M. Jones, St. Paul the Orator, 1910).

Extract from International Standard

Bible Encyclopaedia.

Speaking of Paul's Gospel the same article says:

`He insisted strongly on the spiritual experience of Christ as the

beginning and the end of it all, as opposed to mere ritualistic

ceremonies which had destroyed the life of Judaism.  But all the more

Paul demanded the proof of life as opposed to mere profession.  (See

Romans 6 to 8 in particular).  Mystic as Paul was ... he was the rarest

of moralists, and had no patience with hypocrites and licentious

pietists or idealists who allowed sentimentalism and emotionalism to

take the place of righteousness'.

The underlying truth expressed by the poet in the lines:

`What do they know of England

Who only England know?'

leads us to realize that we shall not have a true portrait of the apostle

unless we include some of his friends and fellow workers.  He valued and

stressed fellowship in service, and such as Ananias, Barnabas, Silas,

Timothy, Luke, Aquila and Priscilla, show by their concern, their friendship,

their loyalty and their endurance, aspects of the apostle's character that

would not otherwise be appreciated.  Eight articles under the title, Paul and

his Companions, will be found in An Alphabetical Analysis Part 10, and in The

Berean Expositor Vol. 26, to which the reader is directed.  The limitations

of space make it impossible to reproduce them here, but the reader may

appreciate the closing article, as a sample of the rest.

Some of the apostle's companions were definitely called by the Holy

Spirit and acknowledged by the Church, as was Barnabas (Acts 13:2,3).  Some

possessed qualifications which practically forced them into the breach that

opened before them, as Silas (Acts 15:26, 27,32,40).  In the case of Aquila

and Priscilla two very different and remote causes worked together for their

good, for the apostle's consolation and our lasting benefit.  These were the

edict of a Roman Emperor, and the teaching of the Talmud.

`After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; and

found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from

Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded

all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them' (Acts 18:1,2).

Suetonius, a Latin historian, says that Claudius expelled the Jews from

Rome because of the tumults among them stirred up by one, Chrestus.  Whether

Chrestus was the actual name of some disturber of the peace, or, as some

believe, an ignorant misreading of the name Christ, cannot now be determined.

We know that there were pious Jews from Rome who heard Peter's message on the

day of Pentecost, just as there were Jews from Pontus, the birthplace of

Aquila.  Whatever the fact may be, one result of this edict was the migration

of Aquila to Corinth, and there the apostle found him.  There is nothing in

the narrative to suggest that Paul was acquainted with Aquila and sought him

out.  The narrative rather suggests that he looked for suitable shelter in