Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Paul and Barnabas convert many at Iconium: thence driven out by the Jews, they flee to Lystra, where, healing a lame man, they refuse the divine honors of Jupiter and Mercury offered them by the Gentiles; here, again being stoned through the contrivance of the Jews, they flee to Derbe, and at last, retracing their journey, having confirmed the faithful and ordained Presbyters, they return to Antioch.
Vulgate Text: Acts 14:1-27
1. Now it came to pass at Iconium that they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed. 2. But the Jews who were unbelieving stirred up and incited the souls of the Gentiles to anger against the brethren. 3. Therefore they remained a long time, dealing confidently in the Lord, who bore witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. 4. And the multitude of the city was divided; and some indeed were with the Jews, but some with the Apostles. 5. But when there was made an assault by the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers, to use them with contumely and to stone them, 6. understanding it, they fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to all the country round about, and were there preaching the Gospel. 7. And there sat a certain man at Lystra, weak in his feet, lame from his mother's womb, who never had walked. 8. This same heard Paul speaking. Who looking upon him, and seeing that he had faith to be healed, 9. said with a loud voice: Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped up, and walked. 10. And when the multitudes had seen what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice in the Lycaonian tongue, saying: The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. 11. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter, but Paul, Mercury; because he was chief speaker. 12. The priest also of Jupiter that was before the city, bringing oxen and garlands before the gates, would have offered sacrifice with the people. 13. Which when the Apostles Barnabas and Paul had heard, rending their clothes, they leaped out among the people, crying, 14. and saying: Ye men, why do ye these things? we also are mortals, men like unto you, preaching to you to be converted from these vain things to the living God, who made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them. 15. Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. 16. Nevertheless He left not Himself without testimony, doing good from heaven, giving rains and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. 17. And speaking these things, they scarcely restrained the people from sacrificing to them. 18. Now there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium: and persuading the multitudes, and stoning Paul, they drew him out of the city, thinking him to be dead. 19. But as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up and entered into the city; and the next day he set out with Barnabas for Derbe. 20. And when they had preached the Gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 21. confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith: and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. 22. And when they had ordained for them presbyters in every church, and had prayed with fastings, they commended them to the Lord, in whom they believed. 23. And passing through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, 24. and speaking the word of the Lord in Perge, they went down to Attalia: 25. And thence they sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been delivered to the grace of God, unto the work which they accomplished. 26. And when they were come, and had assembled the Church, they related what great things God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. 27. And they abode no small time with the disciples.
Verse 1: It Came to Pass at Iconium
1. NOW IT CAME TO PASS AT ICONIUM, THAT THEY ENTERED, etc., AND SO SPOKE (that is, preached the faith and law of Christ), THAT A GREAT MULTITUDE BOTH OF THE JEWS AND OF THE GREEKS (that is, of the Gentiles) BELIEVED. So St. Chrysostom, volume 3.
Iconium. — A famous city in Lycaonia at the foot of Mount Taurus, concerning which Pliny, book V, chapter XXVII. There is another of the same name: but the former is treated of here.
Among the Greeks here converted the most illustrious was St. Thecla, celebrated with wondrous praises by the Fathers and called "Apostolic" and the firstborn of St. Paul. For when she had been betrothed to a most noble, most wealthy, and most handsome young man, says St. Epiphanius, heresy 78, having heard Paul ardently discoursing of virginity, leaving her betrothed she flew to the camp of Christ the heavenly Bridegroom's chamber, and consecrated herself to Him by a vow of virginity; and therefore, accused by her mother and her betrothed, she steadfastly underwent very many and the greatest kinds of torments, and overcame them unhurt — namely, fires, serpents, lions, bears, bulls, etc., in which Christ stood by her, bearing the face of St. Paul, comforting her. St. Chrysostom relates here, homily 25, that Thecla, in order to win over the keeper of the prison in which Paul was shut up at Iconium, sold her jewels and womanly ornaments, and gave him the money she received from them, that she might be admitted to converse with Paul. "Hear," he says, "of that Blessed Thecla, how, in order to see Paul, she gave her gold: but thou, in order to see Christ, dost not give even an obol." St. Jerome adds, Epistle to Oceanus, vol. IX: "Thecla, he says, after the trial of her passion at Antioch, is forbidden by Paul to journey on with him." For, as is contained in the Acts of St. Thecla — which Baronius approves — Thecla, freed from the torments, eager for the word, greedy for her teacher, set out for Antioch of Pisidia to Paul: but he, lest he should give any occasion of stumbling to the Gospel, sent her away.
Excellently St. Ambrose, in book II On Virgins, exhorting them: "Let Thecla, he says, teach to be offered up — she who, fleeing the bond of marriage and condemned by the fury of her betrothed, changed even the nature of the beasts by their reverence for virginity: for being given over to the wild beasts, when she even averted her eyes from looking at men, and offered her very vitals to the savage lion, she brought it about that those who had cast immodest eyes returned them modest. One could see the beast licking her feet and lying down on the ground, by its dumb sound testifying that it could not violate the sacred body of the virgin. Therefore the beast adored its own prey, and forgetting its own nature had put on a nature which men had lost."
And St. Zeno, Bishop of Verona, sermon On Fear: "Against Thecla, he says, the most bitter accuser draws the sword of his tongue, while the public laws are made to serve him with their own ministers. By goads ferocity is sharpened into savagery, and yet it is found gentler than men. Truly, lest anything of so dreadful an inhumanity should seem lacking, sea-monsters too are sent in. The girl is stripped of all her garments, and clothed in fire. Among so many instruments of death, the spectator trembling, she securely tramples down every kind of terror. Unhurt, as though she had subdued the world, from that place of the deadly arena she now goes forth not pitiable but wonderful, in funereal garb, bearing back the triumph of a vanquished age — she whom all had believed would perish by so many tortures." And St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his Precept to a Virgin:
Who snatched Thecla from death and from the peril of flame? / Who bound the strong claws and the rage of wild beasts? / Virginity — O thing wondrous in every age! / Virginity has been able to lull tawny lions to sleep.
Wherefore by Isidore of Pelusium, epistle to Tharasius, and by others, Thecla is called "Protomartyr," because among women she was the first who descended into the arena for [the faith of] Christ, who by torments laid impiety low, and bore away the triumph of faith and virginity. Hence the same Isidore of Pelusium, book I, epistle 160: "Add, he says, the chief of feminine victories and trophies — that is, that Thecla celebrated with all praises, who stands forth as it were an immortal pillar of chastity, and who from the very midst of the storm of turbulent passions, like a torch that has been kindled, has put in to a port immune from all waves." Hence St. Jerome, in his Chronicle, compares that most renowned Melania to Thecla. And St. Gregory of Nyssa, brother of St. Basil, in his epistle to the monk Olympius, declares that his own sister Macrina, on account of the eminent merit of her holiness, was to be called Thecla, and that by a heavenly forewarning. Thecla died at about the 90th year of her age, buried at Seleucia, where, famous for miracles, she was visited by the gathering of all the East formerly. Listed among the Saints, she is read in the Roman Martyrology on September 23rd.
