passage of acknowledged difficulty in the Acts of the Apostles. Not that the words themselves are obscure. The difficulty relates, not to grammatical construction, but to geographical details. The statement contained in St. Luke's words is as follows:-After preaching the Gospel in Phrygia and Galatia, they were hindered from preaching it in Asia; accordingly, when in Mysia or its neighbourhood, they attempted to penetrate into Bithynia; and this also being forbidden by the Divine Spirit, they passed by Mysia and came down to Troas. Now everything depends here on the sense we assign to the geographical terms. What is meant by the words "Mysia," "Asia," and "Bithynia ?" It will be remembered that all these words had a wider and a more restricted sense.3 They might be used popularly and vaguely; or they might be taken in their exacter political meaning. It seems to us that the whole difficulty disappears by understanding them in the former sense, and by believing what is much the more probable, à priori) that St. Luke wrote in the usual popular language, without any precise reference to the provincial boundaries. We need hardly mention Bithynia; for, whether we speak of it traditionally or politically, it was exclusive both of Asia and Mysia. In this place it is evident that Mysia is excluded also from Asia, just as Phrygia, is above; not because these two districts were not parts of it in its political character of a province, but because they had a history and a traditional character of their own, sufficiently independent to give them a name in popular usage. As regards Asia, it is simply viewed as the western portion of Asia Minor. Its relation to the peninsula has been very well described by saying that it occupied the same relative position 1 Acts xvi. 6, 7. For a similar accumulation of participles, see Acts xxv. 6-8. See Wieseler's remarks on this passage, p. 31, &c.

3 See above, p. 237.

6

4 Mysia was at one time an apple of discord between the kings of Pergamus and Bithynia; and at one time the latter were masters of a considerable tract on the shore of the Propontis. But this was at an end when the Romans began to interfere in the affairs of the east. See Livy's words of the kingdom of Asia: "Mysiam, quam Prusias rex ademerat, Eumeni restituerunt ;" and Cicero's on the province of Asia: "Asia vestra constat ex Phrygia, Mysia," &c., pp. 239, 240. It may be well to add a few words on the history of Mysia, which was purposely deferred to this place. See p. 239, n. 3. Under the Persians this corner of Asia Minor formed the satrapy of Little Phrygia under the Christian emperors it was the province of The Hellespont. In the intermediate period we find it called "Mysia," and often divided into two parts: viz. Little Mysia on the north, called also Mysia on the Hellespont, or Mysia Olym pene, because it lay to the north of Mount Olympus; and Great Mysia, or Myst Pergamene, to the south and east, containing the three districts of Troas, Æolis, and Teuthrauia. See Forbiger, p. 110.

5 Acts xvi. 6.

Böttger, in his First Essay (§ 16) says that Little Mysia is meant, and that this district was in the province of Bithynia; and de Wette seems to take the same view. But this is rather like cutting the knot; and, after all, there is no knot to be cut There appears to be no good proof that Little Mysia was in Bithynia.

which Portugal occupies with regard to Spain.

The comparison would

be peculiarly just in the passage before us. For the Mysia of St. Luke is to Asia what Gallicia is to Portugal; and the journey from Galatia and Phrygia to the city of Troas has its European parallel in a journey from Castile to Vigo.

We are evidently destitute of materials for laying down the route of St. Paul and his companions. All that relates to Phrygia and Galatia must be left vague and blank, like an unexplored country in a map (as in fact this region itself is in the maps of Asia Minor), where we are at liberty to imagine mountains and plains, rivers and cities, but are unable to furnish any proofs. As the path of the Apostle, however, approaches the Ægean, it comes out into comparative light: the names of places are again mentioned, and the country and the coast have been explored and described. The early part of the route then must be left indistinct. Thus much, however, we may venture to say,-that since the Apostle usually turned his steps towards the large towns, where many Jews were established, it is most likely that Ephesus, Smyrna, or Pergamus was the point at which he aimed, when he sought "to preach the word in Asia." There is nothing else to guide our conjectures, except the boundaries of the provinces and the direction of the principal roads. If he moved from Angora in the general direction above pointed out, he would cross the river Sangarius near Kiutaya, which is a great modern thoroughfare, and has been mentioned before (Ch. VI. p. 168) in connection with the route from Adalia to Constantinople; and a little further to the west, near Aizani, he would be about the place where the boundaries of Asia, Bithynia, and Mysia meet together, and on the watershed which separates the waters flowing northwards to the Propontis, and those which feed the rivers of the Egean.

