (cf. Acts 17: 6-7). It was impossible for slander to choose a more successful accusation. The Divine Founder of Christianity suffered from it, and, as is clear from the history of the persecution of Christians, it was mainly the disseminators of the faith who suffered from it. The mayors were brought into great confusion: the most tragic consequences were to be expected. But Jason calmed them down, convincing them that there was not the slightest reason for indignation, and, perhaps, giving a promise that the strangers he had received would soon not be in the city. The next night, Paul and Silas were indeed escorted to Berea, a city belonging to the third Macedonian region. The local inhabitants, as Saint Luke notes, were much more considerate than the Thessalonians. Having heard the sermon about the Messiah, they did what every sensible Jew should have done: they compared what they heard with what is in the books of the Old Testament - the features of the proclaimed Messiah - with the features of the Promised One. The consequence of such a prudent trial of the new faith was, of necessity, its zealous acceptance. But Pavlov’s Thessalonian enemies did not allow his spiritual triumph over the hearts of well-meaning Bereans to continue. Arriving in Veria, they outraged the people, and the ascetics of the Gospel again had to fulfill the advice of the Savior: “When they persecute you in one city, flee to another” (Matthew 10:23). Leaving Timothy and Silas with the command to quickly follow him, Paul retired to Athens (Acts 17:1-15). His appearance in Athens is one of the most interesting spectacles presented by the New Testament and, in particular, the history of the Acts of the Apostles. Here the great teacher of languages ​​had the opportunity to demonstrate all the greatness of his spirit, all the wisdom befitting a messenger of God. Hitherto he had dealt either with superstitious worshipers of circumcision and the Sabbath, or with pagans who blindly bowed to soulless idols. Now it was necessary to proclaim the word of the cross to the wise of this age, to erect a cross where hitherto only the porticoes of philosophers were visible. Athens was overrun with philosophers and – idols! The wisdom of the Greeks still had its capital here, but the spirit of Socrates, who revered philosophy as the organizer of human well-being, had long since disappeared. The followers of the pompous Plato were pathetic dreamers, the students of the attractively wise Epicurus were low carnivores; the pupils of the stern Stoa are hypocritical self-praisers. For the local philosophers, religion was part of the civil law, which, despite all its absurdities, had to remain inviolable out of respect for popular prejudices. They laughed at the gods inside their offices, but with reverence they prostrated themselves before them in the marketplace. The most educated part of the people shared with the philosophers an inner indifference to religion, the less enlightened part was immersed in the grossest superstition. However, the spirit of piety, perhaps as a consequence of the previous sound philosophy, continued to be characteristic of the Athenians: their city was filled with churches and altars, and some were dedicated to “unknown gods” (Acts 17:23) 34. Among this people, who from their former wisdom retained only one property - curiosity, and then in a distorted form, Paul had to proclaim the name of the crucified God-man. He wanted to postpone the start of his sermon until the arrival of Timothy and Silas, so that in connection with them the voice of truth could be heard even more clearly. But his heart was torn with pity at the sight of the many idols, which the enlightened Athenians were proud of as some kind of jewel. And Paul began to preach alone, first in the synagogue to the Jews, then in the square to all the inhabitants indiscriminately. Among his listeners were Stoics and Epicureans who were dissatisfied with what they heard, for he preached about Jesus Christ and His Resurrection. Neither of them believed Paul 35 . Some saw in him an empty talker who wants to convince people of something that cannot be believed, others revered him as a herald of new, unheard-of gods. However, Paul’s preaching left no one indifferent. Wanting to know more about the new teaching, he was brought to the Areopagus and asked to repeat what he had heard 36. This became the reason for him to deliver that speech, which fully showed that the Divine Founder of Christianity always faithfully fulfilled His promise to give His teachings to the evangelists, in case of need, “mouth and wisdom.” To preach the word of God, Paul chose the tone that every defender of Christianity should adopt when dealing with obstinate philosophy. He left for a time everything connected with the history of the Christian faith, beginning with the truths of common sense, gleaned from a consideration of nature, human society and conscience - those high truths that constitute the inner foundation of Christianity. Just as, preaching the gospel to the Jews, he found support for the preached Christianity in the Jewish religion itself, so here he discovered a place on the dead tree of paganism where the life-giving shoots of a new religion could be grafted. “Athenians!” he exclaimed, “I see from everything that you are very pious, for... I, going around and surveying your shrines, ... found an altar on which is written: “to the unknown God.” This God, whom you, not knowing, worship, I preach to you” (cf. Acts 17: 22-23). These words should have attracted the greatest attention of the Athenians. The meaningful inscription: “to the unknown God” probably had long ago forced at least some of them to immerse themselves in thought. Even if they had not yet been attentive to it, the reminder made by Paul must have certainly awakened thoughts in their souls, which could only be contained in the words: “The Godhead is unknown”! How could it be possible not to pay attention to his words? However, the Athenians could not have expected him to do so? more like a story about some foreign, unheard of for them, but ordinary, similar to their idols, deity. It was necessary to briefly depict the greatness of the God whom he preached, so that, having led them to the oblivion of idols, he would raise their minds and hearts to the height of true knowledge of God. “God,” said the Inspired Vita, “who created the world and everything in it, ... being the Lord of heaven and earth, does not ... live in churches made with hands and does not require the service of human hands for any need, but He Himself gives to everything life and breath and everything” (cf. Acts 17, 24-25). Before this boundless idea about the Almighty Creator of all things, all the wrong concepts about deities enclosed in churches and idols spontaneously disappeared. “Produced,” continued Paul, “from one blood of all men, He scattered nations over the whole face of the earth, assigning to the residence of each of them predetermined times and limits to their dwelling, so that they would seek God, lest they feel ... and find ... Him, although He is not far from each of us: for in Him we live and move and have our being, just as some of your poets said, “We are His generation.” (cf. Acts 17:26–28). From these considerations about the Creator’s intention to organize the world and human society, as a means of spreading the knowledge of Him among rational creatures, the Apostle concluded about true veneration, which befits an all-perfect Being. “So we, being the race of God,” he said, “should not think that the Divinity is like gold, or silver, or stone, which received an image from the art and invention of man” (Acts 17:29). Having thus illuminated the ugliness of idols and the ignominy of their worshipers with the light of natural religion, Paul begins to lift the veil that hides the majestic edifice of the revealed religion he proclaimed. “God, having allowed times of ignorance to exist, now... preaches repentance to all people, for He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through the Man He has predestined, of which He gave proof to everyone by raising Him from the dead” (cf. Acts 17:30-31). Having heard about the resurrection of the dead, many of the supposed sages did not want to listen anymore. Thus, the most comforting truth of common sense was unbearable for proud fools who, not paying attention to having God in their minds, “became fussy ... with their own thoughts, and were given over to the lusts of their hearts” (cf. Rom. 1:21). Paul fell silent. However, not all of his words fell on stones and thorns; some of those who listened hid them in their hearts and believed in Jesus Christ, including the famous Dionysius the Areopagite (Acts 17:34). Concerned about the multiplication of new members of the Church of Christ, Paul did not abandon care for his former children. Having experienced severe persecution from the Thessalonian Jews, he thought, not without reason, that the young Thessalonian Church was under a heavy cross. Therefore, Paul twice intended to return to Thessalonica (1 Thess. 2:18), but, held back by unforeseen obstacles, he sent Timothy, a servant of God, there to strengthen the Christians there in the faith (1 Thess. 3:1-2). Paul, meanwhile, did not remain long in Athens. The penchant for news, due to which the inquisitive Athenians listened to him, was soon to bore them with the unchangeable truths that the preacher of the Cross of Christ proclaimed, and he retired to Corinth. Here one Jew, named Aquila, who had recently come from Rome (as a result of Claudia's decree on the expulsion of the Jews from the capital of the empire), received him into his home. Since Aquila was engaged in the same craft in which Paul was skilled, the latter shared his labors with him. However, the main duty that lay upon him did not remain unfulfilled. Every Saturday the synagogue rang out in the name of Jesus Christ. The unsuccessfulness of the preaching was in some way rewarded by the comforting news that Timothy and Silas brought with them when they returned from Thessalonica. The local Christians, despite all the persecution by Jews and pagans, remained faithful, but “were wavering in mind,” overcome by various doubts regarding the coming of Jesus Christ and grieved very much over the fate of the dead. Could Paul leave his beloved and faithful children without encouragement and consolation? He wrote an Epistle to them (the first of Paul's Epistles), filled with fatherly love and concern. Having thanked them for their firmness in faith, he exhorted them not to grieve for the dead like those without hope, reminding them that that great day would certainly come when all the dead would rise from their graves to enjoy Eternal Life. Regarding the time of Christ's coming, the Apostle drew the attention of those questioning him to one circumstance, so beneficial in its influence on morality - its suddenness, and begged them to behave impeccably in everything, as it should be for saints, to be peace-loving and avoid laziness. Some misunderstandings that then occurred in the minds of the Thessalonians prompted the Apostle to send another letter to them. The latter, partly not understanding the meaning of the apostolic teaching about the future coming of Jesus Christ, partly confused by some forged letters supposedly written by Paul (2 Thess. 2:2), became firmly established in the idea that Jesus Christ should come soon. Some of them, probably as a result of this, left work and were engaged in idle judgments. The Apostle in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, having refuted doubts regarding the coming of Christ and shown that the appearance of the Savior must be preceded by the appearance of the Antichrist and the apostasy from the faith, again commands them, imitating his example, Paul’s, to avoid idleness, not to indulge in useless dreams and to lead a hard-working life. To warn them against forged messages, he pointed out to them a sign indicating the authenticity of his letters, which was that the Apostle was in the habit of adding at the end of the Epistle in his own hand the following greeting: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” (2 Thess. 3:18). Since the Corinthian Jews continued to resist and slander, Paul said to them: “Your blood is on your heads; I am clean from her, and from now on I will go to the pagans” (cf. Acts 18:6), moved from Aquila to the house of a certain pagan Justus. The proximity of his new home to the synagogue (for the house of Justov was near it) showed that in this case he acted in accordance with his wise rule - with an imaginary predilection for the pagans to arouse jealousy in his relatives according to the flesh for their salvation. Such concern for his fellow tribesmen brought long-awaited results: soon the head of the synagogue Crispus himself and his entire household were baptized. A considerable number of the pagans were also converted, but many more were preparing to do this, of which Paul was informed by revelation. It seems that the danger threatening him aroused his intention to leave Corinth. Therefore, the Lord, appearing to the Apostle, said: “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will harm you, because I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:9-10). As a result, he preached to the Corinthians for another eighteen months. Through these long labors the Corinthian Church was so established and improved that Paul subsequently called it the seal of his apostleship (1 Cor. 9:2). The malice of Pavlov’s enemies was no less active. Finding a convenient time, they attacked him and brought him to the proconsul. The accusation was already usual for Pavel. “This man,” they said, “is spreading among the people a veneration that is inconsistent with the law” (cf. Acts 18:13). The accused wanted to speak in his own defense, but the proconsul, noticing that the matter was about doctrine, names and Jewish law - subjects completely alien to Roman politics, drove the accusers away from the court. After spending a considerable time in Corinth, Paul, accompanied by Aquila and Priscilla, sailed from Cenchrea (the Corinthian pier on the shores of the Aegean Sea, to the east) to Syria and stopped in Ephesus. The local Jews, having heard his sermon, asked Paul to stay with them longer, but he, having promised to return to them, hurried to Jerusalem to spend the upcoming holiday there (it is not known which one). His new companions, Aquila and Priscilla, remained in Ephesus. Apparently, Paul was in Jerusalem for a very short time and returned to Antioch, which, having become the place of his dedication to preaching, was, in a way, also the place of his rest. The Evangelist Luke says nothing about his deeds in Jerusalem. It is likely, however, that he delivered there alms collected from the Churches he founded. Thus ended Paul's second apostolic journey. Paul's Third Apostolic Journey A short time later, Paul undertook his third apostolic journey from Antioch (Acts 18:23). Having passed through Phrygia and visited the Galatian Church, he, according to the promise given earlier, arrived in Ephesus. Here he found some disciples, but did not meet with them that without which in the primal Church it was impossible to be called a believer - the visible gifts of the Holy Spirit. To the question: “Is the Holy Spirit communicated to them after baptism? they answered: we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit” (cf. Acts 19:2). Upon further investigation, it turned out that they were baptized only by John's baptism 37. The Apostle immediately explained to them the inadequacy of this baptism, showing that John baptized into repentance, calling them to believe in the coming Messiah, and He had already come long ago, this is our Lord Jesus. Therefore, John's disciples were baptized again in the name of Jesus Christ. Paul laid his hands on them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak in other tongues and prophesy. After this, the teacher of the pagans began, as usual, to preach in the synagogue. The Jews calmly listened to him for three months, but then, becoming embittered, they entered into ill-intentioned disputes with him, and were not ashamed to even slander him and the teaching he expounded. The preacher could calmly and humbly endure such insults, but the slander led to the temptation of the newly converted