Landmarks in the History of Early ChristianityLake, Kirsopp
History
Landmarks in the History of Early Christianity
Lake, Kirsopp
Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
Soon after this more missionaries arrived from Jerusalem. They do not
appear to have been active propagandists, but brought with them a sad
story of approaching destitution in the famine which was at hand. The
Church at Antioch rose to the necessity and sent Paul and Barnabas with
relief.[3] Acts tells us nothing more of what happened, but that soon
after Paul and Barnabas, having returned to Antioch, started on the
"First Missionary Journey."[4] On their return, however, a mission of
protest against their methods arrived from Jerusalem. Paul, Barnabas,
and some others went up to Jerusalem; a meeting of the representatives
of the two churches was held, and an amicable agreement which was in
the main a triumph for Antioch was arrived at.[5]
This appears to be Paul's third visit to Jerusalem after his
conversion; but this raises difficulties, and has led to considerable
critical investigation and not a little controversy. It had always
been supposed that this visit of Paul to Jerusalem was identical with
that described in the second chapter of Galatians, but in that chapter
Paul, calling God to witness that he is not lying, makes a statement
which loses all its point if it was not his second visit. Various {63}
attempts to explain this difficulty have been made. One solution of
the problem is that the visit to Jerusalem described in Galatians ii.
is not identical with that of Acts xv., but is an episode connected
with the visit in the time of the famine relief, which the writer of
Acts had either not known or thought it unnecessary to recount.[6]
According to this theory the visit described in Acts xv. took place
after the visit in Galatians had been written. But this theory does
not answer the difficulty that the apostolic decrees are not mentioned
in the Epistles to the Corinthians, and that it is incredible that they
could have been overlooked by Paul if the account in Acts xv. were
wholly correct. It seems better to accept the suggestion that the
solution of the problem is to be found in the source-criticism of Acts.
The source-criticism of Acts has passed through three more or less
spasmodic stages.[7] The first was early in the nineteenth century
when a number of scholars endeavoured to analyse the book. Their
efforts were not very successful, though they unearthed a great many
interesting phenomena. Later on, in the 'nineties, another series of
efforts were made with, on the whole, even less success than before.
{64} Finally, in our own time there have been some interesting
suggestions by Harnack, Schwartz, and Torrey.[8]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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