Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Jewish Christians remonstrate with St. Peter for having brought Cornelius the Gentile into the Church. Peter, by narrating his own and Cornelius's vision, satisfies them. Secondly, at verse 20, the increase of the faith is recounted, especially at Antioch; whence Barnabas is sent there, who together with Saul, evangelizing there for a whole year, converts many; on which account in that very place the disciples are first surnamed Christians. Thirdly, at verse 27, Agabus foretells a famine threatening the whole world; for which reason the faithful of Antioch make a collection, which they send to the faithful at Jerusalem through Saul and Barnabas.
Vulgate Text: Acts 11:1-30
1. And the Apostles and brethren who were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2. And when Peter had gone up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying: 3. Why didst thou go in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them? 4. But Peter began and expounded to them the matter in order, saying: 5. I was in the city of Joppa praying, and I saw in an ecstasy of mind a vision, a certain vessel descending, as it were a great sheet let down by four corners from heaven, and it came even unto me. 6. Into which looking I considered, and saw fourfooted creatures of the earth, and beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 7. And I heard also a voice saying to me: Arise, Peter; kill and eat. 8. And I said: Not so, Lord; for nothing common or unclean hath ever entered into my mouth. 9. And the voice answered again from heaven: What God hath cleansed, do not thou call common. 10. And this was done three times: and all were taken up again into heaven. 11. And behold, immediately there were three men come to the house wherein I was, sent to me from Caesarea. 12. And the Spirit said to me, that I should go with them, nothing doubting. And these six brethren went with me also: and we entered into the man's house. 13. And he told us how he had seen an angel in his house, standing and saying to him: Send to Joppa, and call hither Simon, who is surnamed Peter, 14. who shall speak to thee words, whereby thou shalt be saved, and all thy house. 15. And when I had begun to speak, the Holy Ghost fell upon them, as upon us also in the beginning. 16. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how that He said: John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. 17. If then God gave them the same grace as to us also, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ: who was I, that could withstand God? 18. Having heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying: God then hath also to the Gentiles given repentance unto life. 19. Now they who had been dispersed by the tribulation which arose under Stephen, went about as far as Phoenice and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none, but to the Jews only. 20. But some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they were entered into Antioch, spoke also to the Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believing were converted to the Lord. 22. And the tidings came to the ears of the Church that was at Jerusalem, touching these things; and they sent Barnabas as far as Antioch. 23. Who, when he was come, and had seen the grace of God, rejoiced; and he exhorted them all with purpose of heart to remain in the Lord: 24. for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. And a great multitude was added to the Lord. 25. And Barnabas went to Tarsus to seek Saul; whom, when he had found, he brought to Antioch. 26. And they conversed there in the Church a whole year; and they taught a great multitude, so that at Antioch the disciples were first named Christians. 27. And in these days there came prophets from Jerusalem to Antioch; 28. and one of them named Agabus, rising up, signified by the Spirit, that there should be a great famine over the whole world, which came to pass under Claudius. 29. And the disciples, every man according to his ability, purposed to send relief to the brethren who dwelt in Judaea: 30. which also they did, sending it to the ancients, by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
Verse 1: The Apostles and Brethren
1. THE APOSTLES, AND THE BRETHREN. — "Brethren," that is, the rest of the faithful, who are inferior and subject to the Apostles.
Verse 2: They Contended
2. THEY CONTENDED. — διεκρίνοντο. The Syriac, "they disputed"; Chrysostom, "as if greatly offended, they expostulated." St. Epiphanius, in heresy 28, hands down that the author and instigator of this expostulation and murmuring was Cerinthus, who was the next heresiarch after Simon Magus, and who likewise stirred up the Jews against Paul, that they might seize him, as one who had brought Gentiles into the temple, Acts XXI, 28. So the Jews had previously murmured against Christ that He ate with publicans, Luke XIX, 6 and 7, for these were nearly all Gentiles. Now Cerinthus, judaizing, was contending for Judaism in order to exclude Christianity: hence he taught that all men must be circumcised and observe the law of Moses, and for this reason the first Council was promulgated against him at Jerusalem, Acts XV. Thus Epiphanius, heresy 28, and Philastrius, On Heresies, chapter LXXXVII.
Verse 3: Thou Didst Eat With Them
3. THOU DIDST EAT WITH THEM? — St. Chrysostom notes that they do not say: "Why didst thou preach Christ to them?" — for this, as something impious and an injury to Christ, all would have shrunk from in horror; but rather: "Why didst thou eat with them?" For this seemed unlawful to a Jew. For if these communicated with the Gentiles at table, they were reckoned by the Jews to be defiled by this fellowship and to become unclean. But this censure was equally cold, Jewish and pharisaic, and had now been removed and abolished by Christ along with the old law and its uncleanness and irregularity.
Verse 4: Peter Began and Expounded
4. AND PETER BEGINNING. — Vatablus: "Peter, taking up the matter from the beginning."
Verse 5: I Saw in an Ecstasy
5. I SAW IN AN ECSTASY. — In Greek, in ekstasei; Pagninus, "in rapture"; Vatablus, "in an abstraction," namely of the spirit — that is, my spirit, withdrawn (not really, but intellectually) from my body, saw; the Zurich version, "caught up out of myself, I saw a vision." Peter here unrolls and repeats the whole sequence of the matter narrated in the preceding chapter up to verse 18; wherefore I shall not repeat it here.
