THE 'ACTS OF PAUL.'

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 1 April 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE 'ACTS OF PAUL.'

HOW MUCH CAN BE ACCEPTED AS

FACT?

Tt will be a disappointment to all serious students of Christian antiquities to learn that the 'Acts of Paul.' the famous second-century romance the discovery of which was announced a year ago, is likely to remain unpublished for yet another year. Dr. Carl Schmidt, of Heidelberg, the fortunate discoverer of .the papyrus leaves, feels that his first duty is with respect to an earlier bit of trea-sure-trove, "The Gospel of Mary;' and besides this, he finds hmiself retarded by the exceptional textual difficulties which his papyrus fragments present.

The 'Acts of Paul' was a romance (but professedly a veracious story), written in St. Paul's honour-by a-presbyter of Asia Minor, A.D. 160—SO; and though he finally confessed'to the fraud, fora century or more his work retained its position in certain quarters as authentic, and even canonical.' Last year's discovery showed that we had long possessed portions of this lost work without knowing them to be such—viz.:— (1) Correspondence of the Corinthians with St. Paul. (2) The Thekla narrative, in which are recounted the tribulations which a nunminded maiden suffered in order to escape marriage; (3) The account of St. Paul's last days and martyrdom, published some years ago by Lipsius. The last of these three fragments seems now to be FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT; on account of the indirect light which it throws on the Roman Petrine legend, according to the best known form of which Peter and Paul met in Rome, and suffered ma7-tyrdom together. In curious contrast to this conception, the.'Acts of Paul,' while bringing Peter as well as Paul to Rome, leave no opportunity for a rencontrethe sequence of events being as follows:— Paul, in some way or other, apparently by the favour of his gaoler, is enabled to quit Rome, and, in consequence of a vision, undertakes his long-planned journey to Spain. During his absence. Simon Magus arrives on the scene, and the brethren are thrown into despair. But a vision summons Peter from Judaea to fill the gap. He arrives and worsts the magician;' and. finally, in consequence of his inducing wives to separate from yieir husbands, he is crucified. Then Paul returns from Spain, and is finally martyred too. So. according to this form of the PauloPetrine legend, Peter and Paul never met at all. Whether it will be found, when the full document is published that any real support is given to the idea of St. Paul's imprisonmeni in Rome for a second time is a question which at present cannot be quite definitely answered; but, so far as can be judged from the utterances of those who have seen the new papyrus, the chances are very much the other way. Mr Montague James's announcement at the last Church Congress that in the 'Acts of Paul' would be: found 'a precious residuum of genuine fact' seems to HAVE BEEN UNDULY OPTIMISTIC. Equally discredited is the similar opinion with regard' to the Thekla ■• narrative, which Professor Ramsay pronounced a couple of years ago, before the origin of that narrative had been definitely discovered. The view taken of the 'Acts of Paul' by Dr. Schmidt and Professor Harnach is that its historical character is exceedingly low, and It is this fact that in their present opinion constitutes the really important point about the new discovery. Here, say they, is a presbyter, circ. A.D. 170, who, as far as can be judged at present, knew and accepted our Four Gospels, and the Acts, and the Pauline Epistles (including the Pastorals), and yet he deliberately forged a false history of St. Paul. "That a man so circumstanced should have acted in such a manner, and that his work should have been so widely accepted., is a fact calculated, in the opinion of the two professors, to loosen confidence as to several books of the Canon. In conclusion, it may be mentioned that these precious .papyrus fragments of the 'Acts of Paul' might have been acquired by Messrs Grenfell and Hunt if the Egypt Exploration Fund had been more generously supported. Those two scholars are now on their J way back from the Fajjum, and though . it would be unreasonable to expect more such treasure trove as they brought back from Oxyrhynchus, they will, it may be hoped, enable one to think with less dis- ' content of the prize that was left for i Germans coming after them,