pagans, who, due to their previous attitude towards the Jewish teachers, still continued to look at them as a model. Paul saw the impending danger and, separating the obedient disciples from the stubborn opponents of the truth, left the synagogue and chose as the place of his preaching the school of one pagan, a certain Tyrannus 38 - either already a Christian, or disposed towards Christianity. Here, being free from useless debates with the Jews, he spent two years continuously preaching the gospel. Such a long-term sowing, carried out by the hands of Paul, who “ceasingly taught everyone with tears” (Acts 20:31), was supposed to produce a rich harvest. And so it was. Since many people constantly flocked to Ephesus, partly for trade, partly to worship the image of Artemis, all of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard his preaching about Jesus Christ. The power of the truth of the teaching proclaimed by the Apostle was reinforced by the power of miracles, which were performed in such abundance by the hands of Paul that, finally, the very handkerchiefs and towels that were on his body began to be used to heal diseases and drive away unclean spirits. This was the reason for the strangest incident, in which, on the one hand, all the vileness of greed was revealed, on the other, the dignity and holiness of Paul’s miracles. In Ephesus lived seven sons of some Jewish high priest Sceva 39, who, posing as rulers of unclean spirits, deceived the gullible people 40. Having heard how Paul performed miracles in the name of Jesus Christ, they began to use this name when casting spells on the possessed, saying: “We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches” (Acts 19:13). The ostentatious success of such shamelessness would naturally be to the detriment of Christianity. In this case, Providence used the only accuser that was worth being exposed—an evil spirit. “Jesus,” he responded to the incantations, “I know, and Paul is known to me, but who are you” (Acts 19:15)? This reproach was followed by cruel blows inflicted on them by the demoniac, and the low, selfish lovers were forced to flee for their lives. This incident, soon becoming known throughout Ephesus, strengthened respect for the Christian religion. Everyone saw that the gift of miracles that adorned its preachers was not some natural unknown force that could be subordinated to human arbitrariness and turned into an object of purchase, but the living power of God, which exerts its effect only where Providence pleases. This circumstance especially affected some people involved in secret knowledge and magic 41: they took all their books, which served as a source of death for many, to one place, and, despite their high cost, they set them on fire. Having thus established the Church of Ephesus, Paul began to think about new journeys, much more extensive compared to the previous ones, namely: he intended to go to Corinth, then to Jerusalem (2 Cor. 1:15-16), from Jerusalem he thought to take a trip to Rome, and from there to Spain (Acts 19:21; Rom. 15:24-28). For this purpose, he “first sent to Macedonia two of those who served him, Timothy and Erastus” (Acts 19:22), apparently so that they would collect offerings from various Churches, which he was supposed to deliver to the poor Jerusalem Christians. At this time, Apollos came to Paul from Corinth (1 Cor. 16:12), who, like him, worked on the conversion of the pagans. Some of the brothers also came with him, through whom the Corinthians wrote to the Apostle, asking for advice regarding marital and celibate conditions (1 Cor. 7). From them Paul learned about the many unrest that had crept into the Corinthian Church, which was the reason for writing the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Having exposed the errors of the Corinthians in him, Paul promised himself to come to Corinth after the Feast of Pentecost (1 Cor. 16:5-8). The letter was sent with Stephen, Fortunatus and Achaicus, for Apollos, with whom Paul wanted to convey it to the Christians there, did not dare to return to Corinth so quickly for fear that his presence would again serve as a reason for the Corinthians to disagree about the importance for themselves of this or that teacher from whom each of them received baptism (1 Cor. 1, 11-12). In this Epistle, the Apostle Paul mentions one circumstance of his stay in Ephesus, omitted by Saint Luke, which is very remarkable both in its nature and in the disagreements into which the interpreters of the Holy Scripture fell when explaining it, namely how he “wrestled with the beasts in Ephesus” (1 Cor. 15:32). The question arises: was the Apostle in Ephesus really condemned, according to the custom of those days, to fight with beasts? Nikephoros, a writer of the 14th century, describes this battle in such detail 42 as if he himself was an eyewitness to it. However, his narratives and views on historical events have long lost confidence among those who seek strict authenticity in history. All that can be cited to justify Nikephoros's legend about the actual battle of the Apostle Paul with wild beasts in Ephesus is that his life in this city, as is clear from the Epistle to the Corinthians, was actually in extreme danger (2 Cor. 1:9). But by this danger, in accordance with the circumstances of his stay in Ephesus, it is most appropriate to understand the one to which he was exposed during the indignation caused among the people by Demetrius the silversmith, which we will see later. If Paul had fought with wild beasts in Ephesus, then Saint Luke would not have failed to at least briefly mention this in the Acts, and Paul himself would not have missed this circumstance when counting to the Corinthians all types of disasters to which he was subjected for the name of Christ (2 Cor. 11:24-32). At the same time, the ancient Fathers of the Church, such as St. John Chrysostom and Blessed Jerome of Stridon, to whom the story of Pavlov, undoubtedly, was better known than Nicephorus, take Paul’s expression “fought with beasts” as a metaphor. In fact, this is a metaphor. The Greeks, in whose language Paul wrote, like us, compared ferocious people to beasts. The Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer in his Epistle to the Smyrnae uses the same expression that was used by Paul, meaning by it his treatment of his cruel overseers. Paul himself uses a similar expression in his Epistle to Timothy, when he says about himself that he was delivered from the jaws of a lion, that is, from the wrath of the Roman emperor (2 Tim. 4:17). At the same time, that is, at the end of Pavlov's three-year stay in Ephesus, it is very likely that he wrote letters to Titus and Galatians. Firstly, this is evident from the fact that the Apostle commands Titus to quickly come to him in Nicopolis (Titus 3:12), and Titus is indeed his companion shortly after Paul leaves Ephesus (2 Cor. 7:6-7, 13), as well as from the fact that he commands Titus to take care of Apollos (Titus 3:13), who, as we noticed, refusing to return to Corinth, went to Crete Secondly, this is revealed from Paul’s complaint against the Galatians because they changed their faith so quickly (Gal. 1:6), for the Apostle, as we have seen, had previously visited the Galatian Church on his way to Ephesus. The essence of the Epistle to Titus is to teach him the rules of pastoral discipline, and to the Galatians - to defend his apostolic dignity from the slander of the Judaizing false teachers who tried to humiliate him before the Galatians, and to defend Christian freedom from the yoke of the law, which the former wanted to impose on the latter. When Paul thus fought everywhere for the truth, as he expressed it, “with the weapon of righteousness in his right and left hand” (2 Cor. 6:7), Satan, whom he had struck to the very heart by founding Churches in the famous cities of Asia, was preparing to unleash a new storm on him. Ephesus, as already noted, was famous for the Church of Artemis, which, due to its grandeur and countless treasures, was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. The greed of the artists, encouraged by the blind superstition of Artemis’s admirers, inspired them to make artificial likenesses of her temple, which were bought by the pagans as some kind of shrines. A certain silversmith, Demetrius, was especially famous and enriched by this work. It was into his heart that Satan entered to carry out his evil plans against Paul. Having gathered artisans like himself, Demetrius described to them all the danger that the spread of Christianity threatened their profits. “Friends,” he told them, “you know that all our well-being depends on this craft; meanwhile, you see and hear that... This Paul, not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, convinced a considerable number of people that... gods... made by human hands are not gods. What will come of this? The fact that not only our craft will come into contempt, but also the church of the great goddess Artemis will mean nothing, and the greatness of her, whom ... all of Asia and the universe ... reveres, will be overthrown" (cf. Acts 19, 25-27). Having heard this, the crowd of self-interested hypocrites, filled with fanatical delight, began to shout: “Great is Artemis of Ephesus!” Outrage immediately spread throughout the city. Two of Pavlov's companions, the Macedonians Gaius and Aristarchus, were captured. A decisive and at the same time dangerous moment had arrived. To appear before an angry crowd of troublemakers would mean to sacrifice oneself voluntarily to their cruelty; to seek salvation in flight would mean to betray the truth, to betray one’s companions, who were in the greatest danger. Paul chose the former, but the believers withheld him. Even the asiarchs 43 tried to turn him away from this danger. Meanwhile, some of the troublemakers shouted one thing, others another, but most of the meeting did not know what the situation was. Since Paul was universally revered as a Jew, the accusation of allegedly overthrowing the gods fell on the Jews (the only case when the Jews were in danger for Christians, who, according to history, repeatedly suffered persecution for the Jews). The latter elected a certain Alexander, who was supposed to defend them before the people, placing all the blame on Paul. But Providence destroyed their intention. Having learned that Alexander was a Jew, the pagans drove him away from the spectacle, and again shouted for two hours: “Great is Artemis of Ephesus!” It fell to one scribe, who probably favored the Christians, to maintain order, calming such violent excitement among the people and freeing the preachers of Christianity from danger. “Citizens of Ephesus! - said this skillful vita. – What person does not know that the city of Ephesus is a servant of the great goddess Artemis? ...If there is no dispute about this, then you need to be calm and not act rashly. And you brought these men, who were not noticed either in sacrilege or in blasphemy of your goddess. So, if... Demetrius and his comrades have a complaint against someone, that is, judicial assemblies,... there are proconsuls... We are in danger of being accused of indignation for what happened today, since there is no legal reason with which we could justify such a gathering of the people” (cf. Acts 19, 35-40). Calmed by these words, the meeting dispersed. From the words of the scribe it is clear that the preachers of the Gospel, revealing to the pagans the insignificance of their idols, did not, however, blaspheme their gods. In fact, while the Ephesians were confident in the divinity of Artemis, they could not calmly listen to blasphemy against her without violating the law of conscience. Ridicule generally does not lead to conviction, but to annoyance and hatred. When the truth of the Gospel teaching about God was recognized, the pagan deities fell of their own accord. This behavior of Paul serves as an excellent example of how one should act regarding other opinions and views on religion. Instruct, lead out of error, reprove, but until you reconvince, do not mock what another considers sacred 44. After the rebellion was pacified, Paul decided to leave Ephesus. Having called all the believers and given them instructions, he went to Macedonia. On the way, the Apostle stopped in Troas to preach the gospel of Christ. Here “the door of faith was opened for him, but I had no rest for my spirit” (cf. 2 Cor. 2:12-13), because he did not find Titus there, he hurried to Macedonia, where he expected to meet him. In Macedonia, Paul was indeed consoled by a meeting with this zealous co-worker of his apostleship. The news brought by Titus from Corinth further increased the joy of the Apostle (2 Cor. 7, 6-7, 13-16). He learned that the Corinthians accepted his Epistle with all respect and immediately corrected the disorders noticed among them and that they were ready to participate with others in alms collected for the Jerusalem Church. He also learned that the failure to fulfill one promise to come to them by some malicious people is presented as a sign of his inconstancy and that these same people are trying to generally humiliate his apostolic dignity before. Corinthians. At the same time, his “mouth,” as he himself says, “opened to... To the Corinthians, the heart... expanded” (cf. 2 Cor. 6:11) from love for them and zeal for their salvation, and he wrote the Second Epistle, full of zeal and fatherly concern for his flock. In it, the Apostle gives the true reasons that kept him from traveling to Corinth, thanks him for his obedience, defends his apostolic dignity and the purity of his behavior, and encourages him to actively participate in collecting alms for Jerusalem Christians. From Macedonia, Paul moved to Greece (Hellas) and spent three months there, probably spending most of his time in Corinth. From here and at this time he wrote his illustrious Epistle to the Roman Church. Paul had long wanted to see her, comforted by hearing about the progress of Christians in the faith (Rom. 1:11-12), but circumstances had so far prevented him from fulfilling this intention. Meanwhile, he heard that in the Roman Church there was disorder among those converted to Christianity: the pagans despise the Jews, and the Jews despise the pagans. The departure of the deaconess of the Church of Cenchrean Thebes to Rome presented him with the opportunity to write to the Christians there (Rom 16:1). Since the disagreements between the Jews and the pagans were almost a common ailment from which the then Churches suffered, the teacher of languages in the Epistle to the Roman Church, as the most famous among the newly established Churches, expounded at length his teaching regarding the relationship of circumcised and uncircumcised Christians, and this led him to an explanation of the dogmas about the spiritual impotence and “irresponsibility” before God of the entire human race, about the properties of justifying faith and about the duties that it imposes on Christians. That is why the Epistle to the Romans has always been considered the most important of Paul’s epistles and, as it were, an abbreviated presentation of his teaching. Having collected the offerings of all the Churches he founded in Greece, Paul chose the shortest route to Jerusalem through Syria. But the news of the malice of the Jews (perhaps who wanted to take advantage of the alms that he carried with him) forced him to prefer another path, through Macedonia (Acts 20: 3). After visiting the Philippian Church, he reached Troas, where he spent seven days. On the last day of his stay, when the Christians gathered, as usual, for public prayer, Paul offered them a teaching that lasted until midnight. Such a pious congregation, where, in the words of St. John Chrysostom, “love preached, love listened,” was suddenly outraged by one unpleasant incident. A certain young man named Eutyches, sitting on the window, fell into a deep sleep and, staggering, sleepy (it is so dangerous to be inattentive to the word of God!) fell from the third floor, and was raised already dead. But Paul, finding signs of life in him, calmed the brothers and continued the sermon, followed by a supper of love, then again a word of faith, so that the whole night was spent in conversation. By morning the boy was brought alive. At dawn Paul left Troas. His companions sailed to Ass, and he himself went there on foot, probably in