Besides others, Basil, Bishop of Seleucia, around the year of the Lord 450, wrote a Life of St. Thecla; he attended the Council of Constantinople and of Chalcedon, whose Greek copy exists at Rome in the Sforza Library, which I recently examined, which Peter Pantius, Dean of Brussels, translated into the Latin language. In it Basil narrates many things about St. Paul which Luke omitted, such as that Christ in the form of Paul stood by Thecla when she was condemned to the fire, and comforted her and preserved her unharmed from the fire; that Paul on account of Thecla, whom he had converted, was imprisoned, scourged, and driven into exile, and hid himself with Onesiphorus and his sons in a sepulchre, and there for many days, abstaining from food, prayed for Thecla condemned to the pyre, who, freed, came to Paul, and went with him to Antioch, where, exposed to wild beasts but rescued by God, seeking Paul, was sent back by him to Iconium for the sake of propagating the faith; after she had converted many there and at Seleucia to Christ, after many struggles and miracles, "she did not at all die, but living she sank, having entered into the earth, which by God's will withdrew in her favor, and opened itself to her in that place where the divine and sacred altar of the Liturgy was constructed, surrounded by a circle of columns shining everywhere with silver. Whence as from a conduit of her virginal beneficence, abundantly flowing forth there, against every pain and sickness, she sends forth saving fountains of remedies to the needy and the petitioners: so that the place has now become a public dispensary of medicine and a common propitiatory of the world." Thus Basil, whom Baronius praises, In Martyr., September 23rd. The same things are reported by Aldhelm, Metaphrastes and others in the Life of St. Thecla. Not that St. Thecla did not die, but that, like St. John, descending into a subterranean place destined for her by God, she there rendered her virginal soul, dedicated and owed to Christ alone. Basil then adds a second book on the Miracles of St. Thecla. In a similar way God prepared and adorned a tomb, indeed a mausoleum, by angels for Moses on Mount Nebo, for St. Clement in the sea, for St. Catherine on Sinai, for St. Agatha and others. Finally, Basil also calls St. Thecla Protomartyr, because she was the first to suffer martyrdom many times, even though God miraculously preserved her from death. He also calls her Apostle, because she disseminated the faith of Christ. She was likewise the leader and chief of virgins. The teacher and inciter of all these things was St. Paul, who, when St. Thecla was leaving and asked him for a final admonition of sanctity and perfection, gave her this: "Your accounts stand well, O virgin. In all things the strength of faith has surely excelled, and now you have surpassed the Apostolic labors and courses, etc. Go therefore, and teach the word, and complete the Evangelical course, and come to share in my labor for Christ. For Christ has chosen you through my efforts to advance you also to the Apostolic office, and to entrust to you some city not yet imbued with the precepts of the Christian religion. For your talents too must be multiplied." These and more things are said by Basil, who adds that Thecla, having set out for Seleucia, converted many there, and finally rested there in peace. Wherefore St. Chrysostom, praising St. Thecla, on account of so many and such great struggles bravely overcome, "calls her, before the victory of martyrdom, a great martyrdom."
At Iconium too Paul converted St. Tryphaena and Tryphosa, whom he therefore greets and praises, because they labor in the Lord, namely in promoting the faith and Christian piety, Romans xvi, 12; concerning whom we read in the Roman Martyrology, on November 20th, as follows: "At Iconium in Lycaonia, the holy women Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who by the preaching of St. Paul and the example of Thecla, made great progress in Christian discipline": concerning whom more is contained in the Acts of St. Thecla.
Verse 2: They Stirred Up to Anger Against the Brethren
2. THEY STIRRED UP TO ANGER (ἐκάκωσαν, that is, filled with malignity, made evil, that is, malevolent, averse, offended, angry) AGAINST THE BRETHREN, — that is, against Christians, especially the Apostles, as though they were innovators and disturbers of the commonwealth, introducing a new crucified God and His new faith and religion. Several Greek manuscripts, according to Bede, and Latin manuscripts add: "But God made peace," as if to say: God dispelled this malignity and ill will and turned it into goodwill, and made the Gentiles kind and benevolent to the Apostles, according to that verse, Proverbs xvi, 7: "When the ways of man shall please the Lord, He will convert even his enemies to peace." Pious men experience the same in all things today, especially Apostolic men and those who win souls for God. St. Teresa, having experienced the same in propagating her Order, used to say she had found that those monasteries were most useful which had endured more contradiction and persecution at the beginning. Wherefore no one should lose heart when at the outset of great works hatreds arise: for this is a clear sign of the fruit that will follow; just as a harsh winter and snows are a sign, indeed the cause, of an abundant crop and harvest to follow.
Verse 3: They Therefore Stayed a Long Time
3. THEREFORE THEY STAYED A LONG TIME. — The word "therefore" refers back to the first verse, though more remotely, namely "that a great multitude of Jews and Greeks should believe": for this cause, namely the abundant conversion, made Paul and Barnabas tarry there longer. Or certainly it refers to what is in some Greek manuscripts: "But God gave peace." For peace allowed the Apostles to remain there and to evangelize confidently. Finally, you may relate it to what immediately precedes in this sense, as if to say: Because the Jews had turned the minds of the Gentiles away from Paul and Barnabas, for this cause they themselves remained there longer, that by their patience, constancy, sanctity, zeal and miracles they might convert them to themselves and to Christ. Whence also it follows, verse 4: "And the multitude of the city was divided," etc.
DEALING CONFIDENTLY IN THE LORD, — confidently, freely and intrepidly evangelizing the word of the Lord: for this is παρρησία, of which I spoke at chapter IV, verse 29; "in the Lord," that is, in the business of the Lord, namely in propagating Christ's Gospel; or "in the Lord," that is, by the help of the Lord. See canon 25 on St. Paul.
TO THE WORD OF HIS GRACE. — The Gospel is called "the word of grace," here and at chapter xx, verses 24 and 32: first, because it announces and brings the highest grace, namely God's friendship, justice, salvation and eternal life; second, because His doctrine and precepts are gracious, namely gentle, sweet and effective, which bend, soften, and bow down even hard and beastly minds.
Verse 4: The Multitude Was Divided
4. WAS DIVIDED, — ἐσχίσθη, that is, was split, was cut and divided by schism.
WITH THE APOSTLES — Paul and Barnabas, who were sent by the Holy Spirit, chapter xiii, verse 2, to evangelize, equally as those first twelve were sent by Christ.
Verse 5: That They Might Use Them with Contumely and Stone Them
5. THAT THEY MIGHT TREAT THEM CONTUMELIOUSLY. — The Interpreter has translated the Greek ὑβρίσαι better than Pagninus, Erasmus and Vatablus, who render "that they might use force"; because the Apostles did not fear insults, so they threaten them with force, says Erasmus; but they feared neither force, stoning, nor death, and the Greek ὑβρίσαι properly signifies the injury and insult of words, not the force of blows.
AND STONE THEM, — as if they were blasphemers.
Verse 6: Understanding It
6. UNDERSTANDING — the Apostles understood this conspiracy of Jews and Gentiles against themselves. Whence the Tigurine version translates, "the matter being understood."