Verse 16: You Shall Be Baptized With the Holy Spirit
16. BUT YOU SHALL BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. — At Pentecost. See what was said at chapter I, verse 5.
Verse 17: The Same Grace
17. THE SAME GRACE. — isēn dōrean: the Zurich version, "an equal gift" or "equal grace" — equal, that is, in substance, though in quantity, according to the disposition either of God or of man, unequal and greater or lesser.
WHO WAS I, THAT I COULD WITHSTAND GOD? — namely that I should hinder, halt, and turn aside the descent and inflowing of God's grace into Cornelius? For this is impossible, just as it is impious and satanic — as if to say: As I was not able to impede the descent of the Holy Spirit, so neither could I impede His baptism. For the Holy Spirit, by communicating His grace to Cornelius, was signifying that He likewise willed to confer upon him through me His baptism, that he might be added to the rest of His faithful and to His Church — as if to say: If I could not bar the Gentiles from Christianity, neither will you be able to. So says the Gloss.
Morally, marvel here at the modesty of St. Peter, whereby, although he was superior — indeed Supreme Pontiff — he did not reject the complaints of the faithful concerning himself, nor imperiously refute them, by saying: "I know what I am doing; I am not bound to give you an account of my deed; yours is to obey and be silent," etc. But modestly and humbly, by recounting the sequence of the matter, he satisfies them.
That Prelates ought to imitate the same when they are reproved by their inferiors — namely so that they satisfy them by reason and not by authority — St. Gregory teaches in book IX, epistle 39: "For if (St. Peter), in the complaint of the faithful, had said anything of his own power, he certainly would not have been a teacher of meekness. Therefore he appeased them by humble reason, and in the matter of his reproof he even produced witnesses. If then the Shepherd of the Church, the Prince of the Apostles, working signs and miracles in singular fashion, did not disdain humbly to give an account in the matter of his reproof, how much more ought we sinners, when we are reproved about anything, to appease our reprovers by humble reason." Wisely Climacus, in step 26, gives this as the sign that a work is from God and that we are working according to God: "if from His action we receive more humility in the soul than we had before." For if from it we grow proud, it is a sign that we did this not from God but from the devil — namely from haughtiness, vanity, etc.
Verse 18: They Glorified God
18. THEY GLORIFIED GOD. — Therefore, says Chrysostom, by the example of these we ought not to envy our neighbors' goods, but to rejoice over them and to congratulate them and to glorify God — even though they themselves surpass and transcend us, just as the Gentiles surpassed the Jews in faith and Christianity.
REPENTANCE, — that is, the time and place of repentance, says Lyranus. Secondly, "repentance," that is, the grace and impulse toward repentance. So the Gloss. Thirdly, "repentance," that is, the effect and fruit of repentance: namely the remission of sins. In both cases there is a metonymy: for in the second sense the effect is put for the cause; in the third, the cause for the effect.
UNTO LIFE. — "That they may live," says Vatablus — namely, here by the life of faith and grace, hereafter by the life of glory and eternal felicity.
Verse 19: Under Stephen
19. UNDER STEPHEN. — epi Stephanou, which can first be rendered "on account of Stephen." Thus the Syriac. Secondly, "after Stephen." Thus Vatablus. Our Vulgate embraces both, rendering "under Stephen," that is, in the time of Stephen, on account of his zeal and his liberty in reproving the Jews.
PHOENICE. — "Phoenice," or Phoenicia, is a region of Syria (whence its inhabitants are also called Syrophoenicians), whose metropolis was Tyre: now Tripolis surpasses it, so called from the holding-together of three cities, namely Sidon, Aradus, and Tyre, says Strabo, Pliny, and Mela in book I. See Salmeron, vol. I, prolegomenon 41. The Phoenicians, especially the Tyrians, were most celebrated for navigation; whence Carthage in Africa was founded by them, and the Africans were called Poeni, as if Phoeni and Phoenices. Hence too the language of the Carthaginians was akin to the Syriac and Hebrew, on the testimony of St. Jerome, in book V on chapter XXV of Jeremiah, and of St. Augustine, on Psalm CXXXVI.
ANTIOCH. — Of this St. Jerome says, on chapter VI of Amos: "It is the metropolis of Syria, holding the third place among all the cities of the Roman world, that is, after Rome and Alexandria." Hence too St. Peter first established his see there. Whence the Antiochene Church was made the second Patriarchal see. For the first is the Roman, the third the Alexandrian — because it was founded by St. Mark sent by St. Peter. And these three alone were the first Patriarchates, to which a fourth was afterwards added, namely the Jerusalemite; for this was made Patriarchal explicitly by Pope Vigilius in the Roman Council, in the year of the Lord 553, as Baronius teaches; but implicitly by the Council of Chalcedon, Act VII, which subjected to it the three Palestines, in order to settle its dispute with Antioch. A fifth was added, namely the Constantinopolitan, in the time and through the agency of the Emperor Justinian residing there: afterwards others also were added, such as the Aquileian and Venetian. See Sigonius, book I, On the Kingdom of Italy.