order to teach instructions to believers along the way. In Assa he boarded a ship and a few days later arrived in Miletus. The Ephesian Church remained on the sidelines, for he was in a hurry to Jerusalem. She did not yet know that she would never see him again, but this was revealed to Paul, and therefore he sent from Miletus for the Ephesian elders to express to them his last will. His farewell speech to these shepherds is an outpouring of a truly fatherly heart. It involuntarily recalls the farewell conversation of Jesus Christ with His disciples. “You know,” he said, “how I lived with you all the time... from the first day on which I came to Asia,... working for the Lord with all humility, with many tears, among the temptations that happened to me through the malice of the Jews, and that I did not miss anything useful that I did not tell you about, and that... I did not teach you publicly and from house to house. preached to the Jews and Greeks repentance and turning to God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, ... at the pull of the Spirit, I go ... to Jerusalem, not knowing what will meet me there; only the Holy Spirit testifies to me in ... the cities that ... bonds and disasters await me. Lord Jesus, to preach the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that all of you among whom I walked and preached the kingdom of God will no longer see my face. And therefore I testify to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all, for I did not fail to proclaim to you the whole will of God. So, take care of yourself and everyone... flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the Church of the Lord and God, which He purchased for Himself with His Blood. For I know that after I am gone, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and that from yourselves people will arise who will speak perversely, in order to draw away... the disciples after them. Therefore, stay awake, remembering that for three years... without ceasing... day and night... I taught each of you with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God and His gracious word, which is able to edify you more and give you an inheritance with all those who are sanctified. I didn’t want silver, gold, or clothes from anyone. You yourself know that my needs and the needs/ of those who were with me were served by these... hands. In everything I have shown you that it is so... necessary,... while working, to support the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, for He Himself said: “There is more happiness in giving than in taking” (cf. Acts 20:18-35). Having finished his exhortation, Paul knelt down and prayed with everyone. At the thought that he would no longer be seen, deep sorrow took possession of the hearts of those present. Everyone was silent and everyone was crying; Finally, involuntarily, they parted. The ship on which Paul sailed was supposed to land at Tire to unload goods. Having found believers here, the travelers stayed with them for seven days. Foreseeing the disasters that the Apostle was about to undergo in Jerusalem, the Tyrians begged him not to go to the city, but could Paul do this, who went there at the pull of the Spirit of God? His departure from Tire was the departure of the father of the family. All the believers, not excluding small children, accompanied him to the very shore. Here, kneeling down, they asked the Heavenly Father for a happy journey. What a comforting picture opened up for Pavlov’s heart! How insignificant were in comparison with this expression of unfeigned love all the magnificent and forced honors that were shown to earthly giants! Having disembarked the ship at the Ptolemais pier, the travelers soon reached Caesarea, where they were received by Philip the evangelist, one of the seven deacons, whose daughters, the maidens, possessed the spirit of prophecy. At this time, a Prophet named Agabus came to Caesarea from Judea, the same one who had once predicted a famine in Antioch. Having found Paul, he took his belt and, tying his hands and feet with it, said that the owner of this belt would be bound in the same way in Jerusalem. At these words, the Caesarea Christians, like those of Tyre, began to ask Paul to abandon his intention to be in Jerusalem. Their convictions were accompanied by tears: they loved him so deeply! Paul loved them no less, but his feelings were always subordinated to duty. He knew that the bonds awaiting him in Jerusalem, according to the intention of Providence, should serve for the glory of the Gospel - there was no higher bliss for him on earth. "What are you doing?" - he said to his crying disciples. - “Why do you cry and upset my heart? I... am ready... not only... to be a prisoner, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (cf. Acts 21:13). Seeing the futility of their petitions, the believers finally calmed down, saying: “The will of the Lord be done!” (Acts 21:14) A few days later, Paul arrived in Jerusalem, accompanied by some disciples of Caesarea, who wanted to show him refuge in the house of a Christian named Mnason (Acts 21:16). Here the story of Paul's apostolic journeys ends. According to very probable calculations, they lasted twelve years. The space measured by the feet of the Apostle begins with Arabia and ends with Illyria (Gal. 1:17; Rom. 15:19) 45. The main place of its action was Asia Minor and Greece, of course, because many people flocked here from all over the world, which could serve to quickly spread Christianity. In fact, it was so successfully spread by the preaching of Paul that in the Epistle to the Romans one could already say: “The voice of the preachers spread throughout all the earth... and... their words... to the ends of the world” (Rom. 10:18). The teacher of languages had zealous employees. Being his pupils, they all acted at his orders, mostly watering what he had already sown. Having founded a multitude Churches, Paul did not give his teaching in writing to any of them. It was to be preserved not in books, but in the hearts of his disciples. The converts listened to him as if they were God Himself, and he tried to turn all the respect that was shown to his face in favor of Christianity, wanting his disciples, if possible, not to know their earthly mentors at all, but to know only their one Heavenly Teacher, Jesus Christ. “Who is Paul?” he wrote to the Corinthians, “who is Apollos? They are only ministers through whom you have believed” (1 Cor. 3:5). Acting in the name of God, he only expected help from Him in his labors; He entrusted the cultivation of what was done to Him. In Jerusalem, Paul was received by the believers with universal joy. His first task was to distribute alms brought to the poor brethren. The next day, having visited the house of the Apostle James, then the primate of the Jerusalem Church, where all the elders gathered who wanted to hear from Paul about the successes of Christianity, he told them in detail about everything that God had done among the pagans through his preaching. Everyone listened to his word with pleasure and glorified God, who looked upon the orphan pagans with His grace. The elders, for their part, informed Paul about the state of the Jerusalem Church. “Many thousands of Jews,” they said, “recognized Jesus Christ as the Messiah, but continue to adhere to the Law of Moses. They have all heard about you, that you have a contrary way of thinking, and teach apostasy from Moses, forbidding circumcision” 46. “It is most likely that these zealots of the law will pay special attention to your behavior in Jerusalem. So, follow our advice: we have four people who have made a vow to God; join them and take upon yourself their expenses for sacrifices” 47. “In this way everyone will know that what they have heard about you is not true and that you continue to obey the law. However, they continued, we are far from depriving converted pagans of Christian freedom. In relation to them, we constantly adhere to the previous provisions of our Church, but as for the Jews, we consider it necessary not to tempt them with disrespect for the law" (cf. Acts 21: 20-24). Paul, who firmly knew that both circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing for a Christian, but what is important is faith promoted by love, and that the main duty of Christian freedom is not to tempt the weak with conscience, to be with a Jew as a Jew, with a pagan as a pagan, willingly followed the advice of his brothers. The seventh day had already arrived, when the vow was to end, in which Paul participated in the sacrifice in the church. The apostle appeared there, but, as it turned out, only to become the victim of an unforeseen indignation. It seemed that Providence itself, who had chosen this moment to deprive him of his freedom, did not want the teacher of the pagans, the primary defender of Christian freedom, to appear in the form of an admirer of the law in that temple, which had long since lost its true meaning. He was immediately noticed by some of the Asian Jews who had come to Jerusalem to worship. In the memory of these superstitious people, all those cases instantly arose when Paul seemed to them a man who despised the domestic law. And this, in their eyes, the enemy of God and Moses, dared to enter the sanctuary with open or secret, as they thought, contempt for his shrine! In the heat of reckless jealousy, they believed that he brought with him into the temple the pagans, surrounded by whom he had recently been seen. “O Israel,” these reckless people exclaimed, “help; here is a man who everywhere... everyone... teaches against the Jewish people both the law and this sacred place, who desecrated the temple by bringing pagans into it” (cf. Acts 21:28). This cry spread throughout the city. Crowds of people flocked from all sides, already in large numbers surrounding the church. Many still remembered the betrayal Paul to Judaism on the way to Damascus, they also heard about his preaching among the pagans, which was also considered treason. The imaginary enemy of the religion of Moses was captured and taken from the church, which was immediately locked, apparently, so that he would not use it as a refuge (1 Kings 1:50, 2:29). But Paul’s refuge was He who does not live in churches made with hands. Persecuted by the circumcision, he was saved from death by the pagans, as if in gratitude for his apostolic service to them. The Roman guards, especially during the holidays, carefully observed everything that happened among the people. Some of them were at the church that day, so the commander Claudius Lysias immediately became aware of the disturbance that had occurred. His appearance with armed soldiers forced Pavlov’s enemies to stop. He was taken into custody and chained. Since, accusing him, some shouted one thing, others another, the captain ordered him to be taken to the fortress 48 in order to find out everything later. The rebels pursued him right up to the entrance to the fortress, so that the soldiers had to carry him further in their arms so that he would not be torn to pieces by the crowd before the trial. Upon entering the fortress, Paul wanted to say something to the captain. The latter, hearing that he spoke Greek, thought that this was the same Egyptian who, not long before, had caused an indignation among the people against the Romans and was guilty of many murders and robberies, 49 but he realized his error when he learned that his prisoner came from Cilicia and had never thought of being the head of the conspirators. The accused asked permission to speak to the people. The Roman agreed, and Paul, with the intention of arousing attention to himself, spoke to them in Hebrew. This remedy worked, the people fell silent. Paul briefly announced the story of his life, recalled that he was a persistent persecutor of Christianity, but that he was brought out of his error by the miraculous appearance of Jesus Christ to him, and referred to Divine revelation, as a result of which he became an Apostle to the pagans. As soon as he uttered the last word, the hearts of the Jews began to boil again in anger - they no longer wanted to listen to the one who favored the uncircumcised, despite the benefits for the descendants of Abraham. There was a cry. Voices were heard from all sides to the commander of a thousand: “Destroy such a one from the earth! for he should not live!” (Acts 22:22). Such an unfortunate development of events, which caused new bitterness in the rebellious people, whose peace was the first concern of the Roman rulers, forced the commander to resort to strict measures. He ordered Paul to be tortured, wanting to find out the true reason for the general indignation. Paul never renounced suffering death itself for the glory of God. But the tortures to which he was now about to undergo could not bring any benefit to the Gospel, and therefore he decided to free himself from them, using the right of a Roman citizen. “Is it possible to scourge Roman citizens, and even without trial?” – he asked his future tormentors. To say these words meant to stop the trial. Hearing them, the centurion, in fear, hurried with the news to the commander of the thousand. "What do you want to do?" - he said. - “This is... a Roman citizen” (cf. Acts 22:25–26). The latter knew very well the price of Roman citizenship, having paid a great sum for it. Convinced of the truth of Paul's words, he ordered to postpone not only the torture, but also the bonds. There was no other way to resolve the case except by forcing the accusers to speak in the presence of the accused, and vice versa. A general meeting was appointed, at which the high priests and the entire Sanhedrin were to be present. Paul fearlessly came forward to defend the name of Jesus before the people from whom he had once sought authority to persecute Him. The feeling of his own innocence, the desire to pour it into the hearts of his compatriots, who were still kind to him, filled his entire soul. “Brothers!” he exclaimed, “I have lived with all purity of conscience before God even to this day.” This voice of sincerity could touch anyone, but in that congregation there were no hearts capable of listening to it. The High Priest Ananias was the first to consider these words an expression of insolence and ordered Paul to be struck on the lips. Such obvious injustice brought forth from the meek lips of the Apostle a stern reproach: “God will beat you, whitewashed wall (hypocrite)! You sit to judge me according to the law, and, contrary to the law, you order me to be beaten!” Those present were amazed: Ananias was the high priest, and Paul called him a whitewashed wall! “How,” some objected, “do you slander the high priest of God? “I did not know, brethren,” answered Paul, “that he was a high priest; for the Scripture says: Do not curse the ruler of your people” (cf. Acts 23:1-5; Exodus 22:28). This answer was by no means a cunning slip of the tongue, as some imagine it to be 50 . The former high priest known to Paul had either already died or had long since ceased to be a high priest. The greed of the Roman rulers often changed Aaron's successors, sometimes doing this two or more times in the course of one year. Such changes might not have been known to the Apostle, who was far from Jerusalem. The high priest's clothing distinguished him from others only in the church, and therefore it is very possible that Paul did not know about Ananias' high priesthood. But is it generally proper for a Christian defendant, an Apostle, to cruelly reproach the judges? This objection seemed so strong even to some Church Fathers that they recognized this time in Paul as an inappropriate outburst of an offended heart. In vain! One must think that Paul acted in this case not as an ordinary person, but as a messenger of God, and it is known that the Prophets had the right to convict everyone of crimes (1 Kings 18:18; 2 Kings 3:13; Isaiah 1:10:23; Ezek. 21:25). Experience has shown that his reproach was indeed uttered in a prophetic spirit, for over time, when the rebels under the leadership of Menachem took possession of Jerusalem, Ananias, hiding in the water supply, was caught and killed along with his brother Gizkiah. Jesus Christ commanded that His followers be ready to turn their left cheek to the one who hits them on the right (Matthew 5:39), thereby demanding from them only one thing - to escape from