Verse 7: A Certain Man at Lystra Weak in His Feet
7. WEAK IN HIS FEET, — ἀδύνατος, that is, powerless, infirm, namely who could not stand on his feet nor walk: whence he was perpetually sitting or lying. St. Peter healed a similar lame man in a similar way, chapter III, verse 1.
Verse 8: Looking Upon Him and Seeing That He Had Faith
8. WHO LOOKING UPON HIM, — ἀτενίσας αὐτῷ, that is, having fixed his eyes upon him, when he had gazed upon him with intent and fixed look.
AND SEEING THAT HE HAD FAITH, THAT HE MIGHT BE HEALED. — Namely that he believed what Paul said and hoped to be cured and healed by him, and silently sought and demanded health from him. "For his desires, his face, his eyes, his gestures, his attention in listening, sufficiently revealed it," says Bede. Again, by a prophetic spirit Paul penetrated into the mind of the lame man, and saw his faith, hope and desire for healing. By a similar gift of discernment of spirits, St. Hilarion saw the secrets of hearts, as St. Jerome testifies in his Life. The same gift St. Anthony, St. Francis, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Ignatius, St. Xavier and others had: hence St. Chrysostom infers that the soul of this lame man was first healed by faith, before the body.
Verse 9: He Said with a Loud Voice, Stand Upright
9. HE SAID WITH A LOUD VOICE, — so that the whole multitude and the lame man who was farther off might hear it, and might know that it was not a magical muttering or incantation. Again, the loud voice was a sign and effect of the great faith and hope by which Paul wrought this miracle. Mystically, he must be called with a loud voice who through depraved habit has almost turned wickedness into nature, whose symbol was Lazarus dead four days, whom Christ with a strong cry and tears called forth from the sepulchre, saying: "Lazarus, come forth," John xi, 43. Thus Bede from St. Augustine.
ARISE. — The Greek, Syriac and several Latin manuscripts add: I say to thee: In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, arise, etc. For everywhere the Apostles preached Jesus Christ, and by invoking Him they performed miracles, in order to show the peoples that He Himself was the Saviour of the world.
HE LEAPED UP, — at once he stood upright on his feet, both from the agility of feet restored to him by Paul, and from joy, according to the oracle of Isaiah xxxv, 6: "Then shall the lame man leap as a hart."
Verse 10: The Gods Become Like to Men Have Come Down to Us
10. THE GODS BECOME LIKE TO MEN (in Greek ὁμοιωθέντες, that is, assimilated, namely assuming human form) HAVE COME DOWN TO US. — Just as Christians know from the Holy Scriptures and Histories that angels often appeared to men in an assumed body; so the Gentiles believed the same of their gods. Whence the Poets fable many things about the descent of Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and the other gods to earth, their loves, battles, deeds and exploits. Furthermore, the Gentiles were ignorant of the Son's descent into flesh by the hypostatic union, by which He was made man. Hence it is clear that Paul and Barnabas breathed something divine, above man, in face, voice, manners, and miracles, so that they seemed not so much men as angels, indeed gods fallen from heaven. See Eusebius, book III of the Preparation of the Gospel, chapter IX. Let the Apostolic man therefore imitate them, so that among men, says St. Chrysostom, he may live angelically as an angel, and imitate the holiness, spirit, beneficence, sweetness and grace of the angels. Hence the Apostle, writing to the Galatians, chapter IV, verse 14: "As an angel of God," he says, "you received me, as Jesus Christ." So Cornelius venerated St. Peter as an angel of God, Acts x, 25. Thus St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis were honored by the people as men fallen from heaven. See what is said at Malachi ii, 7, where the priest is called the angel of the Lord of hosts. So also Alexander the Great, although hostile to the Jews, adored Jaddua their Pontiff, and granted him all his requests.
Verse 11: They Called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercury
11. AND THEY CALLED BARNABAS JUPITER. — First, because Barnabas was greater in stature and perhaps in age, says Lyranus. But Paul was of a small, contracted and stooped body. Whence St. Chrysostom says of him, "He is three cubits tall, and yet transcends the heavens." Nicephorus reports the same, describing Paul's form and figure, in book II of the History, chapter XXXVII. Second, because Barnabas, says St. Chrysostom, was of a beautiful and jovial countenance, equally as he was liberal, benign, and beneficent in character; just as Jupiter is so called from "juvando" (helping), says Varro, as it were a helping father; and the Greeks call him Ζῆνα (Zeus), because he is the author of life. Whence Cicero, book II On the Nature of the gods: "By the Poets," he says, "he is called the Father of gods and men, but by our ancestors Best and Greatest. And indeed Best (that is, most beneficent) before Greatest, because it is greater and surely more pleasing to be of use to all than to have great wealth." For nothing is so proper to divinity as to do good: for it is itself as it were a sea of goods, overflowing into all things, and like the sun illuminating, warming, and fertilizing all things on every side with its rays. Wherefore nothing makes man so like to God as beneficence to all. Hence Nazianzen, oration On the Care of the Poor: "Be," he says, "a god to the afflicted." Wherefore the Gentiles crowned Jupiter with a crown of olive, which is always green, rich, beneficial and of much usefulness. For, as Orpheus sings of him,
Jupiter omnipotent is the first and the last the same. / Jupiter is the head and the middle: of Jupiter is every gift. / Jupiter is the foundation of the earth and of starry Olympus.
Third, because Barnabas, by his appearance and gravity, stood silently beside Paul, and as it were nodded to him as his messenger and herald, just as Jupiter nods to Mercury and uses him as herald. Whence some think that Jove was named from the Hebrew Jehovah, and by crasis Jova, who spoke through Moses and the Prophets. Certainly Varro thought that Jove was the God of the Jews, says St. Augustine, book I On the Agreement of the Evangelists, chapter XXII. So Moses was as it were the God of Pharaoh and Egypt, whose Mercury, that is, mouth and interpreter, was Aaron. Hear God speaking to Moses, Exodus vii, 1: "Behold I have appointed thee the God of Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet." He adds and explains the manner: "Thou shalt speak to him all things that I command thee, and he shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land."
BUT PAUL [THEY CALLED] MERCURY, BECAUSE HE WAS THE CHIEF SPEAKER. — Mercury was the son of Jupiter, born of Maia, daughter of Atlas; he was held to be the god of speech and eloquence: he was called Mercury, as it were "medicurius," that is, running between men, says Arnobius, and St. Augustine, book I On the City of God, chapter XIV, because speech runs in the middle between men. In Greek he was called Ἑρμῆς, Hermes (and that one Trismegistus, that is thrice greatest) ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐρεῖν καὶ μηχάνησθαι, because he devised and contrived speech, says Plato in the Cratylus, and Proclus on the same; or as Phavorinus says, ἀπὸ τοῦ εἴρω, that is, "I announce." Whence Iris is also so called, as messenger of the Gods, of heaven and of rain. Hence Horace, book I Odes, ode 10:
Mercury, eloquent grandson of Atlas, / Who didst skillfully shape with thy voice the wild ways of new men, / And with the custom of the comely palaestra: / Thee shall I sing, messenger of great Jupiter and of the gods, / And parent of the curved lyre.
