in a south-easterly direction. It is, however, not many years since the statement could be confidently made. Strabo, indeed, describes its position with remarkable clearness and precision. His words are as follows:"In the district of Phrygia called Paroreia, there is a certain mountainridge, stretching from east to west. On each side there is a large plain below this ridge and it has two cities in its neighbourhood; Philomelium on the north, and on the other side Antioch, called Antioch near Pisidia. The former lies entirely in the plain, the latter (which has a Roman colony) is on a height." With this description before him, and taking into account certain indications of distance furnished by ancient authorities, Colonel Leake, who has perhaps done more for the elucidation of Classical Topography than any other man, felt that Ak-Sher, the position assigned to Antioch by D'Anville and other geographers, could not be the true place: Ak-Sher is on the north of the ridge, and the position could not be made to harmonise with the Tables. But he was not in possession of any information which could lead him to the true position; and the problem remained unsolved till Mr. Arundell started from Smyrna, in 1833, with the deliberate purpose of discovering the scene of St. Paul's labours. He successfully proved that Ak-Sher is Philomelium, and that Antioch is at Jalobatch, on the other side of the ridge. The narrative of his successful journey is very interesting: and every Christian ought to sympathise in the pleasure with which, knowing that Antioch was seventy miles from Apamea, and forty-five miles from Apollonia, he first succeeded in identifying Apollonia; and then, exactly at the right distance, per ceived, in the tombs near a fountain, and the vestiges of an ancient road, sure indications of his approach to a ruined city; and then saw, across the plain, the remains of an aqueduct at the base of the mountain; and, finally, arrived at Jalobatch, ascended to the elevation described by Strabo, and felt, as he looked on the superb ruins around, that he was "really on the spot consecrated by the labours and persecution of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas." 3

The position of the Pisidian Antioch being thus determined by the convergence of ancient authority and modern investigation, we perceive that it lay on an important line of communication, westward by Apamea

1 Ἡ παρώρεια ορεινήν τινα ἔχει ῥάχιν, ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνατολῆς ἐκτεινομένην ἐπὶ δύσιν. ταύτη δ' ἑκατέρωθεν ὑποπέπτωκε τὶ πεδίον μέγα, καὶ πόλεις πλησίον αὐτῆς, πρὸς ἄρκτον μὲν Φιλομήλιον, ἐκ θατέρου δὲ μέρους ̓Αντιόχεια, ἡ πρὸς Πισιδίᾳ καλουμένη· ἡ μὲν, ἐν πεδίῳ κειμένη πᾶσα, ἡ δ' ἐπὶ λόφου, ἔχουσα ἐποικίαν Ῥωμαίων. xii. 8.

'See Leake's Asia Minor, p. 41. The same difficulties were perceived by Mannert, p. 179.

See Arundell's Asia Minor, ch. xii. xiii. xiv. and the view. There is also a view in Laborde. The opinion of Mr. Arundell is fully confirmed by Mr. Hamilton. Researches in Asia Minor, vol. 1. ch. xxvii. The aqueduct conveyed water to the town from the Sultan Dagh (Strabo's opɛivn þáxis).

2

with the valley of the Mæander, and eastward by Iconium with the coun try behind the Taurus. In this general direction, between Smyrna and Ephesus on the one hand, and the Cilician Gates which lead down to Tarsus on the other, conquering armies and trading caravans, Persian satraps, Roman proconsuls, and Turkish pachas, have travelled for centu ries. The Pisidian Antioch was situated about half-way between these extreme points. It was built (as we have seen in an earlier chapter, IV. p. 122) by the founder of the Syrian Antioch; and in the age of the Greek kings of the line of Seleucus it was a town of considerable importance. But its appearance had been modified, since the campaigns of Scipio and Manlius, and the defeat of Mithridates, by the introduction of Roman usages, and the Roman style of building. This was true to a certain extent, of all the larger towns of Asia Minor: but this change had probably taken place in the Pisidian Antioch, more than in many cities of greater importance; for, like Philippi, it was a Roman Colonia. Without delaying, at present, to explain the full meaning of this term, we may say that the character impressed on any town in the Empire which had been made subject to military colonisation was particularly Roman, and that all such towns were bound by a tie of peculiar closeness to the Mother City. The insignia of Roman power were displayed more conspicuously than in other towns in the same province. In the provinces where Greek was spoken, while other towns had Greek letters on their coins, the money of the colonies was distinguished by Latin superscriptions. Antioch must have had some eminence among the eastern colonies, for it was founded by Augustus, and called Cæsarea.