vengeance, and not the kind of silence that feeds the insolence of wicked people. In this regard, Paul fulfilled the will of Jesus Christ more faithfully than anyone else, just as he said the same about himself: “They revile us, we bless; they persecute us, we endure; they blaspheme us, we pray” (1 Cor. 4:12–13). But in the present case, he acted according to the example of Jesus Christ, Who also exposed the injustice of the one who struck Him before His condemnation. But if so, then why does Paul justify his action? In order to eliminate the suspicion that he allegedly violated the law commanding not to slander the high priest 51. After the reproach made to Ananias by Paul, it was necessary to completely postpone the hope of success to which the ordinary defense of one’s cause could lead. The irritated pride of the high priest was unable to see or hear the truth, while the other judges, no doubt, were for the most part his saints. Paul found another way to demonstrate his innocence, at least before the Roman judge, who was already required by law to take an active part in him, as a Roman citizen. The crowd of his accusers consisted of Pharisees and Sadducees. Both of them thought completely differently about the most important subjects of religion: the former allowed the resurrection and the existence of spirits, the latter rejected both of these dogmas (Acts 23:8). It was in this disagreement between the accusers that the accused found a safe refuge for himself. “Brothers!” he said, “I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, for the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am being judged” 52 (Acts 23:6). If the Jews were capable of judging calmly, then in this case they would have paid attention to the other components of Paul's teaching in order to see whether he was really nothing more than a Pharisee. But such composure was incompatible with their rash character. The Pharisaic sect, without contradicting itself, could not help but accept under its protection a person who was condemned for what it believed. What most favored the Pharisees in favor of Paul was their inveterate hatred of the Sadducees. His defense therefore afforded them a pleasant opportunity to prove their superiority. There was a strong dispute between both sects. The Pharisees, in the heat of enthusiasm, declared Paul’s innocence even if he taught something new, assuming, in accordance with the principles of their sect, that he might have been rewarded with a Divine revelation for this. The mutual bitterness of the disputing parties exposed Paul to new danger. The Sadducees, having the high priest on their side, could tear him to pieces without trial. The Roman commander noticed this danger and ordered the soldiers to escort him to the fortress. What should have been going on in Paul's soul at this time? The whole nation, the nation most dear to him, in the person of their leaders, considered him their enemy and sought his death from the Roman judge. He, not seeing any way to disabuse them of this sad error for his heart, was forced, leaving the paternal laws, sacred for every patriot, to resort to the right of a Roman citizen, which provided him with refuge, a right hated by his fellow citizens, who already fully felt the burden of the Roman yoke, not entirely pleasant, no doubt, for Paul, who considered such acquisitions as vanity. Roman citizenship. How many other thoughts could excite the soul of the Apostle, especially if we assume that the grace of God left him in this case (as happens with people the highest in holiness) to the forces of his own weak human nature. Be that as it may, Paul’s spirit weakened at this time and needed reinforcement, so the next night Jesus Christ Himself appeared to him and said: “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you testified about Me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome” (Acts 23:11). The consolation is truly apostolic, or, moreover, Divine! Paul was burdened not by bonds, but by the impossibility of preaching the Gospel, and now he was foreshadowed of the fulfillment of his favorite desire - to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the capital of the world! He did not want greater joy in this life. The next day a most vile conspiracy was launched against Paul. More than forty people, almost inspired by Ananias, vowed not to eat food until they took his life 53. This vow was revealed by them to the Supreme Jewish Council, which not only approved this intention, but undertook to assist in its fulfillment, that is, undertook to be an instrument of evildoers! Such were the leaders of the people once beloved by God at that time! The latter agreed to demand that the captain present Paul to the court, as if for further consideration of the case, but in reality in order to provide the conspirators with the opportunity to attack him. But the works of darkness rarely do not change themselves. The young conspirators behaved defiantly, so that this was soon discovered, and Pavel was informed in advance of their evil intent by his nephew. Having received assurance from the appearance of Jesus Christ that he should be in Rome, he could calmly expect Providence to destroy the conspiracy, but he knew that Providence wanted us to use natural means for our salvation; knew that expecting miraculous help from above in every case meant tempting God. Therefore, through the same young man, Paul immediately informed the commander of the thousand about the danger. He knew the rebellious nature of the Jews too well not to believe this report, moreover, seeing with his own eyes their insane hatred of Paul. On the other hand, to unnecessarily expose a Roman citizen to danger was reprehensible for one who himself valued his title so much. It seemed most prudent to send the prisoner to the Jewish procurator, who was then in Caesarea, to whose trial Paul’s case was already subject to its importance. And so it was done. The commander of the thousand, having summoned two centurions to himself, ordered them to prepare two hundred foot soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred archers-bodyguards to go to Caesarea from three o'clock in the morning, and also to prepare donkeys so that, having planted Paul, they would escort him safely to the governor Felix. Under such strong cover 54 Paul was taken to Antipatris the next night. Since the further journey, due to the distance from Jerusalem, was less dangerous for the prisoner, the bodyguards and foot soldiers returned from here to Jerusalem, leaving his guard to only horse soldiers. Upon his arrival in Caesarea, Paul was immediately presented to Felix along with a letter from the commander, which read as follows: 55 “Claudius Lysias wishes good health to the venerable ruler Felix. This man, whom the Jews captured and were ready to kill, I, coming with soldiers, took him away, learning that he was a Roman citizen. Then, wanting to find out what he was accused of, he brought him ... to their Sanhedrin and found that he was accused of certain controversial opinions relating to their ... law, but that there was no guilt worthy of death or fetters on his part. And since it dawned on me that the Jews... were plotting against him, I immediately sent him to you, ordering the accusers to speak against him before you. Farewell" (cf. Acts 23:26-30). After reading this letter, Felix asked Paul what region he was from, and, learning that he was a Cilician, said: “I will listen to you when your accusers come.” Until that time, Paul was ordered to remain in custody in Herod's Praetorium 56. Five days later, the accusers appeared, bringing with them, for greater success in the case, a judicial orator named Tertullus. The hired defender of lies, calling Felix a peacemaker and benefactor of the Jewish country (who, according to Tacitus, united the heart of a slave with royal power and denigrated his memory with many atrocities), accused Paul of disturbing the people's well-being, neglecting the law and desecrating the Jewish church. The Jews unanimously testified to the truth of his words. “Paul, when the governor gave him a sign to speak, answered: Since I know that you have been judging this people fairly for many years, the more freely I can speak, defending myself. You may know that not more than twelve days ago I came to Jerusalem to worship 57 . And... they did not find that I argued with anyone in the temple or caused public indignation in the synagogues or throughout the city, and they cannot prove what they are now accusing me of. But I confess this to you, that truly in this way of worshiping God, which they call heresy... I serve the God of my fathers, believing everything written in the law and the prophets, having hope in God that there will be a resurrection of the dead, the righteous and the unjust, which they themselves expect.” Thus, Paul did not hide the essence of the matter, his way of thinking and the attitude of Christianity to Judaism, and did not think of deceiving his judges by allegedly continuing to adhere to Judaism in its former form. “For this purpose... I strive to have... always... an immaculate conscience before God and people. After many years of my absence, I came to give to my people... alms and offerings." Which, of course, the enemy of the Jewish nation and religion would never do. “Meanwhile, they found me cleansed in the church, not with a crowd of people and not with noise. /These were/ the Jews of Asia, who should appear before you and accuse me, if they have anything... against... me.” The demand is completely fair, without the fulfillment of which it was impossible to judge Paul. Or let them say for themselves... whether they found in me... what guilt when I stood before the Sanhedrin. Is it only my fault in one word, which... I... uttered loudly,... standing before them:... I am judged by you today for /the doctrine of/ the resurrection of the dead” (cf. Acts 24:10-21). That is, if only they want to condemn him completely innocently. Felix, who had already clearly seen Paul’s innocence from Lysias’ letter, immediately noticed that his accusers were acting out of pure malice, but the order of the proceedings required that the slander brought against him be considered legally. It was necessary to find out whether the “Nazarite heresy” (Acts 24:5), with which Paul was accused, was contrary to the law of Moses, the inviolability of which the Roman authorities took under their protection, and whether it really caused disturbance among the people. Lysias had to give testimony about the latter. So, Felix, in anticipation of this captain, sent the high priests and elders away, in fact, with nothing. Paul was left under custody. guards, which, by order of the procurator, was weakened to the point that he had complete freedom to see his acquaintances and receive from them everything he needed for himself. The desire of curiosity for the sake of hearing the leader (as Tertullus called Paul) of the “new heresy,” which had already begun to attract everyone’s attention, and more likely, the curiosity of Felix’s wife Drusilla, who, being a Jewish woman of noble birth 58, could take an active part in Paul’s case, in which the entire Sanhedrin was involved, disposed the procurator to listen to his sermon on the Christian religion. The corrupt pagan listened calmly and with attention to the preacher as he spoke about the life and miracles of Jesus Christ. This story still coexisted in his memory next to the stories he knew about demigods, but when Paul began to talk about purity, abstinence, justice and the future judgment, Felix fell into fear, the wounds of his conscience were revealed, he could no longer listen and let Paul go, saying: “Now go, and when I find the time, I will call you.” “Oh, criminal delay! - Blessed Augustine exclaims about this. - Oh, words filled with hostility to the grace of God! Love of the world, absent-mindedness, incessant amusements will never allow one to find a convenient time again, neglected grace will be removed, and the sinner will awaken from his slumber only in hell.” In fact, Felix subsequently no longer felt beneficial fear and remorse, although he often called to him and listened to Paul. The prisoner's innocence was completely obvious to him. He was ready to return his freedom, expecting only a reward for his justice. Pavlov’s chains and rags could not inspire hope in the selfish heart of the procurator. But he had heard from Paul himself about the money he brought to Jerusalem, and he, without a doubt, believed that the Nazarenes (Christians) would not spare treasures to bring freedom to their boss. In vain! Paul talked about justice, temperance, judgment, but did not say a word about what the covetous man wanted to hear. After two years, Felix had to give up his place to Festus Porcius. Wanting to please the Jews, he left Paul in prison, but even here, unfortunate, he was deceived, for they, after he retired from office, immediately came to Rome complaining about his cruelty. With the new procurator, the hope of Pavlov's enemies came to life. As soon as he arrived in Jerusalem, they appeared before him with complaints. At first they demanded a death sentence, but having received the answer that the Romans were not in the habit of condemning a person without considering his guilt, they asked to deliver Paul from Caesarea to Jerusalem, with the intention of killing him on the way. Festus promised to consider the case, but in Caesarea, where he invited the accusers to appear. They appeared and brought the most serious accusations against Paul, for which, of course, there was no evidence. The accused resolutely and calmly answered that he had not committed any crime either against the Jewish people, or against the church, or against Caesar. Festus, wishing to gain the favor of the Jews, asked Paul if he would agree to have his case tried in Jerusalem, as his enemies had recently demanded. Agreeing to this meant sacrificing oneself to their rage and treachery. “I demand the judgment of Caesar” (Acts 25:11), answered Paul. This meant that he did not want to be judged by regional rulers and enjoyed the right of a Roman citizen. “Then Festus, having spoken as usual with his advisers, said: You have demanded the judgment of Caesar, and you will go to Caesar” (Acts 25:12). While Festus was awaiting the opportunity to send Paul along with other prisoners to Caesar, Agrippa, king of Chalcis 59, arrived in Caesarea to congratulate him on his position as ruler of the Jews. Along with him came his sister Bernice, famous for her beauty, who, after her divorce from Polemon, king of Cilicia, lived with Agrippa 60. Their arrival served as an occasion for Paul to once again solemnly testify in the face of the Jews to the hope for which he was imprisoned. Since Agrippa, as a Jew by birth, was well aware of the Jewish religion and since he had the right to appoint high priests and take care of the improvement of the Jerusalem Temple 61, of which Paul was accused of desecrating, Festus, wanting to take advantage of his information and advice, recounted to him the history of the trial of Paul. This story made Agrippa want to listen to Paul himself. Festus agreed and appointed a meeting in which Agrippa, Bernice, the captains of the thousand and all the honorable citizens of Caesarea were to be present. When Paul was brought into the assembly, Festus said: “King Agrippa and all the men present with us! You see a man against whom both... in Jerusalem and here... Judas and in large numbers came to me shouting that he should no longer live. But I found that he... did nothing... worthy of death, and since he himself demanded judgment from Caesar, I decided to send him /to him/. Now, since I do not have anything reliable that could be written about him to the sovereign, I present him to you and especially to you, King Agrippa, so that after consideration I will have something to write. For it seems to me indecent to send a prisoner and not indicate what he is accused of” (cf. Acts 25:23-27). After this, Agrippa allowed Paul to speak for himself, and he, raising his hand 62 upward, said the following in his defense: “King Agrippa! I consider myself happy that... before you... today I can defend myself against all the accusations that the Jews bring against me, 63 especially since you know all the customs and controversial opinions of the Jews. And