When the apostle Paul took with him Timothy, who was the son of a
heathen father, he circumcised him himself, in the small city of Lystra.
But Titus, his other disciple, could not be induced to submit to
circumcision. The brethren, or the disciples of Jesus, continued united
with the Jews until the time when St. Paul experienced a persecution at
Jerusalem, on account of his having introduced strangers into the
temple. He was accused by the Jews of endeavoring to destroy the law of
Moses by that of Jesus Christ. It was with a view to his clearing
himself from this accusation that the apostle St. James proposed to the
apostle Paul that he should shave his head, and go and purify himself in
the temple, with four Jews, who had made a vow of being shaved. "Take
them with you," says James to him (Acts of the Apostles xxi.), "purify
yourself with them, and let the whole world know that what has been
reported concerning you is false, and that you continue to obey the law
of Moses." Thus, then, Paul, who had been at first the most summary
persecutor of the holy society established by Jesus--Paul, who
afterwards endeavored to govern that rising society--Paul the
Christian, Judaizes, "that the world may know that he is calumniated
when he is charged with no longer following the law of Moses."
St. Paul was equally charged with impiety and heresy, and the
persecution against him lasted a long time; but it is perfectly clear,
from the nature of the charges, that he had travelled to Jerusalem in
order to fulfil the rites of Judaism.
He addressed to Faustus these words: "I have never offended against the
Jewish law, nor against the temple." (Acts xxv.) The apostles announced
Jesus Christ as a just man wickedly persecuted, a prophet of God, a son
of God, sent to the Jews for the reformation of manners.
"Circumcision," says the apostle Paul, "is good, if you observe the law;
but if you violate the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. If
any uncircumcised person keep the law, he will be as if circumcised. The
true Jew is one that is so inwardly."
When this apostle speaks of Jesus Christ in his epistles, he does not
reveal the ineffable mystery of his consubstantiality with God. "We are
delivered by him," says he, "from the wrath of God. The gift of God hath
been shed upon us by the grace bestowed on one man, who is Jesus
Christ.... Death reigned through the sin of one man; the just shall
reign in life by one man, who is Jesus Christ." (Romans v.)
And, in the eighth chapter: "We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs of
Christ;" and in the sixteenth chapter: "To God, who is the only wise, be
honor and glory through Jesus Christ... You are Jesus Christ's, and
Jesus Christ is God's." (1 Cor. chap. iii.)
And, in 1 Cor. xv. 27: "Everything is made subject to him, undoubtedly,
excepting God, who made all things subject to him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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