Such coins as those

⚫m illustration of this we may refer to the caravan routes and Persian military vas as indicated in Kieppert's Hellas, to Xenophon's Anabasis, to Alexander's campaign and Cicero's progress, to the invasion of Tamerlane, and the movements of the Turkish and Egyptian armies in 1832 and 1833.

4 'Exovoa πоIKίav 'Pouaiwv: Strabo xii. 8. Pisidarum colonia Cæsarea, eadem Antiochia: Plin. N. H. v. 24. In Pisidia juris Italici est colonia Antiochensium: Paulus in Digest. Lib. 1. tit. xv. (de colonis et jure Italico).

We should learn this from the inscription on the coins, COL. CES. ANTIOCHIE, From the British Museum.

described and represented on this page, were in circulation here, though not at Perga or Iconium, when St. Paul visited these cities: and, more than at any other city visited on this journey, he would hear Latin spoken side by side with the Greek, and the ruder Pisidian dialect."

Along with this population of Greeks, Romans, and native Pisidians, a greater or smaller number of Jews was intermixed. They may not have been a very numerous body, for only one synagogue3 is mentioned in the narrative. But it is evident, from the events recorded, that they were an influential body, that they had made many proselytes, and that they had obtained some considerable dominion (as in the parallel cases of Damascus recorded by Josephus, and Beroa and Thessalonica in the Acts of the Apostles) over the minds of the Gentile women.

On the sabbath days the Jews and the proselytes met in the synagogue. It is evident that at this time full liberty of public worship was permitted to the Jewish people in all parts of the Roman empire, whatever limitations might have been enacted by law or compelled by local opposition, as relates to the form and situation of the synagogues. We infer from Epiphanius that the Jewish places of worship were often erected in open and conspicuous positions. This natural wish may frequently

if we did not learn it from Pliny, quoted in the preceding note. Mr. Hamilton found an inscription at Yalobatch, with the letters ANTIOCH EAE CAESARE. (p. 474.) 1 From the British Museum.

'Strabo, speaking of Cibyra in Lycia, says, TérTapoι yλúrrais Expavтo oi Kibvpáraι, τῇ Πισιδικῇ, τῇ Σολύμων, τῇ Ἑλληνίδι, τῇ Λυδῶν. xiii. 4. Again, he mentions thirteen "barbarous " tribes as opposed to the Greeks, and among these the Pisidians. xiv. 5. We shall have to return to this subject of language again, in speaking of the speech of Lycaonia." Acts xiv. 11.

See remarks on Salamis, p. 141.

The people of Damascus were obliged to use caution in their scheme of assassinating the Jews ;ἐδεδοίκεσαν γὰρ τὰς ἑαυτῶν γυναῖκας ἁπάσας πλὴν ὀλίγων ὑπηγμένες τῇ Ἰουδαϊκή θρησκεία. B. J. ii. 20, 2.

5 Acts xvii. 4. 12.

6 He is speaking of the synagogue at Nablous, and says: IIpooevXIS TÓTOS EV Ziki μοις, ἐν τῇ νυνὶ καλουμένῃ Νεαπόλει, ἐξω τῆς πόλεως ἐν τῇ πεδιάδι ὡς ἀπὸ σημείων δύο, θεατροειδής, οὕτως ἐν ἀέρι καὶ αἰθρίῳ τόπῳ ἐστὶ κατασκευασθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν Σαμαρειτών

have been checked by the influence of the heathen priests, who would not willingly see the votaries of an ancient idolatry forsaking the temple for the synagogue and feelings of the same kind may probably have hindered the Jews, even if they had the ability or desire, from erecting religious edifices of any remarkable grandeur and solidity. No ruins of the synagogues of imperial times have remained to us, like those of the temples in every province, from which we are able to convince ourselves of the very form and size of the sanctuaries of Jupiter, Apollo, and Diana. There is little doubt that the sacred edifices of the Jews have been modified by the architecture of the remote countries through which they have been dispersed, and the successive centuries through which they have continued a separate people. Under the Roman Empire it is natural to suppose that they must have varied, according to circumstances, through all gradations of magnitude and decoration, from the simple proseucha at Philippi1 to the magnificent prayer-houses at Alexandria. Yet there are certain traditional peculiarities which have doubtless united together by a common resemblance the Jewish synagogues of all ages and countries.3 The arrangement for the women's places in a separate gallery, or behind a partition of lattice-work,—the desk in the centre, where the Reader, like Ezra in ancient days, from his "pulpit of wood," may" open the book in the sight of all the people... and read in the book the law of God distinctly, and give the sense, and cause them to understand the reading," the carefully closed Ark on the one side of the building nearest to Jerusalem, for the preservation of the rolls or manuscripts of the Law, the seats all round the building, whence "the eyes of all them that are in the synagogue" may be "fastened" on him who speaks,— the "chief seats," which were appropriated to the "ruler" or "rulers" of the synagogue, according as its organisation might be more or less complete, and which were so dear to the hearts of those who professed to be πάντα τὰ τῶν Ἰουδαίων μιμουμένων. Hær. lxxx. 1. Frequently they were built by the waterside for the sake of ablution. Compare Acts xvi. 13 with Joseph. Ant. xiv. 10, 23. 1 Acts xvi. 13. The question of the identity or difference of the proseucha and synagogue will be considered hereafter. Probably πрoσevx is a general term. See Juv. Sat. iii. 296. Joseph. Vit. § 54. We find in Philo the words роσενкτŃριov (de Vit. Mos. iii. 685) and ovvayúylov (Legat. p. 1035).