therefore I ask you to listen to me generously. All Jews know my life from my youth, which I first spent among my people in Jerusalem... They have also known about me for a long time, if they want to testify that I lived... according to... the teachings... of the Pharisees, the strictest in our religion. And now I stand before the court for the hope of the promise given from God ... to our fathers ... the fulfillment of which all our twelve tribes hope to see, constantly serving /God/ day and night. This hope, King Agrippa, the Jews accuse me of. Well, do you really... think it... incredible that God raises the dead? True, I myself thought that I should do a lot against the name of Jesus of Nazareth... and... I... did... this... in Jerusalem” (cf. Acts 26:2-10). After this, having depicted his cruelties in Jerusalem against Christians and describing the appearance of Jesus Christ to him during the journey to Damascus, Paul continued: “Therefore, King Agrippa, I did not resist the heavenly manifestation, but first to the inhabitants of Damascus and Jerusalem, then throughout all the land of Judea and the Gentiles I preached that ... they should repent and turn to God, and do deeds worthy of repentance. For this... the Jews... grabbed... me... in the church and tried to kill me. Receive help from God... to this day I am alive and testify to small and great, saying nothing more than what the prophets and Moses said would happen, /that is/, that Christ was to suffer and, being the first to rise from the dead, to proclaim light to this people (Jewish) and to the Gentiles” (cf. Acts 26:19-23). The last words about Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross became a source of blessing for the entire human race, seemed so strange and unrealistic to Festus, arrogant with the prejudices of paganism, that he, interrupting Paul’s speech, said aloud: “You are crazy, Paul, great learning is driving you to madness. No, Venerable Festus, answered the Apostle, I have not gone mad, but I speak words of truth and common sense. For the king knows about this, before whom I speak boldly. I don’t at all believe that anything about that was hidden from him, because it didn’t happen in a corner. “Do you believe,” he continued, turning to Agrippa, “do you believe, King Agrippa, the prophets? I know that you believe (cf. Acts 26:24–27). These words had such a strong effect on the king that he seemed to involuntarily say: “You almost convinced me to become a Christian... I would pray to God,” Paul answered, “so that whether you know how much or how much, not only you, but all those who listen to me today would become like me, except for these bonds” (cf. Acts 26:28-29). At this point the conversation stopped, all those present stood up and, moving away from Paul, discussed his case. Agrippa decisively announced to Festus that, in his opinion, Paul was completely innocent and that he could be released if he had not already demanded a Caesarian trial for himself. Therefore, it was decided to send him to Rome. What, it may be asked here, was the purpose of Paul’s long-term imprisonment, which lasted two years, in Judea? Wouldn't it have been better if he had spent that time preaching the Gospel to the pagans? How many thousands of souls, blinded by idolatry, would he have led out of darkness into light? In order to understand in this case the ways of God’s Providence worthy of worship, one must remember what purpose of Paul’s stay in Jerusalem was assigned to him by Jesus Christ Himself: he was to solemnly testify to the Jews about the Divinity of Jesus Christ, rejected and persecuted by them (Acts 23:11). This was the last appeal with which Providence admonished the descendants of Abraham before the time came to betray them to final rejection for the murder of the God-man. In this regard, it was impossible to find a better herald of repentance than Paul, the former persecutor of Christians, now their most zealous defender. His very bonds, obviously, also testified to the Divinity of Jesus Christ - they drew the attention of the entire Supreme Council of the Jews and, consequently, all of Jerusalem, all of Judea to him. In the person of Paul, in some way, Jesus Christ Himself again appeared before the judgment of the Jews. Most of the Jews, blinded by prejudices, again did not recognize Him and rejected Him, but there were, of course, those for whom the example of Saul, converted to Christianity, served as salvation. To escort Paul along with other prisoners to Rome, a centurion of the Augustan regiment, named Julius, was appointed, a husband, as can be seen from his treatment of the Apostle, meek and philanthropic. Two of Paul's disciples and friends, Luke and Aristarchus, who were with him during his imprisonment in Jerusalem and Caesarea, accompanied him to Rome. Their difficult voyage serves as striking proof of the comforting truth for us that everything works out for the good of believers and that Providence watches over the righteous like the apple of its eye. Without touching on the details of the entire voyage, we will tell about it as the Evangelist Luke himself described it. The ship on which the prisoners were placed was sailing not to Italy, but to the coastal cities of Asia. The centurion used it due to the lack of ships sailing to Rome, in the hope that in some port along the route there would be a ship going to Italy. It was autumn time. The place from which the voyage began is not mentioned, but it is very likely that it was Caesarea. The next day of sailing we landed at Sidon. The centurion was so disposed towards Paul that he allowed him to go without any guards to the local Christians, who readily accepted him. On the way from Sidon, opposite winds carried them to Cyprus. From here, through the Cilician and Pamphylian Seas, they arrived at Myra Lycian, where their ship was to remain. The prisoners were transferred to another, sailing to Italy. Meanwhile, October arrived - a time from which sailing by sea was already considered dangerous. The winds making it difficult to move continued to intensify. Paul advised the centurion to spend the winter in a port called Good Marinas, predicting, otherwise, the danger threatening their lives, but the shipbuilder and many others, finding this port inconvenient for anchorage, wanted to sail further, settling for the winter in one of the Cretan marinas. The centurion, unfortunately, preferred their opinion to Paul's advice. They set out to sea with a favorable wind, but soon a storm arose, the ship was caught in a whirlwind, and they rushed, not knowing where. The cargo, and then other things, were thrown into the sea to lighten the ship, but the danger did not decrease. For fourteen days they saw neither the sun nor the stars, did not eat food, expecting only death. Paul alone knew no fear and assured his companions that their loss would only be in the ship, while all the people would be saved. He said this as a result of revelation, for an Angel, appearing to him at night, announced that God for his sake would deliver all his companions from death. Meanwhile, the sailors, having measured the depth, concluded that their ship was approaching the land. Afraid of falling on the rocks, they dropped four anchors, and, having lowered the boat, prepared to escape. Paul saw through their plan and let the centurion know about it, who immediately prevented their escape by ordering the boat to be pushed away from the ship. After what had happened, Paul again encouraged his companions, persuading them to refresh themselves with food, assuring them in the name of God that not one of them would lose a hair from their heads. Following his example, they were indeed encouraged and ate the food. When day came, they saw land, not yet knowing what kind. Having pulled out the anchors and raised the sail, the sailors hastened to enter the bay, but the loss of the ship, predicted by Paul, was inevitable. Having run aground, the ship stuck its nose in the sand, while its stern was broken by waves. It was impossible to stay there any longer. The soldiers, trying to prevent the inevitable, in their opinion, escape of the prisoners, wanted to put them to death, but the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from this barbarity. They began to escape, some by swimming, others on boards. Paul's prediction came true exactly - no one died. “Such,” says St. John Chrysostom, “is the benefit of living with a righteous man, even if he is a prisoner: with him it is safe everywhere.” The land on which the storm threw the survivors was the island of Melite (Malta), subject to Rome. Its inhabitants received the shipwrecked people very kindly. To dry them, a fire was lit on the shore. When Pavel and others were putting brushwood in it, a poisonous snake crawled out of the dry twigs and wrapped itself around his hand. The Melitians, seeing this, thought that heavenly wrath was pursuing him for some kind of murder, and they expected Paul's death. But he calmly shook the snake into the fire without suffering any harm. This circumstance led the islanders, like the Lycaonians earlier, to the idea that he was not a man, but God. Paul soon had the opportunity to convince them that he was neither God nor an ordinary man: received into the house by the head of the island, he healed his father, who was suffering from fever, with his prayers. When the rumor about this spread throughout the island, all kinds of sick people began to come to the wonderful healer from all sides, and everyone received healing from him. Out of gratitude for such a good deed, the islanders supplied Paul and his companions with everything they needed, showing them all kinds of honors. Three months later, shipping opened again. The prisoners were put on another ship, which, after spending the winter on Melita, was heading to Italy. Along the way, they made stops in Syracuse, in Sicily, then in Rigia, in Calabria, and finally reached the Italian shores near Naples at the Puteoli pier. The local Christians kept them for a whole week. Having rested, the prisoners moved on. Rome was waiting for them. Paul's entry into Rome was like the triumphal entry of a hero returning in victory. Roman Christians came out to meet him on the approach to the city. Their zeal was for Paul a new guarantee that God’s Providence would not leave him without Its protection even here in Rome: he was encouraged in spirit and thanked the Lord. It was early spring, about 61 AD, in the seventh summer of Nero's reign. Pavlov's first bonds in Rome The prisoners, as usual, were handed over to the praetorian commander, who was then Burrus, the famous mentor of young Nero and friend of Seneca. Paul, no doubt as a result of the good review of him by Festus and Julius, was allowed to live in a rented house, under the so-called noble, or light, guard. To understand the peculiarities of such a conclusion, it should be said that the Romans generally had three types of guards: some prisoners were kept in a dungeon with three sections; others, less guilty, - at the judicial places; still others lived in rented or even their own houses. The supervision of the latter consisted in the fact that with each of them there was a warrior who was connected to the prisoner by a long rope. For a warrior it was tied to his left hand, and for a defendant it was tied to his right hand. In this form they could walk everywhere. The guard under which Paul was placed was of the latter kind. On the third day after his arrival in Rome, Paul summoned the most noble of the Jews to him to explain to them the reason for his bonds and the intentions with which he wanted to appear before Caesar's court. Without this, they would not have failed to regard him as a suspicious person who was looking for an opportunity to slander his fatherland before the emperor, as often happened in those days. “Brethren!” Paul said to them, “Having done nothing against the people and fatherly customs, I was handed over from Jerusalem in chains into the hands of the Romans. They, having judged me, wanted to free me, because there was no guilt in me worthy of death. But since the Jews contradicted, I was forced to demand a trial from Caesar, however, not in order to accuse me of anything... my people... for the hope of Israel is taxed. I with these chains” (cf. Acts 28:17-20). The Jews, answering that they had not heard anything bad about him, asked, however, to reveal to them his way of thinking about religion, for we, they said, know that the doctrine you preach is the subject of controversy everywhere. On the appointed day, they gathered for this in Paul’s house, and from morning until evening he explained to them in all detail the Christian faith already professed by many. Some were convinced of what was said, but others did not accept what they heard, so the Apostle involuntarily had to repeat, reminding them, the reproach once made by the Prophet Isaiah to the Jewish people. “Well,” he said, “the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet Isaiah ... to our fathers: go to this people and say: you will hear with your ears, but will not understand, and with your eyes you will look, and will not see. For the hearts of these people have become hardened ... Let it therefore be ... known ... to you,” continued Paul, “that salvation from God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will also hear” (cf. Acts 28, 25–29). These words made some of the Jews think more closely about Christianity, but others aroused indignation. Since Paul’s accusers did not appear (probably waiting for favorable circumstances and inventing the most plausible slander), he spent two whole years awaiting trial and, taking advantage of his freedom, proclaimed the name of Christ to all who came to him (Acts 28:30-31). During this time, he could have done a lot in favor of the Gospel, although we do not have detailed information about the successes of Paul's preaching in Rome. Among the then inhabitants of Rome, despite the decline in morals, there were still people disposed to goodness. In the Epistle to the Philippians, Paul affirmatively says that his bonds served for the benefit of the gospel and became known to the entire praetorium, that is, either to the entire house of Caesar, or at least to all the praetorians (Phil. 1:12-14). That this fame was not limited to one rumor about Christ, Whom the Apostle preached, is evident from the same Epistle, where he greets the Philippians on behalf of Christians who belonged to Caesar's house (Phil. 4:22). Who exactly these Christians were is unknown. Mention is made of a certain Torpet, who, according to the testimony of the Roman Menaion, subsequently became a martyr; They include Sabina Poppaea, who, according to Josephus, was a zealous patroness of the Jewish people, but in this regard, Tacitus deserves more confidence, according to whom this woman “had everything except an honest soul.” A much more likely guess is that of those who see a Christian converted by Paul in Pomponia Graecina, the wife of Plautus. Suspicions about her belonging to a “foreign heresy”, her long life spent in constant piety, make us think that she was one of the first Christians of Rome. It is also very likely that the famous philosopher Seneca, as the legend tells (ancient, although not entirely true), was known to the Apostle Paul. This is supported by Seneca's friendship with Burrus, under whose main supervision Paul was, and also by the fact that this philosopher lived at court, to which Paul was well known. But the correspondence between the philosopher and the Apostle, as we will see later, has no historical authenticity at all. Meanwhile, when the rumor about the bonds of the Apostle in Jerusalem reached the Philippian Church, it sent one of its leaders, Epaphroditus, to him with alms (Phil. 2:25, 4:14–18). This zeal was very pleasing to the Apostle “not because,” in his words, “because he was in need, for he had learned to always be content with his condition” (cf. Phil. 4:10-14), but because the zeal of the Philippians for the teacher testified to their zeal for religion itself. To the regret of Paul, Epaphroditus, while with him, became dangerously ill, but the Lord did not want to be sad The apostle added new sorrow, and the sick man recovered (Phil. 2, 26-27). On the way back, the Epistle to the Philippians was sent with him, according to the remark of St. John