Chapter III CIVILIZATION AND THE PRACTICE OF `HE epoch in which our Lord came into the world was that which is distinguished in history as the Augustan era. It is described by Lightfoot as the "moment when the world had reached its highest point of civilization and culture, when political and legislative ability were achieving their most signal triumphs; an age of remarkable progress and enlightenment which was unequalled in ancient, and has only been equalled quite recently in modern times." Excepting a few minor wars in some of the outlying provinces, the Roman Empire had enjoyed at the beginning of Christ's Ministry half a century of peace. The world had not known a similar experience since the age of Solomon, and has hardly enjoyed the like since, even in the nineteenth century. As a consequence riches had accumulated, and numbers of men possessed wealth and leisure to devote themselves to the cultivation of literature, science and the arts. Intellectual activity was stimulated, I doubt not, in no small degree by the presence of Jews in every city of the Roman Empire. The security afforded by the domination of Rome, together with the wide-spread use of the Greek language, encouraged commerce and facilitated travel in the pursuit of pleasure and knowledge. Hence there was a free interchange of ideas and information amongst the nations of the earth. Schools abounded for the education of the young. Even slaves were often taught to read and write in order to qualify them for the duties required of them by their masters. Publishers employed large numbers of slaves to multiply copies of the works of the poets, philosophers, historians and other authors who adorned the period; hence books were cheap and read by citizens in all ranks of society. It goes without saying that at such a period there was of necessity a large written correspondence. Printing not having been invented it is possible even that among some classes writing was more often practised then than now. Many a man would write a letter where now he would simply send a newspaper. Writing in Palestine It is quite certain that the Jews were not behind other nations in education and culture. It was not by chance that the children of Israel were brought successively into such close relations, at the period of their highest splendour, with all the great contemporary civilizations. Called out, and kept separate from the rest of humanity, to fulfil their mission of blessing to the nations, there was a tendency on the part of the chosen people to become insular and narrow-minded, a tendency however which was counteracted by their enforced contact with the culture of Egypt, of Assyria, of Babylonia, of Greece, and of Rome. In the centuries immediately preceding Christ, millions of the race were scattered throughout the civilized world, and kept up constant communication with their brethren in the Holy Land. There is abundant evidence in both the New Testament and Josephus that a large written correspondence was at that time continually going on between Palestine and other countries. The Holy Land itself was not, as many seem to imagine, an obscure and isolated country. To quote the words of the Apostle Paul, the great events recorded in the Gospels were "not done in a corner." Palestine held the most central position in the map of the ancient world. highway between the three continents. Jacob and long before, merchants had borders on their journey from Asia to Egypt. Travellers It was the great From the time of passed through its from Europe to Asia and Africa also passed through or near to the land of Israel. The merchant princes of Phoenicia in the North were the great connecting link of commerce between the countries of the Mediterranean seaboard and Central Asia ; whilst the port of Joppa, from its nearness to Jerusalem, brought the capital city itself into easy communication with the Western World. Galilee, the native province of nearly all the Apostles, was a great highway of trade, along which travellers of all nationalities were daily passing to and fro. Coming in frequent contact with these, and with foreigners residing at Tiberias and other Greek cities in Galilee itself, the dwellers about the Sea of Galilee would gain large and varied experience of worldly affairs. There is abundant evidence that the education of the young was not neglected. The synagogues, with which the smallest towns were provided, and where the ordinances of religion were observed on the Sabbath, appear to have been used as schools during the week. It is probable that the whole population of Palestine could read, and that all but the lowest had been taught to write. The Apostles The Apostles themselves were men of superior intelligence. Their wits had been sharpened in the struggle for life. They had left their ordinary pursuits and given up their worldly prospects, social connections and the comforts of home to follow Him whom they believed to be the long-looked-for Messiah, the Saviour of the world, and to devote themselves to the mission of proclaiming the glad tidings to their fellowmen. Let us try, by the "scientific use of the imagination" to throw ourselves into their times and circumstances, and then ask ourselves the question: Is it credible that, during the three or four years of their attendance on the Great Master, and for long after, it never occurred to one of them to make written notes of the wonderfuul words and facts they were privileged to hear and see? IT Chapter IV TAUTOCHRONISTIC REPORTING T has been implied in a previous chapter, that the practice of reporting speakers at the time of utterance was not uncommon in the time of Christ. It would be strange indeed if in so brilliant an age so obvious and necessary a practice were neglected. That anyone should suppose that it was neglected can only be accounted for by that prevailing misconception to which we have adverted, and to a vague idea which has sprung out of the Evolution hypothesis, that men 2000 years ago were less intelligent than they are now. But there is no room for doubt. There is abundant proof, not only that it was customary to take down written reports of speeches as they were delivered, but that systems of shorthand were elaborated for the purpose. Reporting amongst the Romans Seneca, quoted by Macaulay in his Essay on Lord Bacon, affecting to complain of the utilitarian spirit of the age, speaks of shorthand having been brought to such perfection, that a writer could keep pace with the most rapid speaker. Shorthand, however, was practised in Rome long before the time of Seneca, who lived when the New Testament was being written. Ennius the poet (239-169 B.C.), among other literary accomplishments, amused himself with an elementary system of shorthand. (Latin Literature, J. W. MacKail, p. 7.) Many of the recorded speeches of the ancient orators must have been reported by means of shorthand. Some of Cicero's orations, for instance, were delivered in circumstances that made previous preparation or subsequent record of them, either by speaker or hearers, impossible. Thus his first oration against Lucius Catiline was provoked, on the spur of the moment, by the unexpected appearance of his enemy in the meeting of the senate. Its character proves that it was unprepared, and adapted at the time to Catiline's behaviour at the meeting. Nor could it have been committed to writing afterwards from memory. The city was in a state bordering on anarchy; Cicero himself was in hourly danger of assassination, and as Consul had to exercise the utmost diligence to thwart the designs of the conspirators. It is known that he had in his service a freedman named Tiro, who wrote shorthand and invented certain signs for the purpose which were named after him, nota Tironiane, and there is no reason to doubt the correctness of Plutarch's assertion (Life of Cato, c. 23) that the speech was reported by shorthand writers, several of whom had been dispersed about the senate-house by Cicero. Reporting amongst the Greeks Amongst the Greeks, shorthand writing was of very early date. A recent writer states that "a fragment of an inscription found recently in the Acropolis at Athens has been shown by Gompers to be a portion of an explanation of a kind of shorthand, composed of arbitrary signs, as old as the fourth century B.C." According to the same authority, "the first undoubted mention of a Greek shorthand writer, occurs in a passage in Galen, wherein he refers to a copy, made by one who could write swiftly in signs." By A.D. 100, a perfected system of shorthand was in use as is proved by "the occurrence in papyri of certain symbols as marks of contraction, or to represent entire words, and particularly the large number of them found in the papyrus of Aristotle's work on the constitution of Athens." (Handbook of Greek and Latin Palæography by E. M. Thompson, D.C.L., etc., pages 82, 83.) |