ST. LUKE AS ARTIST.
rTo THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIB,—But was it a Jewish rabble that beat Sosthenes ? Were not his assailants Greeks ? The Authorised Version says so, and certainly it seems to have probability on its side. Pro- fessor Ramsay in his "St. Paul the Traveller and Roman Citizen" says :—" The Greeks, who always hated the Jews, took advantage of the marked snub which the Governor had inflicted upon them to seize and beat Sostbenes, who doubtless was taking a prominent part in the proceedings. Gallio took no notice of this piece of lynch law,' which probably seemed to him to be a rough sort of justice." He also suggests a reason for the omission of the word " Greeks " in the great MSS.,—namely, the supposed identity of this Sosthenes with him who is named in 1 Corinthians i. 1. I have always imagined it to have been a counter-demonstration on the part of non-Christian Greeks who were well disposed towards St. Paul and resented this attempt to injure him. Even if the word "Greeks" be omitted, ought we not to consider it as to be understood with " all " (.71-cirrE0 if we are to make the scene really live, and not to be left with the strange idea that a Jewish crowd would actually ill-treat a ruler of the synagogue in public to force a trial of some sort.—I am, Sir, Lockinge Rectory, Wantage. J. G. Coaxal'.
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