218 



MISS A. M. HODGKIN ON 



of the first rank."* In his latest work, " The Bearing of Eecent 

 Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament,"! he 

 has taken us into his confidence and told us the series of events 

 which brought about this complete change in his opinions; for 

 he began as a disciple of the critical school and was " under 

 the impression that the history [of the book of Acts] was 

 written long after the events, and tliat it was untrustworthy as 

 a whole." 



The candour of such eminent scholars as Prof. Sayce and Sir 

 William Ramsay in confessing their changed attitude towards 

 the criticism of the Old Testament in the one case, and of the 

 New Testament in the other, through tlie discoveries o' 

 archaeology, goes far to prove the importance of that science 

 and the value of its testimony. 



Sir William Eamsay's life has been devoted to the study of 

 Eoman institutions in Asiatic Greece and the influence of iVsia on 

 the Graeco-Roman administration ; and it was there on the spot in 

 the comparatively unexplored wilds of Asia Minor that he found 

 his preformed opinions to be wrong. He found Luke's history 

 to be " unsurpassed for its trustworthiness." No other traveller 

 had left an account of the journeys he made across Asia Minor, 

 the narrative of Paul's travels placed in his hands a document 

 of unique and exceptional value to guide his investigations. 



The fact which first opened his eyes was finding that Luke 

 was correct — instead of, as was supposed, grievously mistaken — in 

 stating that Paul and Barnabas fled over a frontier into Lycaonia- 

 from the city of Iconium, thereby implying that Iconium was 

 not situated in the province of Lycaonia in the year 50 a.d., but 

 that it was a city of Phrygia. A change of boundary was made 

 early in the second century when Iconium was included in 

 Lycaonia. and there ceased to be a frontier between Iconium 

 and Lystra, thus proving that Acts xiv. 6 could not have been 

 written later. 



So small a fact as this changed Sir W^illiam Eamsay's whole 

 outlook, and step by step he followed up the clue. ** The evi- 

 dence," he says, ** to test all important history, and especially 

 the Old and New Testaments, exists, and can be discovered with 

 patience, knowledge, ingenuity and money." 



" Every incident described in the Acts is just what might be 

 expected in ancient surroundings. The officials with whom 

 Paul and his companions were brought in contact are those 

 who would be there. Every person is found just where he ought 

 to be : proconsuls in senatorial provinces, asiarchs in Ephesus, 

 strategoi in Philippi, politarchs in Thessalonica, magicians and 

 soothsayers everywhere. . . . The variety is endless, as real life 



* " Paul the Traveller." 1895, p. A. 



+ p. 81. 



