RECENT COMMENTARIES ON THE ACTS OF THE
HOLY APOSTLES.

1. The Acts of the Apostles; or, the History of the Church in the Apostolic Age. By M. Baumgarten, Doctor of Philosophy, and Professor in the University of Rostock. Translated from the German, by the Rev. A. J. W. MORRISON, Curate of Little Wittenham, Berks; and the Rev. THEOD. MEYER, Hebrew Tutor in the New College, Edinburgh. 3 vols. Edinburgh : T. and T. Clark. 1854. (Clark's Foreign Theological Library, New Series.) 2. A Commentary on the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. By WILLIAM GILSON HUMPHRY, B.D., &c. Second Edition, revised. London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 1854.

THE Book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles was called of old the Gospel of the HOLY GHOST, as furnishing a narrative of the Acts of that Divine Person of the HOLY TRINITY Which He wrought in and by the Apostles. Consistently with this view of the argument of the Book, as proving the great doctrine of the Resurrection of our LORD, it was in very early times appointed to be read in churches during the Pentecostal season, that is, from Easter to Whitsuntide. Of late years, however, it has been too much the custom to regard this Book as consisting of a series of sketches or histories, rather than as one whole; while some have occupied themselves with its chronology, others with verbal criticism upon its language, and others again with endeavouring to substantiate against it charges of misrepresenting and suppressing historical facts,1 no writer of eminence has come forward to demonstrate the internal unity of the history, and at the same time to point out the great principles and originals contained therein, the developement of which we see more or less in the present system of the Catholic Church. Now to effect this is the object of Dr. Baumgarten's Treatise. Feeling, as he says, that "the right form and constitution of the Church, both as a whole and in its parts, are so far from being settled, that it is only now that their importance and urgency are at length fully felt," he turns for the solution of these questions to the Acts of the Apostles, and in a reverent but latitudinarian spirit, endeavours to point out the unity of connection between all the parts of the sacred narrative, deducing from it a HebraicoGerman theory of a future supremacy of converted Israelites, and a millennial reign of Messiah.

"It is easy to foresee," he says in his introduction, "that this conclusion will be sure to incur the charge of falling into the very extreme 1 E.g. Zeller, an heretical writer of some note.

of all previous historical views of the Acts of the Apostles; for, it will be urged, that it seeks to discover in this book far more of plan and purpose than the book really could, and than it actually does contain. To this I have, in the outset, no other answer to give than an analogy which I now adduce. He who contemplates nature in her exterior aspects, discerns nothing but the life and motion of a mass of objects apparently without plan or method; he, however, whose glance penetrates into her internal economy cannot fail to discover in them her final cause of order and law. And is not our experience the same in the case of those original works in which the mind of man displays its creative genius? The first impression which the works of Homer or Shakspeare make upon us is that of a wild luxuriance of nature; and yet commentators have not yet found a limit to the discovery of leading thoughts pervading and running through the whole. And are we to think less than this of the HOLY GHOST, who prepares and sanctifies for Himself His human instruments for the production of the Scriptures, which in all ages of the Church are to lend to every holy thought, and to every spiritual impulse, the support of a divine certainty?"Vol. I., pp. 4, 5.

Dr. Baumgarten's work is divided into three parts. The first, which is called, The Church among the Jews, contains the history up to the end of the viith chapter; the second, termed, The Church in its passage from the Jews to the Gentiles, comprises the "Diffusion of the Gospel without the Apostles, the account of S. Philip the deacon, the conversion of S. Paul, the rise of the first Gentile Churches, and the hostility of Judea at its height, and its retribution." (Chap. xii. 25.) The last part is named, The Church among the Gentiles, and contains the rest of the history to the end of the Book. Without attempting to give our readers an accurate account of the contents of these volumes, or to follow the author in his diffuse and discursive narrative, we will endeavour to convey some idea of the way in which the subject is treated under each of the three heads above, and at the same time to exhibit the writer's views with respect to the unity of purpose which runs through the whole history.