Chrysostom, the richest in heartfelt feelings. Thanks to Christians for their zeal for themselves, Paul encourages them to be firm in faith and piety, advising them at the same time to beware of the Judaizing false teachers. inspired their fellow tribesmen to seek justification not in faith in Jesus Christ, but in the works of the Law of Moses - in circumcision. Around the same time, Paul converted Onesimus, a runaway slave belonging to Philemon, one of the most honorable Christians and citizens of Colossus, to Christianity. Seeking refuge in Rome, where, according to Tacitus, everything unclean flocked from all over the earth, and, perhaps, tormented by his conscience, he approached the Apostle in the hope of reconciling with his angry master with his help. Pavlov's instructions and admonitions completely changed his character - he became a true Christian, whom the Apostle did not hesitate to later call his son, even his heart (Phil. 1:12). Just as Onesimus had previously been useless to Philemon, he now became useful to Paul. The latter even wanted to keep him with him, but he did not dare to do this without the consent of Onesimus’s master, “so that the good deed... would not be forced, but voluntary” (Phil. 1, 14). Therefore, Onesimus was sent to Philemon with a letter in which the Apostle, taking his guilt upon himself, asked to accept him no longer as a slave, but as a beloved brother. Without a doubt, Philemon fulfilled the desire of such a high petitioner. There is a legend that Onesimus later became Timothy's successor in the Bishopric of Ephesus. A letter was sent to the Colossians with Onesimus and Tychicus. The reason for it, in addition to Paul’s general concern for the welfare of all Christian Churches, was the coming to Rome of Epaphras, the teacher (if not the founder) of the Colossian Church, who informed the Apostle about the faith and piety of his disciples. Exhorting the Colossians to preserve spiritual gifts, to be firm in faith and virtue, Paul warns them against some false teachers who tried to deceive Christians with false philosophy, superstitious veneration of Angels, and blind attachment to the ritual law. In continuation of the very first Roman bonds, Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews. It affirms the Divine dignity of Jesus Christ and His Eternal Priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek, and shows that the law of rituals with the coming of the Messiah must lose its effectiveness and give way to the new law of grace. Disputes about the author of this Message are not relevant to the subject of our narrative. One cannot help but notice, however, that they would have been completed long ago if critics had paid more attention to the spirit of this Epistle, which is the true spirit of Paul's theology. After waiting two years, Paul was summoned to Nero's trial. According to Roman custom, the friends and disciples of the Apostle had the right to be witnesses to his trial, but then “everyone... left” him (cf. 2 Tim. 4:16), for they were afraid to find themselves before this lion (as Paul calls Nero)! So fickle is human nature even in the purest friendship! Only one heavenly Friend, the Lord Jesus Christ, for whose sake Paul sacrificed himself, did not leave him: He visited His Apostle and strengthened his spirit. Whether Pavlov’s Jerusalem enemies appeared at this trial or not, what they accused him of and how he defended himself from their slander is unknown. Mentioning this judgment in the Second Epistle to Timothy, the Apostle immediately before complains about one blacksmith, Alexander (2 Tim. 4:14). Was he among the Pavlovs' accusers? But who he is and how he harmed the Apostle is also unknown. They even argue about how Paul's trial ended: his death or his release? It was believed, and some still believe, that Pavlov’s first bonds in Rome were at the same time the last. But this view, despite all the learning of its defenders, lacks solid evidence. To confirm the truth of the opposite opinion, which asserts that Pavlov’s first bonds ended in liberation, the following testifies: 1. /General Tradition of the Church/. True, this tradition becomes known only from the time of the historian Eusebius, but nevertheless it is important, for Eusebius borrowed it from the now lost writings of Dionysius of Corinth, during whose life the fate of Paul was still fresh in everyone’s memory. The expressions found in Eusebius: “as the rumor goes,” “as they say,” do not indicate that he considered this legend unreliable, since he clearly says that he retold this legend so that no one would think that Pavlov’s first bonds in Rome ended with his death. Historians, when retelling a legend, often use expressions that can be understood in two ways, depending on the course of the story. Since the time of Eusebius, the tradition of Paul's release from Roman bonds has become common among all writers. One cannot think that in this case they were based only on the importance of Eusebius for himself as a historian. 2. /Many passages in Paul’s epistles/ written by him from Rome (Phil. 2:19, 24; Phil. 1:22; Heb. 13:23). The author everywhere shows firm hope for his liberation and promises to visit his students again. One should even assume that the Epistle to the Hebrews was written by Paul after his release from bondage, which he says in conclusion: “Know that our brother Timothy has been released, and I, together with him, if he comes soon, will see you” (Heb. 13:23). 3. /Conclusion of the Acts of the Apostles/. “And Paul lived,” writes Saint Luke, “for two whole years in the house he hired, and received everyone who came to him, preaching the Kingdom of God and... without restraint... teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness” (cf. Acts 28:30-31). If Paul, when the Apostolic Acts were written, was still wearing bonds, then Luke would not have said: “he lived... and received” , just as if Paul were no longer alive at that time, he would not have failed to mention at the end of his book, at least briefly, about his death, especially since most of the Acts of the Holy Apostles is nothing more than the history of Paul’s travels. It is very likely that Paul’s accusers (if only they had the shamelessness to appear at Caesar’s court) could not prove their slander, while the approval of Festus and others were interceded in favor of the accused. Julia, and his own blameless life, and the zeal of the Roman Christians, especially those belonging to the house of Caesar. Nero at this time, according to Eusebius, had not yet completely forgotten his former meekness and sometimes listened to his wise and virtuous mentors, and therefore could be fair in the case of a Jewish prisoner, whose justification was required by the honor of the Roman name. There is no reliable evidence regarding the image itself and the time of Pavlov’s liberation. There is an assumption that Paul’s bonds were removed on the occasion of the death of Agrippina, Nero’s mother, when this crime was solemnly celebrated in Rome and when, in memory of the emperor’s rescue from an imaginary danger from Agrippina, many prisoners were granted freedom. The guess is quite plausible, but hardly consistent with the chronology. Paul's fourth apostolic journey and his last bonds in Rome The rest of Paul's life, as historians admit, gives rise to many perplexities and disputes. The reason for this is the lack of historical sources, for the narration of the Evangelist Luke about the apostolic acts of Paul ends with the story of his first imprisonment. Of the subsequent writers of the first three centuries, none paid special attention to the Acts of the Holy Apostles. The collectors of Christian antiquities themselves, Papias and Hegesippus, also could not serve as a guide in this case, for Eusebius, who used their works (long lost to us), reports very little about the fate of Paul. Therefore, we can only bring into consideration only some indications about the last period of Paul’s life, which are found in his epistles and the writings of some writers of the ancient Church. As a consolation to those who would like to see exactly how this great lamp of the Church ended the luminous course of his days, the following beautiful passage from the conversations of St. John Chrysostom on the Acts of the Holy Apostles can serve. “Why do you,” he asks, “want to know Pavlova’s subsequent acts? They are the same as the previous ones: bonds, torment, painful labors, prisons, slander, slander, daily death. You saw a small part, imagine the rest as well. When you look at the sky, although you see a smaller part of it, all the others are similar to it, so no matter how many places you change, the sky is still the same. Think the same way about Paul.” Without being accused of historical unbelief, there can be no doubt that Paul, after his release, undertook a fourth apostolic journey, which continued until his final bonds. Such a doubt would be incompatible both with Paul's epistles, written from Rome, in which he makes repeated promises to visit his disciples again, and with the general tradition of the Church. Even the question: where the fourth journey was undertaken can be resolved, although not entirely completely. If we do not imagine all the places visited by the Apostle at this time, then we know some of them with certainty. From the Second Epistle to Timothy, written during the last bonds, it is revealed that its author shortly before was in Corinth, Melita, Iconium, Lystra and Antioch, and in the last three cities he suffered a lot of persecution (2 Tim. 3:11, 4:13, 20). This means that Paul’s last journey was undertaken to the East, and precisely to those Churches that revered him as their teacher. In the East, he undoubtedly fulfilled his intention to visit Colossae (Col. 2:5) and Philippi (Phil. 1, 25); the Churches adjacent to them (with the exception of Ephesus, to whose flock Paul, during his farewell to them, predicted that they would no longer see his face) also, of course, had the consolation of enjoying the sight of their founder. It is believed that Pavlovo’s last journey extended to Palestine. It is based on chapter 13 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the Apostle expresses the hope of seeing the Jews to whom he wrote (Heb. 13:23). But this foundation is weak. As almost all critics admit, this Epistle was written not to Palestinian Jews, at least not to them alone, but to all Christians, Jews by origin. The objection that the name Jews in the time of the Apostles meant Palestinian Jews, and those living outside Palestine were called Hellenes, solves little if only because this Epistle was not directly written by the hand of the Apostle himself. However, it is also very doubtful that Jews who lived outside Palestine were never called Jews, but always Hellenes. To undertake a journey to Judea meant for the Apostle to unnecessarily expose himself to inevitable dangers. Moreover, in Palestine there were no Churches founded by Paul, for the lot of his ministry was to preach to the pagans, and not to the circumcised, while other Apostles were appointed by Providence for the Palestinian Jews. Even before, Paul always appeared in Jerusalem not so much as an Apostle, but more as a visitor to this city. Much more likely is the opinion of those who believe that Paul, after surveying the Eastern Churches, visited Spain. The expression of the Holy Martyr Clement, Pope of Rome: “reaching the last limits of the West,” makes one think exactly this way, for the last limit of the West cannot be, as some have interpreted, either Italy or Britain. This is undoubtedly Spain, whose last frontier was called the end of the earth. Paul, even in his Epistle to the Romans, expressed a desire to visit Spain. But the time, as some argued, that elapsed from Pavlov’s liberation to his last bonds was not enough to make the journey from the East to Spain. This objection is not very weighty. In four years it was possible to travel both to the East and to the West, especially since Pavlovo’s last trip to the East was undertaken not so much for a new sermon, but rather to teach the last consolation to believers. While the great teacher of the pagans walked around East and West with his beautiful feet for the last time, a persecution against Christians flared up in Rome. Nero, who in madness set fire to this capital of the world in order to see in it the likeness of burning Troy, in order to avoid hatred of himself from the Romans for the atrocity he had committed, was all the more willing to lay all the blame for this on Christians, for the superstitious people had long been disposed to consider them enemies of public welfare. Revenge for imaginary arson sought victims everywhere: some Christians, dressed in animal skins, were handed over to be torn to pieces by dogs, others, doused from head to toe with flammable substances, were supposed to gradually burn and illuminate Nero's gardens at night. The Roman Church needed all faith and patience so as not to fall under the weight of the cross. Could Paul remain an indifferent listener to the news of the bloody struggle between Christianity and paganism? Could he leave his beloved children in Rome without consolation? On the contrary, he immediately appeared to them to share with them the crown of martyrdom, the receipt of which he was forewarned, as the Holy Fathers testify, by a revelation given to him. The same reason probably brought the Apostle Peter to Rome. Bonds immediately united these supreme Apostles, the lot of whose ministry separated them throughout their entire lives. Nero at this time was already a monster, and not a man, so the Apostle, even before pronouncing the final verdict on himself, wrote to Timothy about his imminent departure from this world and asked him to come to himself (2 Tim. 4:6-9). Judging by this request, it should be assumed that Paul remained in bonds for at least the last few months of his earthly life. The reason that prompted Nero to condemn Paul to death, according to the legend of St. John Chrysostom, was the following: The Apostle, despite the danger, continued to proclaim the name of Christ and converted one of the tyrant’s concubines, whom he passionately loved. The convert resolutely refused to share a dishonorable bed with Nero. The matricide boiled with anger and, having learned that Paul was guilty of this, condemned him to execution. Tradition, accepted by almost everyone, says that the Apostle Paul was martyred together with the Apostle Peter. But there is another judgment, according to which Paul suffered a year after the death of Peter, however, on the same day, that is, June 29. Lactantius writes that these apostles, before the end of their lives, prophesied that God would soon raise up a king in Rome who would devastate Jerusalem, destroy the Jewish church and scatter the Jews throughout the world. The instrument of execution of Paul, as a Roman citizen, was the sword. The beheading of his head followed around the year 67 after the Nativity of Christ, 65 when the Apostle was already advanced in years, at a place called the Salvian springs, during the reign of Helius and Polyclitus, to whom Nero, during his journey to Greece, entrusted supreme power. Pavlov's honest remains were buried by believers near Rome. Saint John Chrysostom says that they were feared by demons and revered by Angels, and that believers from all over the earth flocked with reverence to venerate Paul’s tomb. Over this tomb, Constantine the Great, on the advice of St. Sylvester, Pope of Rome, erected a small church, which was later expanded by Valentinian. “Thus, the chosen vessel of Christ, the teacher of languages, the world preacher, the witness of the heavenly heights and the goodness of heaven, the object of attention and wonder of Angels and men, the great ascetic and sufferer, who bore the wounds of his Lord on his body, the holy Supreme Apostle Paul, ended his course, and for the second time and besides the body, taken to the third heaven!” (St. Demetrius of Rostov, Chetiy Menaion, June 29). Remarks on the appearance, natural gifts, character and writings of the Apostle Paul, his veneration by the Fathers of the Church From the Second Epistle to the Corinthians they conclude that the Apostle Paul was very unremarkable in appearance and short in stature. Saint John Chrysostom in one conversation calls him a man of three