Verse 20: They Spoke to the Greeks
20. THEY SPOKE TO THE GREEKS. — pros Hellēnistas, that is, "to the Hellenists," namely to the Jews among the Greeks — that is, born among, or brought up among, or dwelling among the Gentiles. Thus Vatablus. But because Hellenists here are set in opposition to the Jews dwelling in Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch — that is, in Gentile regions and cities — therefore by "Hellenists" in this place are signified, not Jews born or living among the Gentiles, but the Gentiles themselves. Therefore Hellēnistai here is the same as Hellēnes — that is, Hellenists are Greeks, namely Gentiles. So Lyranus, Hugo, and Cajetan. Whence it is clear that these Cypriot Evangelists evangelized the Gentiles before the conversion of Cornelius, namely a little after the killing of St. Stephen, as was said at verse 19, concerning which I have said more at the end of chapter X. Perhaps Luke calls them Hellēnistas, that is Hellenists, because they, although they were Syrians and Phoenicians, nevertheless spoke Greek — that is, they were imbued with Greek wisdom and eloquence: for at that time the wise men and orators of the Greeks were celebrated, so much so that Isocrates in his Panegyricus says that the name of the Greeks is now not of nation and race, but of reason and mind. Whence too the Apostle, Romans I, 14, calls the Greeks "wise" and the Barbarians "foolish." And I Corinthians I, 22: "The Greeks," he says, "seek wisdom."
Verse 21: The Hand of the Lord Was With Them
21. AND THE HAND OF THE LORD WAS WITH THEM. — "Hand," that is, assistance, power, and cooperation — as if to say: God by His powerful hand was present to them for working miracles in confirmation of the faith, for preaching with such wisdom and efficacy that they converted many Gentiles to Christ. So St. Chrysostom and Oecumenius.
AND A GREAT NUMBER OF BELIEVERS WERE CONVERTED TO THE LORD. — "Of believers," that is, of those beginning to believe: for it is taken in the inchoate act. For before the preaching of the Cypriots they were Gentiles, that is, unbelievers, not believing, indeed ignorant of Christ. Whence the Syriac renders: "and many believed and were converted," that is, by believing they were converted from Gentilism to Christianity. It is a hendiadys. And the Zurich version clearly renders: "and a great number, having received the faith, was converted to the Lord."
Verse 22: They Sent Barnabas
22. THEY SENT BARNABAS. — "Rightly," says Cajetan, "to the Cypriot preachers they joined likewise a Cypriot preacher." For Barnabas was a native of Cyprus. St. Chrysostom teaches that the Apostles themselves did not go there, on account of the Jews, lest they should offend them by associating with the Gentile Cypriots and Antiochenes.
Verse 23: When He Had Seen the Grace of God
23. WHEN HE HAD SEEN THE GRACE OF GOD. — that is, that the Gentiles at Antioch, stirred up by the grace of God, were so eagerly seizing upon the faith of Christ, and were so constant, devout, and fervent in it. Again, "grace," that is, the gratuitously given graces — for example of speaking with tongues, of prophesying, of interpreting Scripture, of celebrating the magnalia of God, etc. — communicated by God to the Antiochenes together with faith and baptism.
HE EXHORTED ALL TO REMAIN IN THE LORD WITH PURPOSE OF HEART. — that is, in the faith, love, grace, and Church of the Lord Jesus Christ — namely in Christianity. The Greek has: "he exhorted them to remain with their Lord with the purpose of their heart"; the Syriac, "that with their whole heart they should cleave to the Lord"; Pagninus, "that with purpose of heart they should persevere in the Lord." For "he exhorted," the Greek is parekalei, which has many meanings: first, he was exhorting; second, he was rousing; third, he was consoling; fourth, he was beseeching; fifth, he was urgently demanding (so the Syriac); sixth, he was acting as advocate and, like an advocate pleading their case, was counseling all. St. Chrysostom: "He exhorted," he says, "all with proclamation and praises; and perhaps in the very fact that he praised and approved the multitude, he converted more — for praised virtue grows."
Dogmatically, learn here that perseverance, although it is a gift of God, nevertheless depends upon free will — and so it is in the power and choice of every faithful and just person, with God's grace, to persevere in faith and charity to the end of life, and so to be saved. "For God, unless they themselves first fail His grace, as He began the good work, so will He perfect it, working both to will and to perform," says the Council of Trent, session VI, chapter XIII and chapter XI. "For God by His grace does not desert those once justified, unless He is first deserted by them." Devoutly indeed St. Augustine, in the Soliloquies, chapter XIV: "In all time," he says, "You always consider me wholly at once, as if You had nothing else to consider. So You stand over my keeping, as if forgetful of all others, and willing to attend to me alone. Wherever I shall go, You, O Lord, do not desert me, unless I first desert You."
Again, the gift of perseverance is twofold. The first, by which one is able to persevere in the faith and grace of God if he so wills. This all the just have in first act, and will have in second act if they assiduously call upon the grace of God and strenuously cooperate with it. The latter, by which one actually perseveres in faith and grace up to death; this all and only the predestined — that is, those elected to glory — have. For these receive from God an efficacious or congruous grace, by which God foresees that they not only can persevere but actually will persevere, because it is so tempered to free will that it allures and inclines free will to cooperate; and so free will spontaneously and continuously cooperates with it up to death. So St. Augustine, throughout the book On the Gift of Perseverance, and the book On the Predestination of the Saints. And the Council of Trent, session VI, canon 16: "If anyone shall say," it says, "that with absolute and infallible certitude he is certain to have that great gift of perseverance unto the end, unless he has learned this by special revelation, let him be anathema." Whence this gift does not fall under merit, but is purely a gift of God, who gives it to whomever He wills; nevertheless, by fervent and continual prayers asking for it, and by assiduous good works, we can obtain it from God and as it were de congruo deserve it. Wherefore, whoever desires this gift — as everyone desirous of his own salvation ought to desire it — let him follow the admonition of St. Peter, Epistle II, chapter I, verse 10: "Be diligent, that by good works you may make your calling and election sure: for doing these things, you shall not sin at any time." And chapter III, 14: "Be diligent that you may be found before Him spotless and unblemished in peace."