4

Here then we may imagine the Apostle and his three companions to pause,―uncertain of their future progress,—on the chalk downs which lie

1 Paley's Hora Paulina.

'See Kiepert's map. Hardly any region in the peninsula has been less explored than Galatia and Northern Phrygia.

The roads in this part of Asia Minor are most effectively laid down in the map accompanying Franz's Fünf Städten, &c. But the boundaries of Galatia, Phrygia, Mysia, &c., there given, are not provincial.

4 Mr. Ainsworth mentions a hill near Angora in this direction, the Baulos-Dagh, which is named after the Apostle.

Kiutaya (the ancient Cotyæum) is now one of the most important towns in the peninsula. See Routes 99 and 100 in Murray's Handbook. It lies too on the ordinary road between Broussa and Konieh. Dorylæum (Eski-Sher) seems to have had the same relation to the ancient roads. One of those in the Peut. Table strikes off at this point into Bithynia, meeting that from Ancyra at Nicæa. Mr. Ainsworth (11. 46–62) trav、 elled from Nicæa by Dorylæum, Mr. Weston by Broussa and Kiutaya. The two routes meet near Synnada, and coincide as far as Konich. See p. 271.

between the fountains of the Rhyndacus and those of the Hermas,-ir the midst of scenery not very unlike what is familiar to us in England. The long range of the Mysian Olympus to the north is the boundary of Bithynia. The summits of the Phrygian Dindymus on the south are on the frontier of Galatia and Asia. The Hermus flows through the province of Asia to the islands of the Egean. The Rhyndacus flows to the Propontis, and separates Mysia from Bithynia. By following the road near the former river they would easily arrive at Smyrna or Pergamus By descending the valley of the latter and then crossing Olympus,' they would be in the richest and most prosperous part of Bithynia. In which direction shall their footsteps be turned? Some divine intimation, into the nature of which we do not presume to inquire, told the Apostles that the Gospel was not yet to be preached in the populous cities of Asia. The time was not yet come for Christ to be made known to the Greeks and Jews of Ephesus,-and for the churches of Sardis, Pergamus, Philadelphia, Smyrna, Thyatira, and Laodicea, to be admitted to their period of privilege and trial, for the warning of future generations. Shall they turn, then, in the direction of Bithynia? This also is forbidden. St. Paul (so far as we know) never crossed the Mysian Olympus, or entered the cities of Nicea and Chalcedon, illustrious places in the Christian history of a later age. By revelations, which were anticipative of the fuller and clearer communication at Troas, the destined path of the Apostolic

See Mr. Hamilton's account of the course of the Rhyndacus (I. v. vi. viii.); his comparison of the district of Azanitis to the chalk scenery of England (p. 100); and his notice of Dindymus (p. 105), which seems to be part of the watershed that crosses the country from the Taurus towards Ida, and separates the waters of the Mediterranean and Ægean from those of the Euxine and Propontis. In the course of his progress up the Rhydancus he frequently mentions the aspect of Olympus, the summit of which could not be reached at the end of March in consequence of the snow.

The ordinary road from Broussa to Kiutayah crosses a part of the range of Olym pus. The Peut. Table has a road joining Broussa with Pergamus.

3 It will be observed that they were merely forbidden to preach the Gospel (kahñca Tòv λóyov) in Asia. We are not told that they did not enter Asia. Their road lay entirely through Asia (politically speaking) from the moment of leaving Galatia till their arrival at Troas. On the other hand, they were not allowed to enter Bithynia at all (eis rìv B. πорεvõñνaι). Meyer's view of the word "Asia" in this passage is surprising. He holds it to mean the eastern continent as opposed to "Europe." [See p. 237, &c.] He says that the travellers, being uncertain whether Asia in the more limited sense were not intended, made a vain attempt to enter Bithynia, and finally learned at Troas that Europe was their destination.

The route is drawn in the map past Aizani into the valley of the Hermus, and then northwards towards Hadriani on the Rhyndacus. This is merely an imaginary line, to express to the eye the changes of plan which occurred successively to St. Paul The scenery of the Rhyndacus, which is interesting as the frontier river, has been fully explored and described by Mr. Hamilton, who ascended the river to its source, and then crossed over to the fountains of the Hermus and Meander, near which he saw an ancient road (p. 104), probably connecting Smyrna and Philadelphia with Angora