I. The introduction to the Acts of the Apostles, no less than that to the Gospel of its author, S. Luke, is to be regarded as conveying an intimation of the purpose and plan of the succeeding narrative. As regards the book before us, by referring us back to the "former Treatise," it at once suggests the clue to its object. By mentioning the labours and sufferings of our Blessed LORD while on earth, and from them passing on to His converse with His disciples during the Great Forty Days, and thereupon narrating His Ascension in their sight, S. Luke, it would seem, means to show that his object is to demonstrate the connection between our LORD's past and present life, His initiatory labours on earth, His ascended life in heaven, how He prepared the way for His Church, how after His ascension He ruled and governed it by His Spirit. To this

view of the scope of the Acts Dr. Baumgarten adds a theory which we have before hinted at, viz., the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, "the setting up again of the kingdom of GOD in its earthly visibility," p. 27. He considers that this is intimated very early in the history by our LORD's command to His Apostles not to depart from Jerusalem, by His answer to their question, "LORD, wilt Thou at this time restore," &c., which, while He puts it aside, He rather admits than negatives, by the fact that Jerusalem is not only the spot where the HOLY GHOST is received, but also the starting point whence the Spirit commences Its operations, and that the city receives this distinction chiefly for the sake of the people. He adds, that "as Jerusalem is pointed out for the starting point of the preaching of Christianity, so Rome may very justly be looked upon as the goal;" and this theory he proceeds to maintain throughout his work. We need not trouble our readers with more of this view than is absolutely necessary, as there is much that is sensible in the book, with which we can entirely agree, but it would not be fair to the author to omit all mention of what is manifestly the gist of his labours. After the Apostolic college was filled up by the appointment of S. Matthias by lot, (xλñpos, which gives occasion to our author to notice the antitype which the office of the Apostles offers to the share of the twelve tribes in the Land of Canaan,) the founding of the Church is narrated by S. Luke in the great event of the day of Pentecost. Contrary to the timehonoured reckoning which considers Pentecost to have been the fiftieth day after the first Easter Sunday, Dr. Baumgarten holds that the Pentecost this year corresponded with the Sabbath; and, doubtless, counting seven weeks from the second day of the Passover, we should find that the following or fiftieth day would then have been Saturday. But calculations of this kind, made without regard to the universal Christian tradition, are commonly erroneous, and in the present instance the Pentecost of which the Evangelist speaks is certainly not the Jewish but the Christian feast, and reckoned not from the Jewish but the Christian Passover. It was in the "upper chamber," of the Last Supper, (not in a "house belonging to the temple," p. 42,) that the miraculous effusion of the HOLY SPIRIT upon the one hundred and twenty disciples took place. The relation of this event to the festal commemoration of the giving of the Law upon Sinai is strongly insisted upon by the German commentator, as well as the reference to the confusion of tongues at Babel.

"But the allusion is not simply to the recovery from the confusion which then occurred, as is implied in the well-known saying of Grotius, 'Pœna linguarum dispersit homines, donum linguarum dispersos in unum populum collegit.' The reunion, that is, of the scattered nations of the earth into one people, is not the characteristic feature of our Pente

costal event, for that might be predicated even of an universal empire. But whereas the empire of the world has the will and the power to exhibit unity only as identity-only by the annihilation of all historical peculiarities; in the unity which is here exhibited we find the languages of the nations maintaining all that is purest, noblest, and best in all their developement, only that they serve as organs of the Spirit to set forth the praise of GOD."-Vol. I., p. 62.

Hereupon ensues the first preaching of the Apostles; and first of all the sermon of S. Peter, who proving from prophecy that the Pentecostal event was foreknown, and that the "last days" are come, shows what is the only hope of salvation in that consummation which has even now begun, that hope being belief in that LORD Whom the Jews had slain, but Who was risen again, and was now in heaven at GoD's right hand, and was working for and with His Apostles, as they might all see for themselves by the event which that hour had brought to pass. In accordance with the view taken by Dr. Baumgarten, he makes the words of S. Peter, "to them that are afar off," ii. 39, refer to the Jews dispersed in distant lands who are to be saved, and to come to the " 'earthly locality" (vol. I. p. 74,) of Mount Zion.