Morally, learn how great a gift on God's part, and how great a virtue on man's part, perseverance is. St. Jerome, in epistle 10 to Furia: "In Christians," he says, "the beginnings are not sought, but the end. Paul began badly but ended well. Judas's beginnings are praised, but his ending is condemned by his betrayal." The same, in book I Against Jovinian: "To begin," he says, "belongs to very many, to persevere to few. Hence too the great reward of those who shall have persevered." That elder in the Lives of the Fathers, book V, chapter VII On Patience, number 35: "Just as a hunting hound," he says, "on seeing a hare pursues it, and is not impeded by those dogs which turn back behind him, but, thinking neither of cliffs nor woods nor brambles, is scratched and pricked, and does not rest until he has caught it: so also he who seeks the Lord Christ unceasingly fixes his gaze on the cross, passing by all the scandals that come to meet him, until he reaches the Crucified." In the same place, book IV, number 21: "The perseverance of the good," he says, "is a certain victory, and you shall be crowned": for in no respect are the temptations of the flesh and the devil more overcome than by perseveringly resisting them and giving oneself to prayer.
Hence among the virtues only perseverance is crowned. "For he who shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved," says the eternal Truth, Matthew X. Wherefore, just as perseverance is the greatest of virtues, so it is the highest gift of God, as St. Augustine teaches, in the book On the Gift of Perseverance, and the Council of Trent, session VI, canon 16. "In vain indeed is good done if it is forsaken before life's end, because he runs swiftly in vain who fails before he reaches the goal," says St. Gregory, and it is contained in De Poenitentia, distinction 3, canon Incassum. Wherefore St. Paul: "Forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press toward the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus," Philippians III, 14. The holy living creatures, Ezekiel I, 9, "did not turn back when they walked, but each one walked straight ahead before his face." Thus Victor, proconsul of Carthage, when solicited to deny the faith by the legates of the Arian king: "Tell," he said, "your king to subject me to fires, to drive me before beasts, to torture me with every kind of torment. If I consent, in vain have I been baptized in the Catholic Church." Thus Victor of Utica, book III, History of the Vandals. "Perseverance therefore," says St. Bernard, epistle 129, "is the vigor of strengths, the consummation of virtues, the nurse of merit, the mediatrix of reward, the sister of patience, the daughter of constancy, the friend of peace, the knot of friendships, the bond of unanimity, the bulwark of sanctity." See the same, epistle 253 to Guarinus.
Finally hear Christ, Apocalypse II, 10: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life." And chapter III, verse 11: "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." See the things said there. The Gentiles saw the same. Socrates, in Stobaeus, sermon 1 On Prudence: "As a statue rests on its base," he says, "so a good man, leaning upon his resolve, ought in no way to depart from the honorable." In the same place Chilon says that all things should indeed be undertaken slowly, but when once you have begun, you must persevere most constantly in acting. Livy, book V, decade 1: "For military discipline," he says, "it is of the greatest importance to accustom the soldier not only to enjoy a won victory, but, if matters be even slower, to endure tedium and to await the outcome of any hope however late: if the war be not finished by summer, to bide for winter: nor, like summer birds, immediately in autumn to look about for a roost and a retreat." He adds that impregnable cities are taken by the perseverance of siege alone, through famine and thirst. Sertorius, on Plutarch's testimony in his Life: "Perseverance," he says, "is more efficacious than force, and many things which cannot be accomplished by a single onset are little by little brought to completion: for there is in steady application an unconquered force, which surpasses and cuts away every power." Seneca, epistle 1: "There is nothing," he says, "that persistent labor and intent and diligent care does not overcome." The same, epistle 65: "The blessed life is set on high, but it is penetrable to perseverance." The same elsewhere: "It is shameful to yield to a burden and to wrestle with a duty which you have once undertaken. He is not a strong and energetic man who flees from labor, nor does his courage grow by the very difficulty of things." Therefore
Endure and harden yourself: this pain will profit you one day.
Often a bitter juice has brought help to the weary.
Verse 24: He Was a Good Man, Full of the Holy Spirit
24. FOR HE WAS A GOOD MAN, AND FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. — like his fellow-disciple St. Stephen, chapter VI, verse 5. For such men are most fit, indeed necessary, to exhort and impel others to every good. For water does not generate fire, but water: so the lukewarm and the cold make others cold, not hot and fervent in spirit. The Apostolic man therefore must be full of God, who is to set on fire the cold hearts of men with the love of God.
Whence such men in every age God is wont to send down to His Church, as of old He sent down St. Augustine, St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis, etc. So in this age He sent down St. Ignatius and his companions, fired by God, to kindle anew the charity that was growing cold in the world. Whence concerning them Father Peter Canisius received this prophecy from a certain widow at Arnhem of celebrated sanctity, before the name of our Society had been heard, breathed upon by the divine Spirit: "You, my son," she said, "shall be enrolled in a certain new Order of priests, which God is preparing in His Church for its reform and the salvation of many. I have seen them in vision, and you joined to them. They will be grave men, learned, modest, full of God and endowed with charity for souls." Such a man Canisius soon saw at Mainz in Father Peter Faber, the first companion of St. Ignatius, and immediately gave his name to him and to the Society, as Father Sacchinus relates in his Life, book I. To this idea and norm let the Religious and Apostolic man examine, form, and perfect himself, that he may inflame others and fill them with God.