Whence he also presided over wares: from this Festus reckons that Mercury was so named, as it were "care of wares," because between sellers and buyers speech is in the middle, by which they bargain and enter into contract. Therefore they also add wings to his head and feet, wishing to signify swift speech borne through the air: therefore he is also called messenger, because through speech all things are announced, says St. Augustine, book VII On the City of God, chapter XIV. Hence secondly, Mercury was called the god of orators, merchants, business, the palaestra, the leader of roads and journeys: whence they give winged sandals to his feet, and call him winged and wing-footed. Finally, he was called lord of the heart and of speech, the god of reason and truth. Hence they offered the tongues of victims to Mercury, as Homer testifies: so Pierius, Hieroglyphics book XXXIII, chapters XI and XIII. There he adds that the Mathematicians teach that the tongue is ruled by the star of Mercury; just as the spleen is ruled by Saturn, the liver by Jupiter, the blood by Mars, the heart and brain by the Sun, the kidneys and generative parts by Venus, the stomach by the Moon. Third, Cicero, Aristides and others relate that Mercury invented not only letters, but also music and the palaestra, wrestling and Geometry. Whence by Galen, in the Suasoria, Mercury is called the parent of all arts. Therefore he is said to be the son of Maia and Jove, that is, τοῦ νοῦ καὶ φρονήσεως, because speech is said to come from mind and prudence; or, as Phurnutus says, he was therefore born of Maia, that is, from speculation and inquiry: for μαῖα, that is, midwife, who performs the office of midwifery for those giving birth, is so called because by searching and inquiring she brings the offspring into the light. They also depicted Mercury as a young man, because speech does not grow old; and as square, on account of the firmness and strength of true speech. Fourth, Mercury was the caduceus-bearer, interpreter, herald and messenger of the Gods to men: whence by Orpheus he is called the angel of Jupiter, and by Hesychius εὐάγγελος, because he brings the gospel, that is, good news. Hence he is also painted with a caduceus and two serpents wound about the staff, because this was the beginning of peace for Mercury. Wherefore Martial sings thus of him, in book VII:
Glory of Cyllene and of heaven, eloquent minister, / Whose golden staff blooms with twisted serpent.
But Isidore: Mercury, he says, holds a staff, which divides serpents, that is, poisons: for those warring and dissenting are calmed by the speech of interpreters. But Virgil, in the Aeneid IV, sings thus of him:
Then he takes the staff: with this he calls forth souls from Orcus.
Whence by Laertius he is called Questor of souls, because he receives them after death, as having power both in heaven and in hell. Hence also Nomius, that is, lawgiver, because he bears laws; he is so called as well as χαριοδότης, that is, giver of grace. These things Giraldus, Syntagma, book IX, and Pierius, Hieroglyphics, book XXXIII. Finally, there is the proverb, κοινὸς Ἑρμῆς, that is, common Mercury, signifying that wealth and goods should be brought into the common stock, and that public utility should be studied, of which Lucian in the Wishes.
Paul therefore is called Mercury: First, because he was not only Barnabas's interpreter, but also the leader of the word: for he excelled Barnabas in eloquence. Second, because he was not only eloquent, but also effective in speaking. Whence St. Jerome, Apology to Pammachius, in defense of his book Against Jovinian: "As often," he says, "as I read the Apostle Paul, I seem to myself not to hear words, but thunders, etc.; wherever you look, they are lightnings." Third, because he was strong in wisdom, and expressed it in words: whence Festus the governor, admiring it, said: "You are mad, Paul; much learning is turning you to madness," Acts xxvi, 24. Fourth, because, caught up to the third heaven, he seemed a heavenly orator, and a messenger sent from heaven to men, who, breathing nothing but heavenly things, was busy with calling back men addicted to Orcus, making them heavenly, and sending them to heaven; and therefore he dispelled the suggestions of dragons, that is, of demons, removed wars and quarrels, brought in full peace, propagated the law and grace of Christ, and made it common to the whole world.
Verse 12: The Priest of Jupiter Before the City
12. THE PRIEST ALSO OF JUPITER, WHO (namely Jupiter, as is clear from the Greek, not the priest) WAS BEFORE THE CITY. — As if to say: Who (Jupiter) had in the suburbs his altar and temple, equally as his priest and sacrificer. So the Greek and the Syriac.
OXEN AND GARLANDS, — that is, garlanded oxen. It is a hendiadys, such as that one of Virgil, Georgics II,
A bullock veiled with gold and fillets for the victor,
that is, veiled with golden fillets.
AND GARLANDS, — which they placed on the head of the victim, namely the bull, and crowned it with them, in order to signify that this victim was being given to Jupiter, who is the king of kings. Whence also among the Persians, not only his priests wore crowns on their head, but also as many as were present: indeed they also adorned the doors of the temple, the altars, the columns, etc., with festoons and garlands. The Jews did the same when victory had been obtained, 1 Maccabees IV, verse 57. Christians did the same of old and still do today. Whence St. Paulinus, in his third Birthday-poem of St. Felix, says:
Strew the ground with flowers, fringe the thresholds with garlands.
Furthermore, originally the crown was given only to Jove and the gods. For the crown is a symbol of absolute perfection, of the heap of goods, of kingdom, victory, triumph, felicity and glory, which befits God alone. Hear Pliny, book XVI, chapter IV: "In ancient times no crown was given except to a god;" afterwards it was also given to heroes. Whence Pliny adds: "And they say that Father Liber was the first of all to place one of ivy on his head; afterwards those sacrificing took them up for the honor of the gods, with the victims at the same time crowned." The same, book XII, chapter XIX: "Crowns of cinnamon set in chiseled gold, Emperor Vespasian was the first of all to dedicate in the Temples of the Capitol and of Peace." Thus Pausanias, in his Elean book, recalls Jove made of gold and ivory and crowned with olive sitting on his throne. See Tertullian, book On the Soldier's Crown. By this example, the Samians, on account of Croesus having been appeased toward them by Aesop (as his Life has it), brought crowns to Aesop on his return to them, as to some saving deity. Hence Metellus Pius was mocked, "who made himself a god in Spain, while he allowed crowns to be placed on him as he sat in a screened place, by a statue of Victory let down with a contrived noise of thunder, as upon a heavenly head, and that supplications be made to him," says Valerius Maximus, book IX, chapter 1, and Macrobius, book II Saturnalia, chapter XIV. Therefore they crowned the victims, because to a crowned God, only crowned things, that is, absolute, select, perfect and excellent things, are to be offered. Whence Ovid, Metamorphoses XV:
A victim free from blemish, and of most outstanding form, / Is set before the altars, distinguished with tufts and gold.
In the same author, Fasti book I:
Stand crowned, ye bullocks, by the full manger.
