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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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crime was so far peculiar to Bar-Jesus , that we meet with no other instance in any way similar to it . This was a personal opposition of one learned man to another . The object of their contest was a man of rank , of talent , and of great influence in the island of which
Barnabas was a native , and where he would naturally be peculiarly desirous that Paul should succeed with Sergius Paulus , as he would then become their first convert from among what was termed the idolatrous Gentiles ; and , as his conversion would greatly facilitate the establishment of a Christian
community in Cyprus , it became necessary to put an effectual stop to such opposition . The Apostle Paul , before his conversion , had been a strict Pharisee ; hence he was every where peculiarly obnoxious to the Pharisees : they hated , opposed and persecuted him
wherever he went . This general feeling of the Pharisees towards the apostle accounts for the peculiar animosity of Bar-Jesus towards him , as there can be very little doubt of his knowing Paul either personally or from the hatred of his Jewish friends to him . It
was now ten years since the conversion of Paul ; during this time he had been preaching the gospel , and to Jews only , if we except those Gentiles who were accustomed to worship with the Jews in their synagogues . The three first years he remained at Damascus
preaching to his own nation , except a short journey into the neighbouring part of Arabia . The Jews were in great numbers at Damascus , and in great favour with the reigning prince ; it is probable , therefore , that a man of Bar-Jesus ' pursuits would visit this ancient city . And here he could not fail to hear of
the apostle , from the very great hatred of its Jewish citizens towards him . Being at Damascus , the magian would naturally extend his route to Antioch , the third city in the Roman empire , and here also he would hear of the
apostle , of his preaching , and of his miracles , since he had resided here , at two different times , the greater part of two years . If it be objected that this was taking a circuitous route to Cyprus , it must be observed , that the pursuits of Bar-Jesus would necessarily lead him to visit the most celebrated cities
within his reach , and also that , in the then early state of navigation , particularly among the Jews , persons wer §
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accustomed to prefer the shortest distance by sea . And Antioch wag a very short distance , about twelve or fifteen miles , from Seleucia , the nearest port to the island of Cyprus . If Bar-Jesus were not a native of Jerusalem , he would doubtless have been there at the
Passover , in the course of the ten preceding years ; so that either at Jerusalem , or at Damascus , or at Antioch , he , as a Jew , could not fail of becoming acquainted with the nature of the miracles performed by Paul and by
other apostles at some one or other of these places . Antioch was too Bear Cyprus for its Jewish inhabitants to be ignorant of what was transpiring in that city respecting the great schism in their own religion , since here it was that the believers in the divine mission
of Jesus first became a distinct body from the Jewish unbelievers ; and this occurred about three years before this visit of PauPs to Paphos . Besides , the apostle before he visited this place had been preaching at Salamis to the Jews in their synagogues ; and of this
Bar-Jesus could not be ignorant . Indeed , if he had not previously known something of Paul and of the nature of his mission , he would not at once have so strenuously opposed him , but would have waited in order to penetrate more clearly the designs and plans of Paul
and his companions . But possessing the same malignant temper towards the apostle that the Pharisees generally manifested , he adopted the same line of conduct , and rejected Christianity notwithstanding the miraculous attestation which he could not but know
had attended its preachers . And though I cannot from positive evidence , which the Inquirer asks for , shew that Bar-Jesus had witnessed any miracle before that which deprived him of sight , yet from presumptive evidence , which is all that can be procured in the present day , the very great probability
is , that Bar-Jesus could not be unacquainted with the nature of the gospel and of the miracles which accompanied the preaching of the apostles , and therefore was punished for the wilful rejection of the evidence given to the divine mission of Jesus by the testimony of miracles .
In the fourth paragraph , p . 13 , the Inquirer says , that ** the Roman Catholic and the Protestant sectary are allowed the open profession and quiet
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104 Mr . Scott in Reply to Remarks on his Sermon .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 104, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/40/
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