Luke here sufficiently indicates the year in which Paul and Barnabas preached at Antioch. Hence Baronius is of opinion that this name was given in the year of Christ 43, which was the tenth from His death; he also adds further that the Gentiles called the Christians Chrestians, and Christ Chrestus. For about the year 43 St. Peter departed from Antioch toward Rome.
Now the Gentiles, partly through ignorance, partly through mockery, called Christ "Chrestus," and the Christians "Chrestians." Hence Tertullian: "But the hatred is for the name; what guilt lies in names? what accusation in words? unless perchance some word of a name sounds barbarous, or unlucky, or abusive, or shameless: but Christian, so far as the meaning goes, is derived from anointing. And even when it is wrongly pronounced 'Chrestian' by you (for not even is there sure knowledge of the name among you), it is composed from sweetness or kindness. Therefore in harmless men even a harmless name is hated." And a little after: "Before the hatred of the name, it was fitting first to learn about the sect from its author, or about the author from his sect. But now, with examination and acknowledgment of both being neglected, the name is held fast, the name is assailed, and an unknown sect, an unknown author, the word alone condemns beforehand, because they are named, not because they are convicted." In the same way Lactantius speaks: "Ignorant," he says, "of our affairs, they called Christ 'Chrestus,' and the Christians 'Chrestians': but χρηστός means 'good' and 'agreeable.'" So also Justin Martyr: "Indeed, by the appellation of the name itself, neither good nor evil is judged apart from deeds falling under the name. And as to the name itself, which is cast at us as a charge, certainly we are most excellent χρηστότατοι." So also Theophilus of Antioch: "You," he says, "count it a crime against me that I am a Chrestian (for so the Greek word is rendered in Latin), and I bear this notable and illustrious name. But I freely confess that I am a Chrestian, and I desire nothing more than to be χρηστός, that is, good toward God: for that name is neither burdensome nor hateful to me." Suetonius certainly says: "He expelled from Rome the Jews who were continually rioting at the instigation of Chrestus." And to me it seems quite probable that in Tacitus also we should read "Chrestians" and "Chrestus." "The crowd," he says, "used to call them Chrestians: the author of the name was Chrestus, who under the rule of Tiberius had been put to death by the procurator Pontius Pilate."
Wisely St. Bernard, sermon 18 on the Canticle: "If you are wise," he says, "show yourself a basin, and not a channel. For the latter receives and pours forth almost simultaneously; but the former waits until it is filled, and thus what overflows it shares without loss to itself, etc. But today we have many channels in the Church, and very few basins, who wish to pour forth before being filled, eager to teach what they have not learned, and craving to preside over others, when they know not how to govern themselves." And shortly after: "Let the basin imitate the fountain. The fountain does not flow into a stream, nor extend itself into a lake, until it is satisfied with its own waters. Lastly, the very fountain of life, full in itself, first bubbling up into the nearest secret places of the heavens, then burst forth onto the earth, and from its overflow saved men and beasts. Therefore do you also likewise. Be filled first, and then take care to pour forth."
AND A GREAT MULTITUDE WAS ADDED TO THE LORD. — As if to say: Through the exhortations of Barnabas many were converted to Christ and joined to His Church; for he who is added and joined to the body, namely the Church, is joined to the head, namely Christ.
Verse 25: That He Might Seek Paul
25. THAT HE MIGHT SEEK PAUL. — For Paul had long been a friend of Barnabas and his fellow-student under Gamaliel as master, and was now far more dear to him in Christ and in Christianity. St. Chrysostom puts it brilliantly: "Barnabas," he says, "came to an athlete, to a leader in war, to one contending in single combat: he came to a hunting-hound that slays lions, to a strong bull, to a bright torch, to a mouth sufficient for the whole world." He then adds that it was due to Paul's virtue and zeal that so great a multitude of the faithful was joined to the Church at Antioch, and that there the name "Christians" arose. Therefore he celebrates that city as having first of all deserved to enjoy the mouth of Paul, with so great fruit, praise, and glory of its own, just as afterwards it enjoyed the golden mouth, namely Chrysostom himself, the disciple and emulator of Paul.
Verse 26: The Disciples Were First Called Christians at Antioch
26. THEY CONVERSED, — συναχθῆναι, that is, as the Syriac expounds, they were gathered together, that is, they held sacred synaxes, sacred meetings, sacred assemblies, by calling together and gathering the people into the church, and there teaching the faith of Christ and preaching the Gospel. Pagninus: they conducted themselves with that congregation; the Zurich version: they kept up association with that congregation. For the Greek συνάγω is the same as "I gather together, collect, associate." Whence συναγωγή, that is, Synagogue, congregation, collection, assembly, gathering, Church.