Thus Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, when she was being led to be immolated for sacrifice, was crowned, as Euripides testifies in Iphigenia. Plutarch also in Paulus Aemilius: "After these," he says, "were led one hundred and twenty draught oxen with gilt horns, adorned with mitres and little crowns." Moreover, often these crowns were of that herb or flower which was sacred to the god to whom one was sacrificing: namely of ivy, if to Bacchus; of pine, if to Pan; of olive, if to Minerva, etc.: commonly however they were of cypress, because this was funereal and an index of death. Whence Prudentius, in Apotheosis:
There stood ranks of cows, to be struck on the festivals / Of the pontiffs by axes, and the twisted cypress / Shaded the calves bound and crowned on the brow.
BEFORE THE GATES. — The Tigurine version: at the vestibules: for the Greek πυλῶνας signifies both, and the vestibules, or atria of houses, are at their entrance next to the gates. The Syriac: at the doors of the atrium where they were staying, namely Paul and Barnabas in the city. The priest of Jupiter therefore, dwelling outside the city next to the temple of Jupiter, was unwilling to sacrifice there to Paul and Barnabas, since they were absent and were staying in the city; but accompanied by a throng of people, with pomp he entered the city, and went to the house into which, after the miracle was performed, fleeing human praises, says Cajetan, the Apostles had withdrawn, and there before the door he wished to sacrifice to them: which they seeing, leaped out of the house and forbade the sacrifice, indeed sacrilege.
WAS WILLING TO SACRIFICE, — both to Mercury and to Jupiter.
Verse 13: When the Apostles Heard This, Rending Their Garments
13. WHEN THEY HEARD THIS — namely both the voices of those crying out, "Gods like unto men have come down to us," and the noise and preparation of those wishing to sacrifice to them. For they had the gift of tongues, just as the other Apostles, and so they correctly understood the Lycaonians speaking in the Lycaonian language, although St. Chrysostom seems to deny this.
Having torn their tunics. — For the Jews, when they heard blasphemy and sacrilege (such as this was, to sacrifice to the Apostles as if to gods), were accustomed to tear their garments in detestation and execration of it, so that by this sign they testified that their heart was touched with intense grief and as it were torn, and that the blasphemy together with the blasphemer was worthy of being utterly broken and rent asunder. Wherefore they more frequently tore their garments from the neck along the shoulders down to the breast, where the heart and the sense of pain reside, as the Hebrews relate in the book Mishnayoth, in the small volume, chapter III. Virgil records that Aeneas did the same, Aeneid V:
Then pious Aeneas tore the garment from his shoulders, / And called upon the gods for help and stretched out his palms.
THEY LEAPT FORTH — ἐξεπήδησαν, that is, they leapt into the crowd to restrain it; just as a master rushes into a house ablaze with fire to extinguish it.
Morally: Learn here how far the Apostles were from ambition for honor, and conversely how zealous they were for divine honor, that they might remove it from themselves and preserve it inviolate for God, as something due and proper to Him alone. See here St. Chrysostom expounding at length on the praise of humility.
Verse 14: We Are Mortals, Men Like Unto You
14. WE ARE MORTALS, MEN LIKE UNTO YOU. — In Greek ὁμοιοπαθεῖς ἐσμεν ὑμῖν ἄνθρωποι, that is, we are men subject to the same passions and evils as you: among these passions and evils, the chief is death. Hence our translator aptly renders it "mortals," as if to say: We are mortal men, not immortal gods; especially since the whole life of man is a course toward death, indeed a kind of perpetual and prolonged death. For, as Gregory says, homily 37 on the Gospels: "What else is the daily failing of corruption but a kind of prolongation of death?"
From this, learn morally that an effective remedy against pride is the memory and meditation of death. Thus Solomon in all his glory said, Wisdom VII, 1: "I myself also am a mortal man, like all others," etc. And Antiochus, humbled and struck by God: "It is just to be subject to God, and that a mortal should not think things equal to God," 2 Maccabees IX, 12. Alexander the Great, as Curtius testifies, in death acknowledged himself a weak and unwarlike man: "Behold, I die," he said, "whom you falsely called a god." Emperor Constantius, having entered Rome, showed its magnificence to Hormisdas the Persian and asked what he thought of it. To which the latter replied: "At Rome, as elsewhere, men die," as if to say: Death will bury all this magnificence with you, along with your magnates. So Fulgosius, book VII, chapter II. Alphonsus, king of Aragon, when asked, "What thing equalizes kings and commoners, the rich and the poor, the famous and the obscure, indeed everyone whatsoever?" answered: "Ashes." For who can distinguish from ashes or human bones unearthed and say: This man was a king, that one a commoner; this man rich, that one poor? So Panormitanus, book IV Of the Deeds of Alphonsus. For as the philosopher Secundus, when asked by Emperor Hadrian, "What is death?" replied: "Death is an eternal sleep, the dissolution of bodies, the dread of the rich, the desire of the poor, an inevitable event, an uncertain pilgrimage, the robber of man, the father of sleep, the flight of life, the departure from the living, the dissolution of all things." So Laertius. Wherefore Musonius, when asked, "Who could best close his last day?" said: "He who has always set before himself that the last day of life is at hand." So Maximus, sermon 36. "For he easily despises all things who always thinks he is about to die," says Jerome to Paulinus. Hence the Egyptians used to carry around a wooden corpse at banquets, saying: "Looking upon this, drink and enjoy yourself, for such you will be after death," as Herodotus testifies, book III.
ANNOUNCING TO YOU TO BE CONVERTED FROM THESE VAIN THINGS (from Jupiter, Mercury, and the other idols, which are nothing other than vain and lying gods) to the one, living, and true God. For, as Lactantius says, book I On False Religion, chapter XI: "Jupiter was mortal, weak and worth nothing: for he could have been killed at birth (by his father Saturn), just as his brother born before him was killed; who, if he had been able to live, would never have yielded empire to a younger brother. But he himself, saved by stealth and reared in secret, was called Ζεύς or Ζῶν, not, as those people think, from the heat of celestial fire (as if ἀπὸ τοῦ ζεῖν, that is, to boil, as if he were of fiery and burning substance, as Tertullian held, book I Against Marcion, chapter XIII), nor because he is the giver of life, nor because he breathes souls into living beings: for how can he inspire a soul that he himself receives from elsewhere? — but because he was the first of the male children of Saturn to live, being hidden in a cave." Whence Seneca in Hercules Furens:
What? He who governs the stars, who shakes the clouds, / Did he as an infant hide in the cave of a hollowed rock?
Lactantius adds Jupiter's lusts, frauds, rapines, etc. Similarly: "Mercury, a thief and rogue, what did he leave behind for his own fame except the memory of his frauds? Worthy of heaven, forsooth, because he taught wrestling and was the first to invent the lyre," says Lactantius in the same place, chapter X. Hence Mercury is called by the poets the god of thieves, of thefts, of sleep, and of frauds. See St. Augustine, book VII On the City of God, chapter IX and following.