See Philo Legat. ad Cai. p. 1011.

3 Besides the works referred to in the notes to Ch. II., Allen's "Modern Judaism" and Bernard's "Synagogue and Church" may be consulted with advantage on subjecta connected with the synagogue.

4 See Philo, as referred to by Winer.

5 Nehem. viii. 4–8.

• This "Armarium Judaicum" is mentioned by Tertullian. De Cultu Fœm. i. 3. 7 See Luke iv. 20.

8 Thesе πрштокаbédpiaι (Mat. xxiii. 6) seem to have faced the rest of the congrega tion. See Jam. ii. 3.

9 Αρχισυναγωγός, Luke xiii. 14. Acts xviii. 8. 17. πρεσβύτεροι, Luke vii. 3. άρχι orvaywyoć, Mark v. 22. Acts xiii. 15. Some are of opinion that the smaller syragogue

peculiarly learned or peculiarly devout, these are some of the features of a synagogue, which agree at once with the notices of Scripture, the descriptions in the Talmud, and the practice of modern Judaism.

3

The meeting of the congregations in the ancient synagogues may be easily realised, if due allowance be made for the change of costume, by those who have seen the Jews at their worship in the large towns of Modern Europe. On their entrance into the building, the four-cornered Tallith was first placed like a veil over the head, or like a scarf over the shoulders. The prayers were then recited by an officer called the "Angel," or "Apostle," of the Assembly. These prayers were doubtless many of them identically the same with those which are found in the present service-books of the German and Spanish Jews, though their liturgies, in the course of ages, have undergone successive developments, the steps of which are not easily ascertained. It seems that the prayers were sometimes read in the vernacular language of the country where the synagogue was built; but the Law was always read in Hebrew. The sacred roll of manuscript was handed from the Ark to the Reader by the Chazan, or "Minister;" and then certain portions were read according to a fixed cycle, first from the Law and then from the Prophets. It is impossible to determine the period when the sections from these two divisions of the Old Testament were arranged, as in use at present; but the same necessity for translation and explanation existed then as now The Hebrew and English are now printed in parallel columns. Then, the reading of the Hebrew was elucidated by the Targum or the Septuagint, or followed by a paraphrase in the spoken language of the country." The Reader stood while thus employed, and all the congregation sat around. The manuscript was rolled up and returned to the Chazan." had one "ruler," the larger many. It is more probable that the "chief ruler" with the "elders" formed a congregational council, like the kirk-session in Scotland.

4

8

5

1 The use of the Tallith is said to have arisen from the Mosaic commandment directing that fringes should be worn on the four corners of the garment.

"R. Gamaliel dicit: Legatus ecclesiæ fungitur officio pro omnibus, et officio hoo rite perfunctus omnes ab obligatione liberat." Vitringa, who compares Rev. ii. 1. 3 See Winer's Realwörterbuch, art. Synagogen.

4 See the words ávanтúžas and πтúžαç, Luke iv. 17, 20. In 1 Mac. iii. 48 the phrase Με ἐξεπέτασαν τὸ βίβλιον τοῦ νόμου.

Luke iv. 17, 20.

A full account both of the Paraschioth or Sections of the Law, and the Haphtaroth or Sections of the Prophets, as used both by the Portuguese and German Jews, may be seen in Horne's Introduction, vol. iii. pp. 254-258.

7 See pp. 35, 36. In Palestine the Syro-Chaldaic language would be used; in the Dispersion, usually the Greek. Lightfoot (Exerc. on Acts) seems to think that the Pisidian language was used here. See the passage of Strabo quoted above. 'Avarràs, Acts xiii. 16. On the other hand, kábloɛ is said of Our Lord's solemr

teaching, Luke iv. 20.

See Luke iv. 20.