SO THAT THE DISCIPLES WERE FIRST CALLED (Zurich version: "named") AT ANTIOCH CHRISTIANS, — from Christ, just as the Platonists are named from Plato, and the Aristotelians from Aristotle, their leader and master. Suidas, under the word "Christians," judges that this happened when St. Peter, about to depart for Rome, declared Evodius as his successor in the see of Antioch; for then, he says, they began to be called Christians, who before were called Nazarenes and Galileans. Genebrard thinks that this happened in the year of Christ 49, which was the sixteenth from His death. But that it happened earlier, around that year in which at Antioch Paul and Barnabas taught, says the Gloss.
St. Chrysostom, in homily 3 to the People, wonderfully extols and celebrates his own city, namely Antioch, because in it the Christian name was first heard. For this name, as proper to the faithful, is illustrious and excellent. Foreseeing this, Isaiah exulted in spirit, saying in chapter XLIII, verse 1: "I have called thee by thy name: thou art Mine," that is, Christian from Me, Christ; and chapter LXII, verse 2: "Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name." It is therefore more illustrious to be and to be called a Christian than to be and to be called a king or prince: for the Christian is a disciple of Christ, indeed a son and heir of the heavenly kingdom. Wherefore Salvianus rightly complains, in book IV On Providence, near the beginning, that Christians lose the force of so great and so holy a name through the vice of their depravity. "For he who does not perform the work of the Christian name, does not seem to be a Christian. For a name without its corresponding act and office is nothing. What else is rule without sublimity of merits, but a title of honor without a man? or what is dignity in an unworthy man, but an ornament in mire? A golden ring in the snout of a swine: a beautiful and foolish woman, Prov. XI. And so among us also the Christian name is as it were a golden ornament; if we use it unworthily, we are seen to be swine with their ornament."
To this point belongs that saying of Musonius in Gellius, book IX, chapter II, concerning wicked men who called themselves philosophers: "It is," he says, "a grief and a sorrow to me, that filthy and shameful creatures of this kind should usurp a most holy name and be called Philosophers (Christians). But my ancestors the Athenians, by public decree, ordained that the names of those most brave young men Harmodius and Aristogiton, who attempted to slay the tyrant Hippias for the recovery of liberty, should never be given to slaves, since they considered it impious that names devoted to the liberty of their country should be defiled by servile contagion. Why then do we suffer the most illustrious name of Philosophy (Christianity) to be made base in the worst of men?" The Emperor Domitian put to death Metius Pomposianus because he had given the names of Mago and Hannibal, as those of illustrious commanders, to his slaves, as Suetonius says in his Life, chapter X. Alexander the Great forbade a cowardly soldier to be called "Alexander," unless he should promise to imitate the spirit and virtues of Alexander, according to Curtius. Why then should those be called Christians who attack, slander, violate, disgrace, and defame either the faith of Christ, as do the heretics, or His morals and life, as do wicked Christians? You are a Christian: imitate Christ; live as Christ lived; live as the first Christians lived, Acts III and IV; live the life of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, etc.
Excellently St. Jerome, epistle 10 to Furia: "Let your father, whom I name for the sake of honor, not because he is a consular and patrician, but because he is a Christian, fulfill his name." Likewise to Paulinus: "Do not look to the trappings and empty names of the Crotonians. To be a Christian is great, not to seem one." Julian the Apostate envied this name to the faithful, "calling them Galileans instead of Christians, and decreeing by public law that we should be so called. From which he plainly showed that the name of Christ is most honorable and of the greatest weight for glory, since he plotted to take it away from us. Unless perhaps he did this for the reason that he dreaded the force and power of this name like the demons," says Nazianzen, oration 3 Against Julian.
From the same source receive these — partly the duties, partly the praises and maxims — of the Christian. First, in oration 20, which is on the praises of St. Basil, he celebrates this saying of his: "Christianity is distinguished not by the dignity of persons, but by faith. In other matters we are gentle and peaceful, and the most lowly of all; but when God is endangered for us and set before us, then at last, counting all other things as nothing, we look upon Him alone. Fire and sword and beasts and claws tearing the flesh are rather a pleasure and delight to us than a terror. Death will be in the place of a benefit to me: for it will send me the more quickly to God, for whom I live."
Secondly, in oration 3: "The brave and noble souls of Christians are accustomed stubbornly to resist him who is preparing to use violence, just as a flame stirred up by the wind: the more it is fanned, the more vehemently is it kindled. Thus by persecution they have rather illustrated the Christian religion than weakened it, strengthening souls indeed for piety, and by dangers hardening them, as hot water hardens iron."
Thirdly, in the Iambic, iambic 15: Christianity "is the law, the mystery, and the profession of the cross of Christ. The humanity of Christ is my refreshment. His death is the extinction of my death."
Fourthly, oration 31: "Why," he says, "is the name of Christian venerable? Is it not because Christ is also God? I pursue Peter with honor, yet I am not called 'Petrian'; and Paul, yet I am not named 'Paulian.' I do not endure to take my name from men, having been created by God. Accordingly, if it is because you esteem Him as God Himself that you are called Christian, then truly may you be so called, and abide in the name, and even more in the reality. But if you believe Him to be God, show by your very deeds what you believe."
Fifthly, oration 12: Christians "God reckons as His riches and makes them rich."
Sixthly, in the same place: Christians "are formed and sealed with the same character of faith and hope."
