ST. PAUL'S FIRST JOURNEY IN ASIA lriiNOR. 281 their fellow-men. Temptation by an unseen tempter, is an experience as familiar to every spiritually-observant man, as rescue by an unseen deliverer. Nor is there any abstract reason why we should refuse credence to this evidence of our experience reinforcing the evidence of holy writ. All thinkers will agree that our mind is unable to comprehend the origin of evil, and this is no mean confirmation of the doctrine that it did not origin­ ate among beings of our rank but was imported to us from other spheres. If so, the question is at an end. And if attr fall has been able to inflict calamity upon the whole creation which groaneth, why should this principle be con­ fined to us ? What abstract reason can be urged against the existence of Beelzebub which would not also disprove the possibility of Heliogabalus, Philip the Second, and the Napoleons? Evil, that is the portent, and not the exist­ ence of evil spirits any more than evil men. And concerning the existence of evil one can only say that Christianity is no more responsible for it than theism, while atheism, the rival of both, can neither explain evil nor good, except by confounding them with the profitable and the injurious, sin with a bad accident, remorse with pain, the joy of an approving conscience with that of a good investment. G. A. CHADWICK. ST. PAUL'S FIRST JOURNEY IN ASIA MINOR. III. IT is characteristic of the way in which the figure of Paul dwarfed that of Barnabas in the memory of later genera­ tions in Asia Minor, where the Acta Theklce was written, that no reference to the latter occurs in these Acta. The companions of Paul are only the treacherous Hermogenes and Demas. I allude to this point because it suggests why 282 ST. PAUL'S FIRST JOURNEY IN ASIA MINOR. auTOU>; was changed to aUTOV in Acts xiv. 1, as it appears in Codex Bezro. The corrector thought only of Pa1;1l. 1 According to the route described, Paul and Barnabas entered !conium from the west, having a good view of the extensive gardens and orchards, which form such a charm­ ing feature of the suburbs. C H give a very fair account of Iconium,2 of the great part that it played in later his­ tory, and of the natural features amid which it is placed, at the western extremity of the vast plains of .Lycaonia, with a mountainous country beginning to the west about six miles away, and hills on the north and south at a dis­ tance of about ten or twelve miles. !conium was in early times a city of Phrygia, situated on the eastern frontier, where Phrygia borders on Lycaonia; but in later times it was called a city of Lycaonia. It is important for our purposes to discover at what period it began to be called a city of Lycaonia and ceased to be Phrygian. Modern geographers all state that no writer later than Xenophon calls !conium Phrygian ; but this is erroneous. In Acts xiv. 6 the apostles, being in danger at !conium, are said to have " fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding country." .The writer obviously considered that in their flight from !conium to a town eighteen miles distant they crossed the Lycaoiiian frontier, and his view is precisely that of Xenophon, who also entered Lycaonia immediately after leaving !conium. 1 I hope to discuss the readings of Cod. Bez. relating to Asia Minor in a volume whic'h will shortly appear, and to give reasons which suggest that certain changes were introduced by a reviser familiar with the topography of Asia Minor as it was between A.D. 100 and 150. 2 But they ought not to quote Leake's incorrect statement that Mount Argams in Cappadocia is visible from the outskirts of the city. Hamilton has rightly exp1·essed his disbelief in this statement. The two snowy peaks which Leake saw are the peaks of the Hassan Dagh, a lofty mountain north-west of Tyana, which I have seen from a still greater distance. The summit of Argams is single, and though it is higher than Hassan Dagh, being about 13,000 feet, it could not possibly be visible from such a distance as !conium : moreover Hassan Dagh lies 1·ight in the way. ST. PAUL'S FIRST JOURNEY IN ASIA MINOR. 