Verse 15: He Suffered the Gentiles to Walk in Their Own Ways
15. HE SUFFERED THE GENTILES TO WALK IN THEIR OWN WAYS, — to follow their own concupiscences, errors, and fictitious deities; "He suffered" however, not as though He withdrew from them every aid of virtue and truth. For thus they would have erred necessarily and acted impiously, and therefore would not have sinned. For voluntary sin is so much an evil that it is in no way a sin if it is not voluntary, says St. Augustine, On True Religion, chapter XIV. But He bestowed on them only general and modest helps of grace and faith, reserving the special and great helps for Christ and the law of grace, and this by His secret judgment and good pleasure. Thus the Apostle explains himself when he adds: "And yet He left not Himself without testimony," etc. And in Romans I, 20, he teaches that the Gentiles could and ought to have recognized God from creatures, indeed that many did recognize Him: "For God hath manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also and divinity: so that they are inexcusable. Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified Him as God, or given thanks; therefore, he says, God delivered them up to the desires of their heart," etc. See what is said there, and St. Augustine, epistle 49, chapter II, and St. Prosper, book I On the Calling of the Gentiles, chapter IV, V and following.
Impiously and ignorantly does Calvin apply these things to the Church, as if God had permitted her in like manner to go into errors until Calvin should come and dispel them with his light. For Gentilism and Paganism are one thing; Christianity and the Church are another — the Church being the house of God, the pillar and ground of truth, as the Apostle says, I Timothy III, 15, with which Christ promised He would remain even to the consummation of the world, Matthew, last chapter, last verse.
GIVING RAINS, — which fertilize the earth for producing all kinds of fruits. Furthermore in Egypt, where it does not rain, God gives the Nile in place of rain, which by overflowing at fixed times makes the land most fertile, so much so that it was once called the granary of the Romans. Memorable is what Socrates writes, book I of his History, chapter XIV: "When the Gentiles affirmed that Serapis was the one who brought the Nile to irrigate the fields of Egypt, on the grounds that a certain cubit, that is, the measure of the inundating water, had been carried into the temple of Serapis, the Emperor (Constantine the Great) ordered that cubit to be transferred to the Alexandrian Church," thereby taking the measure of the overflowing Nile from Serapis and ascribing it to God, to whom it belonged. "When however the rumor spread that the Nile would no longer overflow because of the wrath of Serapis, not only did the river the following year flow beyond its banks, but it was also thereby made plain in fact that the Nile flowed into the sea not because of such superstitious religion, but by the decrees of divine providence." Similar is what Sozomen writes, book VII, chapter XX: "When Emperor Theodosius, he says, by public edict had abolished the worship of idols, and consequently of the Nile (which the Egyptians worshiped as their god because of the fertilization of their fields), the Nile then more slowly than usual reached the first stage of its inundation. The Egyptians therefore were indignant that they were not allowed to sacrifice to the Nile in the customary manner, in order to obtain its overflow. But shortly afterwards it swelled and overflowed so much beyond what was usual that the Egyptians feared that it might inundate Alexandropolis, which was part of Libya. Hence in the theaters they exclaimed that the river, like an old and senile man, had wet itself, and as a result many of the Egyptians, having condemned their ancestral superstition, passed over to Christianity."
FRUITFUL SEASONS. — For at their own seasons, succeeding one another, God produces various fruits and crops, by which He removes weariness from man and by perpetual novelty sharpens and delights the appetite. Thus figs succeed cherries, plums succeed figs, pears succeed plums, apples succeed pears, grapes succeed apples, etc. Hence John Alba, in Selected Chapters, chapter XCXIV, by hypallage explains it thus: "Giving fruitful seasons," that is, giving fruits in their seasons. See a similar passage, chapter I, 48.
Verse 17: They Scarcely Restrained the Crowds
17. THEY SCARCELY RESTRAINED THE CROWDS. — No mention is made here of the priest of Jupiter. Hence Dionysius the Carthusian suspects that, when he heard his Jupiter despised by Paul and called vain, he turned his veneration into hatred of Paul, and leaving him went home.
Verse 18: There Came Thither Certain Jews
18. BUT THERE CAME THITHER. — They did this purposely out of zeal for Judaism and hatred of Christianity and of Paul, in order to overthrow him.
HAVING PERSUADED THE MULTITUDES, — that Paul and Barnabas were heralds, as it were, of new beings — not gods, but demons — and therefore would bring destruction upon the city, and so should be stoned and killed, just as at Iconium they had a little before been stoned as if magicians. Hence certain Greek codices have it thus: "And while they were vigorously disputing, they persuaded the multitudes to abandon them, saying that they spoke nothing true, but lied in everything."
AND HAVING STONED PAUL, — λιθάσαντες, that is, when they had stoned Paul. Hence it appears that Paul alone, because he was the leader of the word, was stoned, not Barnabas, and this within the city: for shortly afterwards they "drew him out of the city, supposing him to be dead;" the Syriac: because they thought him to be dead. For they used to carry corpses outside the city, lest they pollute it, and buried them in the fields. Paul is stoned here, because he himself had previously stoned Stephen: fittingly therefore he suffers what he inflicted on another. But he inflicted it as Saul; he suffers it as Paul.
Morally, learn here the fickleness and inconstancy of the crowd: a little before, indeed on the same day as it seems, they wished to worship Paul as Mercury, and presently at the hissing of the Jews they stone him as a sacrilegious man. See what is said at Numbers XI, 4, and XX, 3.
Verse 19: As the Disciples Stood Round About Him, He Rose Up
19. BUT AS THE DISCIPLES STOOD ROUND ABOUT HIM, — either to bury him as dead, as Cajetan holds, or to cover him alive and hide him from the Jews: so Lyranus and Hugo.
RISING UP. — By a miracle God immediately restored health and strength to Paul, so that he who lay overwhelmed by stones, broken, and as it were killed, immediately rose up, and the next day proceeded as though strong and vigorous to Derbe. So Lyranus, Dionysius, and Lorinus. Thus St. Sebastian, pierced by arrows and left for dead, immediately recovered by the power of God, and approaching Diocletian rebuked his impious cruelty, as his Acts relate.
Verse 20: When They Had Preached the Gospel
20. AND WHEN THEY HAD PREACHED. — Behold, by persecution Paul's spirit and virtue grow, not diminish, so that immediately he preaches more vigorously and boldly in the very places where he had been attacked with stones. Hence St. Gregory, book XXXI Morals, chapter XV (or by another edition, XXV), calls Paul God's noble steed: "Behold," he says, "he is overwhelmed with stones, yet is not removed from the word of truth. He can be killed, he cannot be overcome: as though slain he is cast outside the city, but within the city on another day he is found unharmed as a preacher. Oh how strong is the infirmity in this man! Oh how victorious is the punishment! Oh how dominating is the patience! He is provoked by repulse to argue, raised by blows to preach salvation, and refreshed by punishment to drive away the weariness of labor." Thus St. Abraham the Hermit, as St. Ephrem relates in his Life, was sent to convert pagans, fierce and barbarous; constantly mocked, harassed, and beaten by them, but rising up the stronger and ever showing greater love, by this three-year-long patience, love, and constancy he finally converted them. Therefore "yield not to evils, but rather go against them more boldly."