Seventhly, oration 20: "Whereas others have certain other surnames, either received from their parents, or acquired from themselves — that is, from the proper pursuits and institutions of their lives — for us, on the contrary, a great thing and a great name was both to be and to be called Christians: and we were more uplifted by this than Gyges by the turning of the bezel of his ring (if indeed this be not fabulous), by which he seized the tyranny of the Lydians; or than Midas by the gold which brought him to ruin, when, having gained his wish, he possessed nothing but gold — itself also a Phrygian fable. For what shall I say of the arrow of the Hyperborean Abaris, or of the Argive Pegasus, whose power was not so much to be borne through the air, as ours is to be lifted up to God by mutual work and at the same time?"
Eighthly, in Iambic 18: We (Christians) flee every breath of glory / from every honest deed: as those for whom nothing is more important / than that the left should not know what the right is doing.
Ninthly, in the Precepts to Virgins: What wonder if Christ, fixed in the midst of the body, / drives out by force all human loves?
Tenthly, in the same place: In the worshippers of Christ a greater spirit leaps about the heart, / as often as the hostile tyrant brings forth arms. / Then singing sweet hymns night and day, / they seek the highest stars, having left the world and the flesh.
Eleventh, in the same place: As the phoenix in dying grows green again to its first years, / reborn in the midst of the flames after many lustrums: / not otherwise are they made everlasting by a noble death, / while pious hearts blaze with divine flames.
Twelfth, in the same place: In an afflicted body lies the strength and might of the pious. / Whoever well perceives this will not strike a covenant with the body, / after he has burned with a better fire.
Thirteenth, in the Rules of Beatitude and the Spiritual Life: Happy is he who buys Christ with all his fortunes, / and counts the cross which he bears as the equal of all things, etc. / Happy he who, to be numbered among the first of the sheepfold / of the worshippers of Christ, holds himself silent among the sheep. / Happy he who, not slothful, honors Christ with his hands, / and is to many a rule of life and a law of piety. / Happy he who, joined to many, is not distracted by handling many things, / but has given his whole heart to God.
Fourteenth, oration 3: "We (Christians)," he says, "care very little for the external appearance and, as it were, the picture; but on the inner man we bestow much more labor and zeal; and we especially strive to draw the spectator back to those things which are perceived by the mind: by which method also we more instruct the common people."
Fifteenth, oration 3: "To Christians it is more pleasant to suffer for the sake of piety, even if no one is to know of it, than for others to flourish with impiety and to dwell in glory. For we care very little to please men, seeking this one thing, that we may obtain honor from God."
Sixteenth, in the same place, as Billius explains, no. 96: "Just as, according to the Pythian oracle, the Thessalian mare excels all others, and the Spartan woman excels all other women, and Sicilian men all other men, so also Christians in their religious rites and holier observances excel all mortals, and merit the chief place of honor."
Seventeenth, oration 3 Against Julian: "We," he says, "count it a vice not to advance in virtue, nor to be made continually new from old, but to remain in the same state." As if to say: To be a Christian is to advance daily for the better. He gives the reason: "For thus the same would happen to us as to spinning tops, which we see being whirled in a circle, but not advancing."
Eighteenth, in the poem On His Own Life: A wicked Christian, especially / if he be a priest, brings reproach upon the faith.
Nineteenth, oration 4 Against Julian: "Just as the cataracts of the Nile, falling from Ethiopia into Egypt, can be checked by no art; nor the ray of the sun, even if for a little while it be covered with a cloud: so neither can fetters be put on the tongues of Christians, when it pursues and rends your affairs."
Twentieth, Iambic 18: We have never yielded to a turbulent time: / Indeed, if the peace held anything languid, / or if anyone was of other depraved morals, / here (in persecution) we have all to one man stiffened our breast. / And solidified by the fiery zeal of our enemies / we have borne the fury, and have been splendidly conquered. / For no one more gladly desires safety / than we desire perils, whose true companion is praise.
So indeed St. Polycarp, when the Governor pressed him to swear by the fortune of Caesar, made this one response: "I am a Christian," to whom that is not lawful; Eusebius is witness, book IV, chapter V. The same response was given by the Martyrs of Lyons and Vienne, of whom Eusebius writes, book V, chapter II. And first of all St. Blandina, when questioned with false accusations under torments, gave no other answer than: "I am a Christian, and nothing evil is committed by us." And another, by name Sanctus, answered to all questions: "I am a Christian." "This he frequently confessed in place of his name, his city, his family, and all other things, nor did the Gentiles hear any other voice from him," says Eusebius. "For nothing is terrible where there is the love of the Father; nor sad, where Christ is glory." Therefore he is a Christian, to whom Christ is always in heart, mouth and work.
Verse 27: Prophets Came Down From Jerusalem
27. NOW IN THESE DAYS. — In that year in which at Antioch Paul and Barnabas taught, says the Gloss.
PROPHETS CAME DOWN FROM JERUSALEM. — For the Church from her beginning had Prophets: for prophecy was one of the gratuitously given graces of the Holy Spirit, and consequently a token of the true Church, which the Holy Spirit governs, as is plain from I Corinthians XIV. Hence these also were sent to Antioch, that they might confirm and illustrate that already flourishing Church by the gift of their prophecy.
