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the presence of Judas without ever hinting to the rest of the disciples a word as to his true
character.
Fervid patriotism, hot indignation, fearless independence, delicate sensitiveness,
these are some of the elements that went to make up the personality of the Apostle to the
Gentiles.
#8.
Separate Features: Fear of evil appearance.
pp. 43 - 45
"Here we see . . . . . that scrupulous fear of evil appearance which `would not eat any
man's bread for nought, but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that he might
not be chargeable to any of them'." (Conybeare and Howson).
There were three orders in the Sanhedrin. The Priests, the Elders and the Scribes.
Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, and therefore could not have been a priest, and as he
was a young man neither could he have been an elder. Most evidently he was a scribe,
for he knew the scriptures, at least in the letter. By his own confession he was also a
Pharisee.
The very expression "Scribes and Pharisees" calls up all that is petty and mean. Dean
Farrar thus comments on the words, "He lived a Pharisee":--
"We know well the kind of life which lies behind that expression. We know the
minute and intense scrupulosity of Sabbath Observance wasting itself in all those abhoth
and toldoth--those primary and derivative rules and prohibitions, and inferences from
rules and prohibitions, and combinations of inferences from rules and prohibitions, and
cases of casuistry and conscience arising out of the infinite possible variety of
circumstances to which those combinations might apply."
As a Pharisee Paul had therefore known the minutiæ of thought and action involved in
this system. But Paul, the Apostle, exulted in the liberty wherewith Christ had set him
free, and, apart from grace abounding, such a swing of the pendulum might have led to
licence and disregard for appearances. While this was not the case, the fact that Paul was
under no bondage and that he would not tolerate the placing of fetters on the believer is
evident from all his epistles. He who was once the scrupulous Pharisee, writes:
"One believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs . . . . .
One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" (Rom. 14: 2-5).
A man not so fully actuated by grace would have flaunted this new-found freedom in
the face of his fellows. He would have sought to show his liberty by outraging
convention; he would have imagined effrontery to be synonymous with principle, and
that to ride roughshod over the scruples of others was evidence of superior strength.
Such behaviour however does not result from a knowledge of the truth. The man who