Verse 21: That Through Many Tribulations We Must Enter the Kingdom of God
21. THAT THROUGH MANY TRIBULATIONS. — For the cross has been established by God as the way to paradise, which He willed Christ to enter and to go before us. From this St. Jerome, epistle to Oceanus, On Bearing Reproaches, infers: "If," he says, "the entrance of the heavenly kingdom is opened to certain ones through many tribulations, certainly it is closed to those who refuse to endure even a few." The same, in epistle 1 to Heliodorus: "You are delicate," he says, "if you wish both to rejoice here with the world, and afterwards to reign with Christ." Our Thomas Theodidactus (falsely identified as Gerson) wrote on this matter the entire last chapter of book II Of the Imitation of Christ, filled with golden maxims; and concludes it with this sentence: "All things therefore having been read through and scrutinized, let this be the final conclusion: that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God." Furthermore Paul said this on the occasion of his own persecution, which he constantly suffered from the Jews, lest the converted Gentiles, offended thereby, should fall back from the faith, especially when it might befall them to suffer similar things on account of the faith. Therefore he forearms them, that they may know that on account of the faith many things must be borne.
Note the word oportet ("it behooves"), as if to say: It is necessary, it must so be done, otherwise it cannot be done. And this firstly, because God has so ordained and decreed, as if to say: It has been sanctioned by the eternal and irrevocable law of God that the way to heaven is tribulation; and from this decree He has excepted no one, but has included all in it. Therefore let no one think himself to be excepted from it: willing or unwilling, the cross decreed from eternity by God must be undergone by you. Undergo it then willingly, lest, if unwillingly, you double your punishment and lose merit and crown. Secondly, it behooves us, because it is becoming and fitting that we should purchase so great a kingdom of God by heroic deeds, by doing and suffering many arduous things for God and heaven: for no crown is given except after the contest. "For the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us." Wherefore Abbot John said "the gate of heaven is the endurance of injuries. This," he says, "is the gate of God, through which our fathers, rejoicing through many tribulations and injuries, entered the city of God." So in the Lives of the Fathers, book III, n. 84, by Rufinus. And in number 85, it is narrated of another, who asking and saying: "Give me, Father, one thing which I may keep, and be saved by it;" he heard: "If you can be injured and afflicted with insults, and bear it and keep silent, this is a great thing and above the other commandments." Thirdly, it behooves us, because Christ, our head, entered into heaven through the cross: but it is fitting that the members be conformed to their head. "For if we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified together," Romans VIII, 17. Fourthly, it behooves us, because the Patriarchs, Apostles, Martyrs, Virgins, Anchorites, and Saints, every one of them, entered into heaven by this way: it is not fitting therefore that we should enter by a different one. Fifthly, it behooves us, because by tribulation, as by nitre and lye, sins must be expiated, and the motions of concupiscence quenched and purged. Sixthly, it behooves us, because this life is full of miseries, temptations, persecutions, etc., which no one can escape. Wherefore Ptolemy, as is found in the preface of the Almagest, among other maxims published this one: "He who has chosen to remain in the world, let him prepare a heart patient in adversities." And Menander: "It is necessary that a mortal endure many evils." Solon indeed said to King Croesus, the wealthiest of men, who reckoned himself blessed: "O Croesus, man is a kind of grave calamity. Wherefore no one is to be reckoned blessed before death." Croesus took this hard, but in fact learned it to be true, when captured by Cyrus and condemned to the funeral pyre, he said: "Solon, Solon, how truly did you speak!" So Herodotus, book I. Wherefore Seneca, book I On the Blessed Life, chapter XV: "To this sacrament," he says, "we are bound: to bear what is mortal, and not to be disturbed by those things which it is not in our power to forbid. We are born in a kingdom: to obey God is liberty." Seventhly, it behooves us, because he who is zealous for piety has the most hostile enemies, namely all demons, the world, the flesh, and often friends, kinsmen, brothers, and parents, who tempt, harass, and trouble him, according to the saying: "All who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution," II Timothy III, 12. Eighthly, it behooves us, because he has not deserved sweet things who has not tasted bitter things: for no one perceives how sweet a thing tastes, unless he has felt how bitter another tastes. Hence Christ "tasted honeycombs after gall," says Tertullian, On the Soldier's Crown, chapter XIV; for after gall is tasted, honey tastes best. Thus innkeepers, in order to commend their wines to guests, give them some insipid and harsh wines to taste first. When I was traveling to Rome through Germany, a prudent man gave me this counsel: at inns, when the host offers you wine and asks whether it is good, answer that it is good, and praise it. For then he will give better and better, in order to show that he abounds in the finest wines. For if you say it is bad and disparage it, the host will give worse and worse, so that you will be forced to ask again for the first one and to say that it was far better. And so it happened to me. So also God fittingly gives to His elect here the gall and harsh wine of tribulation, so that afterwards the honey and nectar of consolation and the enjoyment of God in heaven may taste better to them. See what is said about the usefulness of tribulation at Genesis XXII, 1, and at chapter XXXIII at the end, and chapter XLII, 21; Romans VIII, 17; Daniel XI, 35, and elsewhere. Thus St. Urban the Pope, master of St. Cecilia, when the priests Fortunatus and Justinus visited him in prison and weeping said: "Pray for us, most holy Father, because the time of persecution is at hand;" replied: "Do not weep on this account, but rather rejoice; for through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God," and shortly afterwards being brought before the tribunal he met a glorious martyrdom in the year of Christ 233. So his Acts have it.
Verse 22: When They Had Ordained for Them Presbyters in Every Church
22. AND WHEN THEY HAD ORDAINED FOR THEM PRESBYTERS IN EVERY CHURCH. — In Greek χειροτονήσαντες, which Erasmus, Pagninus, and the Tigurine (and the Syriac suggests) translate as: "when they had elected by votes," or "had created Presbyters for them," as if these Presbyters were created by laymen, namely by the votes of the people. For χειροτονία is the extension of the hand; for the people used to cast their vote by raising the hand. This is true in the creation of civil magistrates, but not of Ecclesiastical ones: for these are created and ordained not by laymen, but by Ecclesiastics, namely by Bishops.
That this is so is clear first, because the word χειροτονήσαντες refers to Paul and Barnabas, not to the people, as is plain to one inspecting the text. Therefore Paul and Barnabas were χειροτονήσαντες, that is, extending their hands, or imposing their hands upon the Presbyters, and by this imposition of hands ordaining them by a sacred rite, not the people.
Secondly, because Paul, I Timothy IV, verse 14, says: "Neglect not the grace which is in you, which was given you by the imposition of the hands of the Presbytery," that is, of the body of Presbyters. Therefore Presbyters laid hands on those to be ordained, not laymen. And in chapter V, 22: "Impose not hands lightly upon any man." And II Timothy I, 6: "I admonish you that you stir up the grace of God which is in you by the imposition of my hands," not of the people.
Thirdly, because χειροτονέω in the New Testament is χειροθεσία, that is, the imposition of hands, that is, sacred Ordination, as is clear from the passages already cited; and St. Chrysostom expressly teaches this, homily 10 on the First Epistle to Timothy; St. Jerome, on chapter LVIII of Isaiah; Theodoret, book I of his History, chapter IX; and the Greeks generally, who call χειροτονία the Ordination by which Bishops do not raise their hands to give a vote, but lay them on the one being ordained, in order to consecrate him as Bishop or priest. The same is clear from canon I of the Apostles, and from the Council of Nicaea, which Theodoret cites in the place already mentioned, and from the Council of Laodicea, chapter V.