Verse 28: Agabus
28. AGABUS. — Whom Dorotheus in the Synopsis of the Saints says was one of the 72 disciples of Christ. Bede interprets the name Agabus as "messenger of tribulation"; others, "locust": for חגב chagab means locust. Aptly so: for locusts, by devouring the buds and crops, are the cause and forerunners of famine, which Agabus foretold. Others, "organist," from עוגב ugab, that is, an organ. Others derive the name Agabus from עוגה uga, that is, a cake or hearth-baked loaf, which in time of famine is wont to be made by the poor, so that it may be eaten at once. Others interpret Agabus as "enthusiast" or "lover": for עגב agab means to love, to be mad, to be driven by enthusiasm. So Pagninus, in his Interpretation of Hebrew Names. Agabus is reckoned among the Saints in the Roman Martyrology on the 13th of February.
HE SIGNIFIED BY THE SPIRIT THAT THERE WAS GOING TO BE A GREAT FAMINE OVER THE WHOLE WORLD. — The Holy Spirit willed, says Oecumenius, that this famine should be foretold through Christian Prophets, lest the Gentiles should impute it to Christianity, as though on its account the angry gods sent it upon the world. Secondly, that the Antiochene faithful might make a collection, by which they should relieve the destitution and impending famine of the Jerusalemites; as indeed they did. It is likely that God by this universal famine of the whole world wished to punish both other crimes of His and the recent idolatry of the Emperor Caius Caligula, who preceded Claudius. For Caius came to such madness that he wished to be everywhere adored as a god, so much so that he would not yield even to Jupiter, but resolved to change the image of Olympian Jupiter into his own, as Suetonius testifies in his Life, chapter XXII, and Dio, book LIX; who also add that he was hailed as Jupiter Latiaris, and temples erected to him, in which the most exquisite victims, namely flamingoes, peacocks, guinea-fowl, pheasants, were daily sacrificed to him. Indeed he wished to be adored even by the Jews in an image, which he ordered to be set up in the Temple at Jerusalem: on which account the Jews sent Philo as legate to him, that he might dissuade him from this, as Philo himself relates at length in the Legation to Caius: where, equally with Josephus and Eusebius in the Chronicle, he expressly asserts that throughout the whole Roman world, except in the Synagogues of the Jews, statues, images, and altars were consecrated to Caius Caesar. Therefore God had decreed to chastise and punish this idolatry of Caius, adored throughout the whole world and as it were despoiling God of His divinity, and likewise the whole world either applauding or obeying Caius, by a general famine of the whole world. Moreover, with the same famine He afflicted the Jews who resisted the idolatry of Caius; because they themselves persecuted Christ and the Apostles, says Chrysostom. Furthermore, how great an evil famine is, I have shown at Lamentations IV, 9. Certainly famine brings on plague, namely limos loimon, as this year of the Lord 1622 we are experiencing at Rome and throughout all Italy. From famine, therefore, men have learned, or ought to have said, that bread and food and life are given not by Caius, but by God, and accordingly are to be sought from Him alone, and that He alone is to be worshipped and adored.
WHICH HAPPENED UNDER CLAUDIUS. — In the second year of Claudius, which was the year of Christ 43 and partly 44, says Baronius, and Dio Cassius, book LX. Others, however, judge that this famine occurred after a biennium, namely in the fourth year of Claudius, which was the year of Christ 45, perhaps because it lasted until the fourth year. So Josephus, book XX, chapter II; Eusebius, in the Chronicle; Orosius, book VII, chapter VI, the last two of whom add that Helena, queen of the Adiabeni (whom Orosius records to have been converted to Christ), succoured the Jews in this famine with great munificence. Wherefore this prophecy of Agabus about the famine seems to have been made about the first year of Claudius, the year of Christ 42. Now when Caius Caligula was killed by the soldiers in the fourth year of his reign, this Tiberius Claudius Drusus Germanicus succeeded to the empire, son of Drusus Nero and Antonia, grandson of Livia Augusta, the wife of Augustus Caesar, fifty years old, made Emperor by the faction of the praetorian soldiers, and reigned thirteen years: whom Nero succeeded, whom Claudius had adopted as son. So Suetonius and others. The first therefore after Julius Caesar to be Emperor of Rome and of the world was Octavius Augustus, the nephew of Julius; the second, Tiberius; the third, Caius; the fourth, Claudius; the fifth, Nero: under whom occurred those things which Luke records in the Acts. Finally Claudius, because of the famine in the middle of the forum, says Suetonius in chapter XVIII of his Life, "was so harassed by the crowd with insults and at the same time with fragments of bread, that he could scarcely escape into the palace, and only by a back door; he left no plan untried for bringing in supplies even in the winter season."
Verse 29: For Relief to the Brethren in Judaea
29. INTO MINISTRY, — εἰς διακονίαν, which Pagninus, the Syriac, and the Zurich version translate as "for relief": for this is what diaconia means, namely alms, by which the things necessary for life are ministered to the needy.
TO THE BRETHREN DWELLING IN JUDAEA. — Both for the sake of religion: for they acknowledged them as it were their fathers, inasmuch as they were the first faithful; and because the faithful in Judaea, despoiled of their goods by the Jews, labored under greater want, as I said at Hebrews X, 34; and because they had voluntarily renounced their goods and laid the prices of them at the Apostles' feet, as we saw in chapter IV, verse 34: wherefore above the others of the faithful, especially the Deacons: for it belonged to them to distribute alms, as I said in chapter VI. For it is likely that the Apostles had already departed from Jerusalem, on which see chapter XII.
Verse 30: Sending to the Elders
30. SENDING TO THE ELDERS, — to the Apostles, says Oecumenius. Others say, to the Presbyters and chief men. So St. Jerome, in the Epistle to the Galatians, chapter II, verse 10.