The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 1Stokes, George Thomas
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 1
Stokes, George Thomas
Bible. Acts -- Commentaries; Bible. Acts -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
not sufficient judges because we do not possess that spirit which
would make us to sympathise with and understand the state of the
Church at that time. "They were all together in one place." The
Church was then visibly united, and internally united too. A
nineteenth century Christian, with the endless divisions of
Christendom, is scarcely the most fitting judge of the Church and the
Church's blessings when the Spirit of the Master pervaded it and the
prayer of the Master for visible unity was fulfilled in it.
Christendom is weak now from its manifold divisions. Even in a mere
natural way, and from a mere human point of view, we can see how its
divisions destroy its power and efficacy as Christ's witness in the
world. But when we take the matter from a spiritual point of view, we
cannot even guess what marvellous gifts and endowments, needful for
the edification of His people and the conversion of the world, we now
lack from want of the Divine charity and peace which ruled the hearts
of the twelve as they assembled in the upper room that Pentecostal
morn. We shall better understand primitive gifts when we get back
primitive union.
[54] It is a completely mistaken notion, which no one would
cherish who had read history with a full-orbed mental eye,
realizing the past with its circumstances, that Latin and Greek
superseded all other languages throughout the empire. Local
dialects and languages continued to flourish all the time, save
amongst the official classes. Else how did Welsh survive to this
day in England? How did Celtic survive in France side by side with
Latin? The two celebrated cases of Gregory of Tours and of St.
Patrick show that their Latin was of a very rude and corrupt kind;
their real spoken language was Celtic, the tongue of the mass of
the people. In a learned work just published I note a confirmation
of this view. Professor Ramsay, in his _Historical Geography of
Asia Minor_, p. 24, avows how his mind has changed on this
question in regard to Asia Minor. "Romans governed Asia Minor,
because with their marvellous governing talent they knew how to
adapt their administration to the people of the plateau. It is
true that the great cities (of Asia Minor) put on a Western
appearance, and took Latin or Greek names. Latin and Greek were
the languages of government, of the educated classes, and of
polite society. Only this superficial aspect is attested in
literature and in ordinary history, and when I began to travel the
thought had never occurred to me that there was any other. The
conviction has gradually forced itself on me that the real state
of the country was very different. Greek was not the popular
language of the plateau, even in the third century after Christ;
the mass of the people spoke Lycaonian, and Galatian, and
Phrygian, although those who wrote books wrote Greek, and those
who governed spoke Latin." See again pp. 98, 99 for much more on
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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