283 The coincidence between the two journeys is perfect: the phrase in Acts is a striking instance of local accuracy and a sufficient proof that even in the first century after Christ !conium was by the natives reckoned as Phrygian. It is true that Cicero, Strabo, and Pliny make !conium a Lycaonian city. This constitutes a perfectly satisfactory proof that such was the general usage between at least 100 B.c. and 100 A.D., founded on the fact that for ad­ ministrative purposes !conium was united with Lycaonia; but it is quite consistent with the view that the Iconians continued to count themselves Phrygian, and to distinguish themselves from their Lycaonian neighbours even after they were united with them in one governmental district. The witness to this view actually visited !conium, came into intimate relations with the people, and spoke accord­ ing to the native fashion. In the third century another visitor's testimony assigns !conium to Phrygia. This witness is Firmilian, bishop of Cresarea in Cappadocia. It is certain that he had visited the city, for he implies that he was present at the council held there about 215 A.D. 1 The supposition that the Iconians clung to their old nationality, after it had become a mere historical memory devoid of political reality, may appear rather hazardous, as the ancients are certainly rather loose in using geogra­ phical terms. But one who has studied the history of Asia Minor realises how persistently ethnical and national distinctions were maintained, and how strong were the prejudice and even antipathy felt by each tribe or nation against its neighbours. The Iconians cherished their pride of birth ; and in all probability difference of language originally emphasized their diversity from t See Cyprian, Epist. lxxv. 7. On the other hand, Ammianus xiv. 2, 1, speaks of it as a town of Pisidia; the re-arrangement of the provinces about A.D. 297 led to this temporary connexion, which does not concern us, (See Hi~t. Geogr., p. 393). 284 ST. PAUL'S FIRST JOURNEY IN ASIA MINOR. their Lycaonian neighbours. It is inconsistent with the whole character of these races to suppose that the Phry­ gians of !conium could be brought to call themselves Lycaonians, and to give up the old tribal hatred against their nearest neighbours. It was precisely the nearness which accentuated the hatred. This tribal jealousy is characteristic of Asia Minor still. The traveller frequently finds the people of two neighbour­ ing villages differing from each other in manners and in dress; they speak the same language, profess the same religion, but they have little intercourse with each other and no intermarriage, and each village regards the other as hateful and alien. 1 But I should hardly have ventured to state this suppo­ sition publicly, were I not able to prove it by the testimony of the only native of !conium whose evidence is preserved to us. In the year 163 A.D. Hierax, one of the Christians associated with Jus tin Martyr in his trial before the Prefect of Rome, Junius Rusticus, was asked by the judge who his parents were. He replied, " My earthly parents are dead ; and I have come hither (i.e. as a slave), torn away from !conium of Phrygia." 2 By this single testimony of a native, preserved in such an accidental way, we are enabled to realise that the expres­ sion in Acts xiv. 6 was contrary to general usage and peculiar to !conium, and that it could hardly have occurred except to one who had actually lived in the city and caught 1 After the "Union of the Lycaonians" was established towards the middle of the second century after Christ, !conium was not a member; but we are precluded from using this fact as evidence that !conium still held aloof in social matters from the Lycltonians, for it had been made a Roman colony by Hadrian, and as such it was raised far above the level of the " Union" ; the colony Lystra, also, though originally a Lycaonian city, did not condescend to join it. 2 Rusticns was prefect in A.n. 163, as Borghesi has shown. Hierax was in all probability a slave of the emperor. It is noteworthy that Ruinart proposed to change Phrygia in the text to Lycaonia, not recognising the importance of this testimony. (See Acta Justini, 3.) ST. PAUL'S FIRST JOURNEY IN ASIA MINOR. 285 the tone of its population. It is perhaps unnecessary for me to reply to the possible objection that Cicero also visited !conium, and yet he calls it part of Lycaonia; no one who has comprehended the reasoning would make this objection. Cicero was a Roman governor, who looked on !conium merely as the chief city of the government dis­ trict. He did not mix with the natives or catch their expressions. He was devoid of interest in the people, the country, the scenery, and the antiquities; the smallest scrap of political gossip or social scandal from Rome bulked more largely in his mind than the entire interests of Lycaonia. No better proof of the entire change of feeling towards the provincials which was produced by the Imperial govern­ ment can be found than the contrast between Pliny's letters and Cicero's written from their respective provinces.