Both the work we are now noticing, and that of Mr. Humphry, which we have yet to speak of, explain the xovwvía, ii. 42, (contrary to the Vulgate, many ancient commentators, Bp. Pearson, and others,) to mean "communion of gifts of charity," "communication of worldly goods." Doubtless the repetition of the article with each of the three words creates a difficulty, but we think it quite possible that καὶ τῇ κλάσει τ. 4. may be added in explanation of T xonavia, which will square with the Vulgate translation "communicatione fractionis panis," and with Bp. Pearson's idea of a ev dia duoiv. We are glad to see that both Dr. Baumgarten and Mr. Humphry see in the "breaking of bread" the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

The first miracle wrought by S. Peter gives him occasion to refer again to the mission of our LORD, Whom he regards as still operating upon earth, which he further enforces when examined before the Sanhedrim. This first hostility overcome, and the Divine approval and support signified to the Church by the shaking of the earth, whose rulers had in vain gathered themselves together against their LORD and themselves, the Christian community meet with their first danger from within. We have not space to examine the account of this, nor of the first suffering of the Apostles, nor yet again of the dissension which led to the appointment of deacons. The martyrdom of S. Stephen concludes the first Book.

II. The bloody end of S. Stephen, and the subsequent persecution of the Church, must have convinced the brethren that the universal rejection of the Gospel by the Jews was beginning; and 1 We doubt whether this holds good of such an empire as e.g. Austria.

thus Christianity was passing from the once chosen people to the Gentiles. While the Apostles themselves remained at Jerusalem, without their personal aid the gospel is preached in the country round about by the persecuted and hunted Christians, Samaria forming as it were "the bridge between Jerusalem and the world," (p. 186.) Dr. Baumgarten takes very much the same view of the baptism of the Samaritans by S. Philip which we notice below in Mr. Humphry's commentary, only the former lays much weight on the term "baptized in the Name of the LORD JESUS," which the latter rightly sees to be merely an expression for the usual Christian baptism. The German divine considers that the ordinary law was interrupted in the case of these converts in order to introduce the Apostles and connect them with the new developement of the Church, and its extension in the world, (§ 14.) We have given below the received and Catholic view of the circumstance.

The following remarks upon the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch are for the most part worth repeating :

"Now, there stands before our eyes the New Testament antitype of the Ethiopian eunuch, Ebed-Melech, at the court of King Zedekiah. When all Israel despised the word, and persecuted the servant of JEHOVAH, it was the Ethiopian Ebed-Melech who alone had a heart for both. Therefore at the time when Jerusalem, together with its king and people, was menaced with the threat that they should be given, without pity, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, a personal assurance of the Divine protection and preservation is vouchsafed beforehand to this Ethiopian. (See Jerem. xxxix. 16-18.) In the same way at the very time when the rulers of the people of Israel had risen up against the word of the LORD and His Apostles, we here behold this chamberlain from the far east filled with a yearning desire for the light and life of the Gospel. Therefore, while the former, with their temple and worship, are given over to the expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, the Chamberlain attains to personal communion with the LORD in Heaven, and has such satisfaction in this communion that he needs neither man nor thing besides."-Vol. I., p. 209.

It is very usual to consider the impression of the heavenly vision upon S. Paul as irresistible, that the miracle was extended to the mind of the persecutor, and put a force upon his will which he could not withstand. The Apostle's language, (xxvi. 19,) however, where he says he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, implies that his free will was not taken away, and that he might have remained unbelieving. Even the saying of our LORD, "It is hard for thee," &c., intimates that a struggle might be maintained though with loss and damage, the difficulty lying in the opposition of human nature to grace. The LORD does not take from Saul his self-determination with its struggles and labours, He "points out to him a struggle of life and death which he had to undergo before he could free himself from his unworthy position."