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St. Luke and Lucius of Cyrene.

THE suggestion has been made that St. Luke and he met Joanna at Antioch, and we have found an
Lucius of Cyrene are the same person. If that adequate solution of the problem. Is there any
could be proved it would help to solve the problem evidence to connect St. Luke with Cyrene?
of the special source’ of the third Gospel. There Certainly he displays great interest in that region.
are scholars who identify them as two names of He notes that at Pentecost there were dwelling in
one person, though the majority are quite opposed I Jerusalem devout men from the parts of Libya
to the idea. Z6ckler dismisses it as ‘ quite absurd’; which are about Cyrene’; that amongst those who
Headlam says that it has nothing in its favour ;
Plummer admits that it is not impossible, but says
/I disputed with Stephen were certain of them that
were of the synagogue of the Libertines, and of
that there is no evidence. One objection strongly the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians’; that
expressed is that while Lucas is an abbreviation, when the disciples were dispersed by the persecu-
it is not an abbreviation of Lucius. Its full form tion on the martyrdom of Stephen some of them
may be Lucanus, or Lucilius, or Lucianus ; but it travelled ’as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and
is very unlikely to be Lucius. But since Plummer Antioch, speaking the word to none save only to
wrote, Professor Ramsay has found in the inscrip- Jews. But there were some of them, men of
tions of Pisidian Antioch the name Lucas as a pet Cyprus and Cyrene, who when they were come to
form of the Latin Lucius. With this discovery it Antioch, spake unto the Greeks also.’ St. Luke also
is not possible any longer to say that there is no shows intimate knowledge of the coast and harbours
evidence in favour of the identification. of Crete directly opposite Cyrene, and is well
According to Ac 13~, certain prophets and aware of the dangers to navigation in that perilous

teachers were at work in the Church at Antioch. region. Was St. Luke one of those men of
Their names are given as Barnabas, Symeon that Cyrene who came to Antioch and spoke unto
was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen the the Greeks ?
foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. Tradition associates St. Luke with Antioch.
This company, in the midst of which Lucius was Early Vulgate MSS. of the Gospels have prefaces
found, is an interesting one. Who is ‘-Symeon attached to the books giving particulars of their
that was called Niger’?i’ He must have been an authors. These are probably as early as the third
African. There is a Simon of Cyrene named century. That prefixed to the third Gospel says
in Mt 27 and Mk i 5. Symeon the African that ‘ Luke, by nation a Syrian of Antioch, a
might well be Simon of Cyrene. If St. Luke be disciple of the apostles, and afterwards a follower
Lucius of Cyrene he would probably be well of St. Paul, served his Master blamelessly till his
acquainted with Simon of the same city. Another confession’ ; while Eusebius (H.E. iii. 4) speaks
significant member of the group is Manaen, the of ’Luke who was born at Antioch, by profession
foster-brother of Herod. Holdsworth and Sanday a physician, etc.’ Thus while tradition connects
have independently reached the conclusion that St. Luke with Antioch, Scripture connects Lucius
among the special sources from which St. Luke with the same city. Possibly when the tradition
draws his peculiar material Joanna, wife of Chuza, was formed sufficient was known to identify Lucius

Herod’s steward, counts as chief. Luke manifests and St. Luke; or the tradition may have been
marked sympathy with women, and an intimate founded on the known fact that Lucius was at
acquaintance with the court of Herod, such as Antioch. But that could not have happened
might have been obtained from Joanna. unless it had been known that Lucas was an
But where did St. Luke meet with Joanna? abbreviation of Lucius. Now Ramsay tells us
Harnack, Streeter, Bartlet, and Hawkins prefer to that it was such an abbreviation.
think that the special source is to be sought in Turning to the Gospel, we find St. Luke saying
Philip the Evangelist and his daughters. But in his prefatory dedication that certain things have
once more, if St. Luke be Lucius of Cyrene, then been fulfilled among us,’ and that eye-witnesses
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‘ delivered them unto its.’ He identifies himself St. Luke?i’ There was a large Jewish community
with those to whom they were delivered and in the city, constituting, according to Josephus, a
amongst whom they were fulfilled. This does at quarter of the population. They enjoyed equal
least imply a residence in Palestine, and probably rights of citizenship with the Greek inhabitants in
in Jerusalem. He may have been a member of
that synagogue of the Cyrenians which was in I the time of Alexander the Great. Many evidences
of culture were to be found there, including not
Jerusalem, and so have known these eye-witnesses. only a philosophical school but also a medical
It does not seem at all difficult to suppose that he school, where the beloved physician’ may have
had taken part in that dispute between Stephen qualified, or at least have received that instruction
and the Cyrenians, and that the words of Stephen which made him so helpful to St. Paul in his times
followed by his martyrdom had been the chief of need. In such matters certainty is unlikely to
influence which brought about his conversion. be obtained ; but when so many facts converge on
When the rest fled to Antioch to escape their one conclusion, and so many problems would be

hostile fellow-countrymen it is quite likely that he solved by it, surely such a conclusion is not to be
would flee there with them. dismissed so curtly as is done when it is said that
Where could a more likely home be found for ’there is nothing in its favour,’ ’ there is no
one who was to occupy the important position of evidence,’ or that ‘it is quite absurd.’

In the Study.
You musthave heard the fable of the chicken who,
~irgini$u6 (~uerigque.
‘
I wonder.’
finding diamond, exclaimed, ‘ ~Yould it were a
a
,
corn-grain !’ And there is a story of an African
’They were all amazed at the mighty
’
power of God.’ princess whose bones were found in the desert
-Lk 9~a..
beside a bag of pearls. She had written an account
You all know what it is to wonder. You have of how food had failed her, until at the last she
looked up into the starry sky, and the vastness of had crushed pearls to dust, and tried with that to
it has made you almost afraid. Then, have you satisfy the deadly craving-‘ but, alas ! they were
ever been amongst great mountains and felt the only pearls, and so I died.’
silence and loneliness of them? And do you 3..Sometimes what is learnt at school or at the
remember the first time you gazed at the ocean ? University dulls the sense of wonder. The science
You could not understand how anything so great, professor gives reasons for things that seem in-
so immense, could be kept in its place; it was a explicable. You have class-books that tell you
mystery ; you wondered. about the stars, and you may have been allowed to
i. You do not all wonder at the same sort of look through a great telescope that seemed to
thing. As you know, the child of the country has bring the moon so near that the thought passed
a very different idea of the world from the boy or through your mind, perhaps people may one day
girl who has been born and brought up in a be able to explore it.’ Then the beauty of the
crowded city. But whatever be the outlook, the rainbow has been explained away from the minds
sense of wonder is one of the things that bind boys of many boys and girls. The poet Wordsworth
and girls together, and the ‘grown-up’ who has used to love to gaze at it when he was a child, and
it and keeps it remains a child to the end of he did so to the end of his life.
his life.
So be it when I shall grow old,
2. If we ceased to wonder at things we might as
Or let me die.
well be done with this life altogether. A man or
woman who has no thought of anything but how to 4. There are those who never cease to wonder
make money is one for whom we can only be sorry, at the wild flowers that some of you consider of
for money is of no use when one comes to die. little account. You crush them under foot in utter