Fourthly, the same is clear from the continual and immemorial practice of the Church, which constitutes the ministers of the Church by the imposition of the Bishop's hands, not by the votes of the people; granted that sometimes Bishops have by indulgence granted to the people the right of electing and presenting those to be ordained, just as even now many princes have the right of patronage of presenting Abbots and Bishops; but in such a way, however, that they do not constitute or ordain them, but offer them to the Pontiff to be constituted and ordained.
Fifthly, because Christ Himself ordained the Apostles as Bishops and Presbyters, without any vote of the people. And He commanded the Apostles to do the same, not only by His example but also by His word, saying at the Last Supper, when He ordained them Priests: "Do this." For Christ instituted the manner of ordaining, just as of conferring the rest of the Sacraments.
PRESBYTERS, — both the highest, that is, Bishops; and the lesser, that is, Priests. Bishops therefore are included under the name of Presbyters, as I said at I Timothy III, verses 1 and 8.
AND HAD PRAYED WITH FASTINGS. — This is a hysterologia (a reversal of order), for prayer and fasting preceded the Ordination of Presbyters, just as they preceded the Ordination of Paul and Barnabas in the preceding chapter, verses 2 and 3, and even now precede Ordination, which is therefore performed after the prior fast of the Four Seasons (Ember Days). The same is plain from the Greek, where there is no conjunction, etc., but only the aorist προσευξάμενοι, that is, "after they had prayed," as if to say: When after prayer and fasting they had constituted Presbyters for them. Furthermore Lyranus understands by prayer here the sacrifice of the Mass — for in it there is the solemn and public prayer, in which therefore the ministers of the Church are accustomed to be ordained. See what is said in the preceding chapter, verses 2 and 3.
THEY COMMENDED (namely Paul and Barnabas) THEM (the faithful of Lystra, Iconium, etc., together with the Presbyters whom they had constituted for them) TO THE LORD IN WHOM THEY BELIEVED, — so that He might preserve and advance them in the faith they had received. Less correctly therefore do some explain it inversely, as if to say: The converted faithful commended Paul and Barnabas to the Lord, that He might direct and prosper their journey and preaching, inasmuch as He was "the one in whom they believed," that is, to whose providence they had entirely committed and entrusted themselves.
Verse 24: Attalia
24. ATTALIA. — Vatablus wrongly reads, "Italia." So too the Syriac translator misreads and renders "Litaleia," when with a different pointing he ought to have read and translated "Latalia," that is, "into Italy." For these Apostles were far from Italy: nor did Paul come into Italy before the second year of Nero, when he was sent in chains to Rome to him by Festus, Acts XXVII, 4. They err therefore who think otherwise. Attalia is a city and region in Pamphylia: so Ptolemy, book V, chapter VI, and Strabo, book XIV; or certainly near Pergamum, whose king was Attalus, whence the Attalic garments which were made there. For Attalic work is that in which golden wefts are interwoven with silken threads: we call it cloth-of-gold. Concerning which Pliny, book III, chapter XLVIII: "The Phrygians invented working with the needle, and on that account were called Phrygiones. To weave in gold was invented in the same Asia by King Attalus: whence the name Attalic. To weave various colors in pictures Babylon especially celebrated and gave its name to. To weave with many threads, what they call polymita, Alexandria established; to divide them into checks, Gaul."
Verse 25: Whence They Had Been Delivered to the Grace of God
25. WHENCE THEY HAD BEEN DELIVERED TO THE GRACE OF GOD, — namely delivered to the Holy Spirit who demanded them and said in chapter XIII, 2: "Separate to Me Saul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have taken them." For the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of grace, who freely and copiously breathes upon and ministers to His own — especially to His heralds — every gift of graces opportune for this ministry. Therefore the grace of God here signifies the direction, strengthening, and illumination of the Holy Spirit, by which He animated Paul and Barnabas and inflamed them with His spirit and zeal to preach effectively and ardently, and to perform miracles by which the Gentiles might be converted. Secondly, "delivered to grace," that is, to the gratuitous apostolate and legation to the Gentiles: for the apostolate is an immense grace. Hence some explain it by hypallage thus: where they had been delivered to the grace of God, that is, where the grace of Ordination and of apostolate had been given to them — that is, where they had been ordained Bishops and constituted Apostles by the command of God. Thirdly, the word "grace" denotes the favorable invocations of the Antiochian Presbyters and faithful, by which they invoked upon Paul and Barnabas, departing for the apostolate, all favorable things and every grace and blessing of God, commending them to God and His mercy and grace. Whence Luke, explaining this grace in verse 26, says: "How great things God had done with them": for God and His grace was as it were the pedagogue and charioteer of Paul. This sense seems plainest, that Paul is said to have been delivered to the grace of God by hypallage, that is, commended to God, who is the most liberal giver of every grace to apostolic men.
IN THE WORK (for the work of the Apostolate) WHICH THEY FULFILLED, — that is, which they faithfully, fully, and perfectly carried out. Thus Paul commands Timothy, II Timothy IV, 5, saying: "Fulfil thy ministry." And Christ rebuking the angel, that is, the Bishop of Sardis, says, Apocalypse III, 2: "Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain, which were ready to die; for I find not thy works full before My God." See what is said there. Baronius reckons that Barnabas and Paul spent five years in this work of pilgrimage and apostolate. For they went out from Antioch to preach in the year of Christ 44, which was the 2nd or 3rd of Emperor Claudius, and returned in the year of Christ 49, which was the seventh of Claudius, and for the greater part the eighth.
Verse 26: He Had Opened the Door of Faith to the Gentiles
26. AND THAT HE HAD OPENED THE DOOR OF FAITH TO THE GENTILES, — that is, that He had called the Gentiles by preaching to faith, and through faith and baptism had called and admitted them into His Church and the assembly of the faithful: for the door of the Church is faith and baptism. The door of faith therefore is the preaching of the Gospel and of faith, both external through Paul and internal through the Holy Spirit, by which the Holy Spirit moves the intellect and will to attend to the external preaching and to believe and obey it; for through preaching as through the door of the ears, the word of faith and faith itself enters into the soul, and insinuates and persuades itself to the soul. And conversely the soul enters into faith by submitting itself, believing, and giving itself in obedience to God, Christ, and His Apostles. Thus morally God opens to the faithful the door of humility, patience, charity, of the religious and Apostolic life, when He inspires in them pious affections, movements, and desires of humility, patience, charity, of the religious and Apostolic life, according to that which Christ says about His own passion and obedience even to the death of the cross, Isaiah chapter L, verse 5: "The Lord God hath opened My ear: I do not resist; I have not gone back."
Verse 27: They Abode No Small Time with the Disciples
27. AND THEY ABODE NO SMALL TIME WITH THE DISCIPLES — at Antioch. Baronius reckons that Paul and Barnabas, after their return to Antioch, remained two years, namely the years of Christ 49 and 50, until the First Council of Jerusalem, which he asserts was celebrated in the year of Christ 51, concerning which in the following chapter.