cubits. It is believed that the author of Philopatris (Lucian, or someone else) had Paul in mind when he brought out Galileo to the spectacle - a character with an aquiline nose, who had no hair on the top of his head, ascending through the air to the third heaven. But no one left us such a detailed description of Paul’s appearance as Nicephorus Callistus. “Paul,” he says, “was small in stature, indirect and somewhat bent, his face was clean and showed signs of long years, his head was bald, there was a lot of pleasantness in his eyes, his eyebrows were raised up and seemed to run apart, his nose was long with a pleasant unevenness, his beard was thick and quite long, with gray in places, just like his head.” The portrait is very expressive, it’s just a pity that it was painted 13 centuries after the death of the Apostle and it is unknown from which original! If, in fact, the Apostle Paul was small in stature, then the opinion was justified in him that in a small body there is often a truly great soul. Grace, no doubt, transformed and perfected the gifts of nature in him, but these gifts in themselves were very great. There is not a single quality required of great minds and great characters that was not seen in Paul. St. John Chrysostom compared him in his natural talents for wisdom with Plato - the comparison is uncertain, for both of them acted under completely different circumstances: one in the light of the Spirit of God, the other in the weak light of reason, but it is certain that the genius of Paul, if Providence had destined him to appear under the skies of Greece, would not have been lost in the crowd of Plato’s followers and one more would have been added to the list of Greek sages great name. The character of Paul is the character of a universal teacher, the character of God's messenger to the human race. “When,” says Saint John Chrysostom, “you say “Apostle,” then everyone will understand Paul, just as when the name “Baptist” comes to everyone’s mind, John comes to mind.” For Paul, everything serves for the benefit of the Gospel, for the glory of God: contentment, and poverty, and praise, and reproach, and freedom, and bonds, friends and enemies, life and death. Before him, as before God, whose messenger he is, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female - all are one in Christ Jesus. With pagans - he is a pagan, talks about natural religion, refers to their poets, forgives them for their years of ignorance about the true God; with the Jews - a Jew discusses the sign of the ritual law, makes vows, observes the distinction of dishes prescribed by law; with a weak conscience - weak, moderates Christian freedom, abstains from sacrifices to idols, although he is absolutely sure that an idol is nothing. But in all cases, a teacher of truth is visible, a model of moral purity, a vessel of grace. “He will not sin,” says St. John Chrysostom, “who calls Paul’s soul the sea and the sky: heaven in purity, sea in depth. In this sea there are no precious grains, but there are things more precious than any pearl. Whoever wishes to go deeper into this sea will find in it all the treasures that are hidden in the Kingdom of Heaven.” None of the Apostles left us as many writings as Paul. His fourteen epistles have always been recognized by the Church as the source of true Christian teaching. Due to some special circumstances, the Epistle to the Hebrews was attributed to other authors, however, without sufficient grounds. There has never been any dispute about the ownership of the other messages. The ancient heretics, amazed by the truths contained in them, tried to distort some passages, but these damages were immediately noticed and exposed and did not in the least damage the authenticity of Paul's epistles. The spirit of these epistles is the spirit of living faith in Jesus Christ, as distinguished from the dead activity of legal righteousness. Here we see how fallen man is incapable of even thinking about anything good on his own, much less fulfilling exactly all the commands of God’s law; how God the Father, out of His inexpressible love for the criminal human race, determines to extract it from the abyss of evil into which the fall of its forefather carried it; how God the Son, in the mystery of the Eternal Council, takes upon Himself the great work of redemption, at a predetermined time appears on earth in the form of a man, by His death abolishes the kingdom of sin and death, and then, ascending into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, waiting until all the enemies of His Kingdom are made His footstool; how the Holy Spirit, by His gracious action, assimilates to believers the merits of the Son of God, writes a new law of life in their hearts, pours out the love of God on them, intercedes for them before God and makes them a new creature, created in Christ for good deeds. Paul often introduces readers into the darkness of the Old Testament prototypes, but these prototypes lose their darkness in him and are bright and living images in which everyone can easily find edification and consolation for themselves. As a teacher of faith, he mostly teaches, denounces and corrects, but in some cases, to the consolation of believers, he narrates like a writer and predicts the future like a prophet. He made predictions about the multiplication of false teachers in recent times and the conversion of the Jewish people to Jesus Christ before His Second Coming, about the appearance of the Antichrist, about his insane pride, false miracles and terrible execution. Due to the loftiness of his contemplation, Paul can just as rightly, like John, be called the eagle of theology. The first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews is dominated by a sublimity of thought similar to that which we are amazed at in the first chapter of John's Gospel. Paul himself gives feedback on the external way of presenting his thoughts when he says that his word and preaching consisted “not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power” (1 Cor. 2:4). In another place he even calls himself “ignorant of words (2 Cor. 11:6). Without a doubt, he means here that violence of preaching with which God was pleased to save the world, which did not know God in the Wisdom of God, that foolishness of God, which is wiser than all men (1 Cor. 1:21, 25). However, although Paul did not care about flattering the ears and taste those to whom he wrote, but the natural gift of eloquence, sanctified by the Spirit of God, never left him. There is almost no decoration of thoughts and words for which there were not excellent examples in Paul's epistles. From them alone one can extract all the rules for church oratory. Longinus, not being a Christian, put Paul on a par with the best Greek oratory for his eloquence. It is worth noting that Paul’s epistles were not written by himself, but by the scribe to whom they were dictated (Rom. 16:22). Paul only had the habit of signing a greeting with his own hand at the end of the Epistle, which served as a distinctive sign confirming the true ownership of the writings to him (1 Cor. 16:21; Col. 4:18). The reason for this, according to the legend of St. John Chrysostom, was that his handwriting was very defective and unclear. Unreasonable zeal for the memory of the Apostle, an impure intention to cover up one’s inventions with his high name, as well as a reprehensible desire to fill with one’s own guesses some gaps in our knowledge of his public ministry were the reason why, under the name of the Apostle, some false works attributed to him subsequently appeared, such as: “The Ascension of Paul, the Apocalypse, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the correspondence of Paul with Seneca, the Epistle.” to the Laodiceans." Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus says about the “Ascension of Paul”: “The Cainites also invented another book under the name of the Apostle, full of intolerable temptations, which is also in use by those who are known as Gnostics. They call it “The Ascension of Paul.” The reason for such a forgery was the words they took from the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, where the Apostle says that he was caught up to the third heaven and heard there inexpressible verbs (2 Cor. 12:2). According to them, this book was compiled from these verbs.” St. Augustine also knew this book, as well as its forgery. “Some of the people who live in the spirit,” he notes, “have achieved what a person cannot even talk about. In accordance with this occasion, empty people with incredible audacity composed “The Ascension of Paul,” which was rejected by the Church as full of the most absurd inventions. Their insolence would still be somewhat tolerable if the Apostle said that he heard something that is not yet allowed to be said to a person, but when he announced without reservation that a person cannot speak about what they heard, then who are these people who dare to speak so shamelessly and absurdly about these subjects? Nothing more is known about the Ascension of Paul. Pavlov's Apocalypse is of similar dignity. They say that this book was found by revelation in the Tarsus house of the Apostle Paul, underground, in a marble box, and at one time was respected by some monks. The one who reported this assures that when he, doubting the truth of this incident, asked one elderly presbyter of Tarsus about it, he resolutely answered that no one in Tarsus had heard of this incident and that it, as well as the book, were, without a doubt, the fabrications of heretics. Both books described are long lost, if you can call it a loss. Tertullian also mentioned the “Acts of Paul and Thekla”. He says that their author was an Asian presbyter, who, having been caught in a forgery, admitted that he did it out of love for Paul. These “Acts” have reached our times with some additions and changes. Their content consists of: Paul’s miraculous conversion of Thekla, the latter’s martyrdom and the many miracles that accompanied it. The basis of this work could have been a true incident, for many of the ancient writers in their works mention the First Martyr Thekla 66. “The Correspondence of Paul and Seneca,” although Blessed Jerome of Stridon believed in its authenticity, is not worth not only Paul, but also Seneca. It includes thirteen letters, very poor in content. They are all works of the same pen. The Latin language constantly betrays the author. Despite their brevity, the letters contain many gross historical errors that are not at all appropriate for Seneca. The philosopher is amazed at the wisdom of the Apostle, produces it from the Holy Spirit and at the same time advises him to take more care of the style. “The Epistle to the Laodiceans” consists of twenty verses - so lazy was its writer, despite all his desire to write for others! And these twenty verses are nothing more than literal selections from other Pauline epistles, so that it is impossible to find a work that would be more insignificant in its content than this Epistle. Blessed Jerome knew it and considered it to be counterfeit. In addition, there are two letters in Armenian - one to Paul from the Corinthians, the other to them from Paul. The writer thought, no doubt, to make up for the imaginary loss of Paul's Epistle, which, apparently, never existed (1 Cor. 5:9). The forged writings themselves, which we have listed, already show that the name Paul, even in the first centuries of Christianity, was a name that commanded respect. From the names alone, with which Christian writers tried to express the greatness and valor of Paul’s soul, a whole Word can be composed in praise of this Apostle. The Church, together with Peter, gave him the title of “first supreme,” but according to his apostolic works, he was always recognized as the first of the Apostles. Saint John Chrysostom, it seems, was never so eloquent as when he discussed Paul. He wrote him several words of praise, explained his messages with special care, called him his teacher, dedicated to him (if you believe the legend) his interpretations of the Holy Scriptures, very often in conversations and in other writings he turned to Paul’s acts, imitated him in his way of thinking and in the expressions themselves. These are the words with which he concludes his interpretation of the Epistle to the Romans, and with which it would be just as fitting for us to conclude Paul’s biography: “Who will let me now touch the body of Paul, cling to his tomb and see the ashes of this body, which made up for the lack of the sorrows of Christ, bore the wounds of its Lord? ...May I see the dust of those lips that uttered the blessed words: “I would like to be excommunicated... from Christ for my brothers' sake” (Rom. 9:3), which spoke before kings and were not ashamed...through which Christ proclaimed great and ineffable mysteries, greater than He Himself announced... What did not these lips do? They drove out demons from sins, delivered them, stopped the mouths of tormentors, bound the tongues of philosophers, turned the universe to God, instilled wisdom in the barbarians, transformed everything on earth, disposed of everything in heaven according to their will, binding and releasing according to the power given to them. I would like to see the ashes of that heart, which anyone can boldly, without sin, call the heart of the universe... This heart was so spacious that it could accommodate entire cities, tribes and peoples. “Our heart is enlarged” (2 Cor. 6:11), he says... A heart that lived a new life, and not this life of ours: “It is no longer I who live,” he says, “but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). So, Paul's heart was the heart of Christ, the tablets of the Holy Spirit, the book of grace... I would also like to see the dust of the hands, bound by bonds, by the laying on of the Holy Spirit, who wrote these lines: “You see how much I have written to you with my own hand” (Gal. 6:11), these, I say, hands, seeing which the viper fell into the fire. I would like to see the dust of the eyes that endured happy blindness and regained their sight for the good of the whole world, that were worthy to see Jesus Christ bodily, the eyes that saw earthly things but did not see, but contemplated the invisible, that did not know sleep, that were awake at midnight, in which there was no envy. I would also like to see the dust of feet that, without bothering, passed through the universe, which were driven into a log, but were released by an earthquake. But why calculate everything in detail? I would like to see a tomb in which were placed the weapons of righteousness, the weapons of light, the members, now living, but dead when he (Paul) lived, in which Christ lived all, in which the world was crucified, the members of Christ, clothed in Christ, the church of the Spirit, the dwelling of the holy... Presenting all this, let us stand courageously, for Paul was a man of the same nature as us, having everything that we have. But since he showed the greatest love for Jesus Christ, he ascended above the heavens and is now among the Angels. Thus, if we decide to rise from spiritual inactivity and revive this fire of love in our hearts, then we too will be able to imitate this righteous man. If this were impossible for us, then he would not have exclaimed, saying: “imitate me, as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 4:16). So, let us not only be amazed at Paul, but let us also imitate him, so that after our departure from this life we ​​will be worthy to see him and share with him the ineffable glory, which may be the lot of us all, according to the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, honor and power, now, always and to the ages of ages. Amen". Saint Ambrose of Milan, blessed Jerome of Stridon and Augustine of Hippo, Theodoret of Cyrus and others. The proof of this, borrowed from the style of Paul's writings, does not in the least contradict the dogma of the inspiration of the holy writers. For even if we accept the opinion of some ancient writers (which, however, there is no need) that the Holy Spirit breathed into the writers not only thoughts, but also the words themselves, then it must be argued that He was in accordance with their natural abilities and knowledge, otherwise it cannot be explained why the style of each holy writer is consistent with his character. The expression: “Bring... books, especially leather books” (2 Tim. 4:13), seems to already show that the Apostle meant by these books not only the Old Testament, as some think. Gamaliel was the son of Simeon, the grandson of Hillel, called “Rabban” for his learning, in contrast to ordinary rabbis. The Talmud assimilates to him the main authority over the Pharisee school in Jerusalem. The ancient Jews even turned it into a proverb that whoever does not teach his son some craft or art teaches him to steal. Some people mean by it the making of tools; others - carpets; others - blankets or felts from which tents were made; many are simply making tents, which in the East, due to the hot climate and lack of hotels, were in great use among travelers. The latter opinion is more likely, since St. John Chrysostom, who, of course, knew well the meaning of the word “tentmaker,” used instead the expression “tent stitcher.” Cilicia, Paul's homeland, was famous for its materials. The Jews called zealots certain zealots of their native religion and freedom, who, preaching that the people of God should not pay tribute to Caesar, allowed themselves to kill those who, being more prudent, had the firmness to resist their outrageous plans. For only they could decide to kill Stephen, contrary to the legalization of the Romans, so that death sentences would not be carried out before they were approved by the procurator. The question arises: what power did the high priest have over the foreign synagogue of Damascus? From the works of Josephus it is clear that foreign synagogues voluntarily obeyed the Supreme Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, especially in matters relating to religion, such as in recognizing false teaching, false prophets, and the like, and that the Roman regional rulers did not oppose this practice, which had the appearance of some kind of national law among the Jews. How many Jews there were in Damascus can be concluded from the fact that, according to Josephus, the inhabitants of Damascus during the reign of Nero, suddenly capturing 10,000 Jews, put them to death. From the fact that Aretha's daughter was married to Herod Antipas, some even conclude that he was a Jewish proselyte (a convert to their faith). In the narratives of the Evangelist Luke and the Apostle Paul about this incident, some discrepancies can be seen. The first says that Paul's companions heard the voice, but saw no one (Acts 9:7); the latter says that those who were with him saw the light, but did not hear the words of the One who spoke to him (Acts 22:9). There were those who thought to harmonize these passages, believing that in the first case the voice of Paul sounded, and in the last - Jesus Christ. But such an explanation violates the structure of speech, for the spoken words in the first case are immediately preceded by the words not of Paul, but of Christ, and therefore if Saint Luke had in mind the voice of Paul, he would not just say: “voice,” but would have added: “his.” A much better explanation is given by those who believe that the words “they did not hear” in the latter case mean: “they did not understand what they heard.” This is how Paul himself uses this word in another place (1 Cor. 14:2). But how could it be possible to hear and not understand? Perhaps Paul’s companions did not know the Hebrew language in which Jesus Christ spoke to him, or they were at some distance from Paul and therefore did not hear the words spoken, or the Speaker wanted only Saul to understand His words. Why, asks St. John Chrysostom, did Paul not eat or drink? And he answers: he condemned his actions in conscience, confessed them to God, prayed, and asked for mercy. According to Paul himself, Ananias was “a pious man according to the law, approved by all the Jews living in Damascus” (Acts 22:12). An ancient tradition says that he was one of the 70 Apostles. In fact, in the Paschal, or Alexandrian, calendar, famous for its antiquity, it reads “four”. By allowing this reading, many difficulties can be eliminated, for example, that Paul, after his conversion, lived in inactivity for ten years in Tarsus. Moreover, it is very easy to show how the current reading could have originated from the ancient one: the scribe could write “fourteen” instead of “four,” thereby making a mistake, which was later included in the text. The Evangelist Luke narrates that the Jews themselves guarded the gates (Acts 9:24), and according to Paul, they were guarded by the Damascus ruler (2 Cor. 11:32). Here, either the Jews are credited with what they achieved with their requests, or some of them joined the Arabian guard in order to point out to them Paul, unknown to them, or a city governor was appointed, of course not a pagan, but a Jewish one, for the Jews in some cities had their own governors. That it was not the Christians themselves who called themselves this name is evident from the fact that they did not use it for a long time, being content with the previous names: disciples, believers, Nazarenes, and that Paul himself never used it in his epistles The second letter to the Corinthians was written by Paul, as historians reliably believe, in the year 58 after the Nativity of Christ. Since the revelation spoken of here followed, according to Paul himself, “fourteen years ago”, it falls at the end of 44 or the beginning of 45 after the Nativity of Christ - at the very time when, apparently, Paul’s apostolic travels began. 1) curtain, 2) extension or firmament, 3) clouds, 4) abode, 5) habitation, 6) permanent dwelling, 7) arab. The city of Salamis lies on the eastern side of Cyprus, and Paphos lies on the western side. That is why she was called Venus of Paphos, Queen of Paphos. It lay in Phrygia and was named so in contrast to Antioch of Syria. Why did the Lycaonians consider the Apostles to be Zeus and Hermes, and not any other gods? Firstly, the ancient pagans believed that the gods sometimes visit cities dedicated to them, and in Lystra there was a temple of Zeus (Acts 14:13). It is also likely that Hermes, as the god of trade, especially respected by all the inhabitants of Asia Minor, had a church in this city. Secondly, it is known from mythology that Hermes used to accompany Zeus during his descent to earth. Without observing the differences in food prescribed by the Law of Moses. This expression in the original means strong annoyance. Thus, the weakness of damaged human nature is sometimes revealed in such pure souls as Pavlova, so that they do not become arrogant. The son of a Jewish woman from a Gentile could not be circumcised without the consent of the father, as is clear from the Talmud, and Timothy's father probably did not want to see him as such. At that hour he was no longer alive. Since the other cities through which the Apostle passed, and Galatia itself belonged to Asia Minor, then by Asia here we should mean Ionia, which in ancient times was known by this name. Exactly how Paul was stopped by the Holy Spirit from going to Asia and Bithynia cannot be determined given the silence of the Holy Scriptures. Who was this husband? Someone in the guise of a Macedonian. This image could have been taken by an Angel, or it could have been produced in Paul’s imagination by a higher power. Saint Luke calls Philippi the first city in this part of Macedonia (Acts 16:12). But the main cities of Macedonia, divided into four parts, were: Amphipolis, Thessaloniki, Pella and Paphlagonia. There is no contradiction in this, for the name “first,” as is clear from ancient coins, was sometimes given not only to the main, but also to the most famous cities. Since Saint Luke, when narrating Paul’s travels, from this moment on replaces the third person with the first (Acts 16:11), it is generally believed that at that time he became Paul’s companion, but where exactly and on what occasion these two great men united is unknown. That is why Marcellus expressed his displeasure with Caesar by ordering one of the Neocomeneans, who were given the right of Roman citizenship, to be whipped with rods. Anyone who physically punished a Roman citizen was subject to deprivation of property and even death. The Rhodians were deprived of their freedom by Claudius because they crucified some Romans. They believed Pavlov's right of Roman citizenship without any investigation because those who falsely appropriated it were punished by death, and therefore it was impossible to suspect them of forgery. The Athenians, in order not to leave a single foreign god without a sign of their respect, erected altars with such an inscription. The followers of Epicurus did not believe in providence and the immortality of the soul and approved of virtue solely for the pleasure it gave. The Stoics both believed and did not believe in immortality. Cleanthes argued that souls would exist until the world was burned. Chrysippus considered this an advantage only for virtuous souls. Others thought that souls, upon release from the body, returned to the fiery nature of the Divine. Some thought that Paul was presented to the Areopagus for trial. But from all the circumstances and his speech it is clear that he spoke in the Areopagus not as an accused, but as a dissenter, as a teacher of a new religion. Who baptized them? Apollos? But he, taught by Aquila and Priscilla, would have instilled in them faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 18:25–26). These were probably immigrants from Palestine who, having received baptism from John or his disciple, left Judea before Christianity spread there. It was some kind of sophist or folk teacher, of which there were quite a few in Greek cities. That he is not a Jew is clear from the fact that Paul “separated himself” (Acts 19:9) from the Jews. Sceva was not, in fact, the high priest of the Jews, but only the head of one of the departments into which the priests were divided (2 Chron. 36, 14; 1 Chron. 24, 6; 2 Mac. 3, 4). Josephus relates that the art of conjuring evil spirits was in great use among his countrymen, and that it had been practiced since the time of Solomon. Ephesus was so rich in such people that the so-called Ephesian grams were in use everywhere, to which supernatural properties were attributed. Here is the essence of the legend: the enraged people imprisoned the Apostle with the intention of throwing him as food for the beasts. At night, Paul miraculously emerged from it to administer baptism to two women and returned to prison again, unnoticed by anyone. The lion released from the cage against Paul fell humbly at his feet; the other animals did the same. Meanwhile, an unusual hailstorm that suddenly fell killed many spectators and animals, except for the lion, which ran into the forest, and the Apostle was freed. It is obvious that here, in the legend, two types of punishments are mixed, completely different: the first punishment is a fight with animals, which the condemned person went into armed and often remained victorious, and being devoured by animals was another execution. Paul, if we accept his words: “wrestled with wild beasts,” in the proper sense, was condemned to the first. Regional rulers over the ongoing folk games and sacrifices, named after the province subordinate to them. Such leaders in Syria were called siriarchs, in Cyprus - cypriarchs. Josephus says that among the Mosaic laws (unwritten) there was one that forbade the Jews to blaspheme the deities of the pagans. The Jewish historian was mistaken in considering Moses to be the author of this law, but the law is worth the lawgiver of Sinai. Illyricum, or Illyria, was the name of the country lying between Italy, Germany, Macedonia and Thrace. On one side it bordered the Adriatic Sea, and on the other, the Danube. This accusation was unfair. The Apostle did not forbid Jews to be circumcised, but only taught that pagans should not do this and that circumcision in general is an indifferent thing. Among the Jews it was considered a sign of special piety if someone participated in the vows of others in this way. The participant could, if he wanted, like those promised, abstain from eating certain foods and drinks. Otherwise, participation consisted only in taking upon oneself the costs with which the vow was associated. It was located near the church, on Mount Moriah, and was named Antonieva by Herod the Great, in honor of Anthony. This Egyptian, according to the legend of Josephus, gathered a crowd of idle and enterprising people, led them to the Mount of Olives with the promise that at his word the walls of Jerusalem would fall. But instead of the walls falling, they were attacked by an army sent from Felix, so that the defeated false prophet was forced to flee. So many believed that Paul’s words: “I did not know... that he was a high priest” were ironic, and contained the following thought: he does not act as a high priest should. Others found the following meaning in them: I do not recognize as a high priest the one who achieved the high priesthood through lawless means. The Apostle's answer, understood in this way, could have infuriated his judges even more, which, as all his words show, he tried to avoid. It should be noted that Ananias was a man of the worst qualities and achieved the high priesthood through purchase and intrigues. Did Paul tell the truth? The truth, for the resurrection of the dead, and especially the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, was the main subject of his preaching (Acts 17:18); this is a dogma, with the refutation of which all Christianity fell (1 Cor. 15, 13-14), and he was judged mainly because he was a Christian and preached Jesus Christ. Paul is silent here about other private reasons for the hatred of the Jews towards him, who persecuted him especially because he recognized Jesus, whom they crucified, as the Messiah, considered the ritual law unnecessary for salvation, etc. But silence is not a lie. In some cases it is not only allowed, but also approved by the moral law. Paul, of course, would have later explained what he initially kept silent about, if the judges had demanded such an explanation from him. But since they did not do this, then, therefore, it is not he who is to blame for the misunderstanding that occurred, but they themselves. Paul wanted to be under anathema himself, so that the Jews, his brothers in the flesh, would receive salvation (Rom. 9:1-4), and these hard-hearted brothers voluntarily expose themselves to anathema if they do not kill Paul! What a contrast! It was necessary because other fanatics could join the conspirators, whose number was considerable and whose audacity was desperate. The Evangelist Luke conveys only the essence of the letter, and not the letter itself. Indeed, it is incredible that the original letter of Lysias fell into the hands of Paul or Luke. But its content could have been known to Paul, and from him to Luke. The Palace of Herods, which later became the home of the Roman ruler. At the palaces of the main rulers there were places for keeping prisoners And not to desecrate the church, as Tertullus slandered. She was the daughter of Herod Agrippa the Elder, who betrothed her to Antiochus Epiphanes under the condition of his conversion to Judaism. But since Antiochus did not keep his promise, her brother, Agrippa the Younger, gave her in marriage to Agis, king of Emesene. Felix, seduced by Drusilla's beauty, convinced her to leave her husband and marry him. Great-grandson of Herod the Great, grandson of Aristobulus, son of Agrippa the Elder, last of the kings of the Antipater tribe. The woman, according to Jewish and Roman historians, has very shameful behavior. This right, together with the Chalcis throne, passed to him, by the grace of Claudius, from his paternal uncle Herod, king of Syrian Chalcis. Having done this according to the custom of the ancients, who at the beginning of a speech extended their hand upward. Agrippa's character, indeed, was in many ways not similar to the hated character of his great-grandfather and father and was distinguished by moderation and prudence. About the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. From the times of Saints John Chrysostom and Ambrose of Milan, there is a legend that instead of blood, milk flowed from the truncated neck of the Apostle. Saints Gregory of Nazianzus, Ambrose of Milan, John Chrysostom, Venerable Isidore of Pelusiot, Blessed Jerome of Stridon and others. You might be interested in: