21. Moreover, if discourse
must be bestowed upon any, and this so take up the speaker that he
have not time to work with his hands, are all in the monastery able
to hold discourse unto brethren which come unto them from another
kind of life, whether it be to expound the divine lessons, or
concerning any questions which may be put, to reason in an
wholesome manner? Then since not all have the ability, why upon
this pretext do all want to have nothing else to do? Although even
if all were able, they ought to do it by turns; not only that the
rest might not be taken up from necessary works, but also because
it sufficeth that to many hearers there be one speaker. To come now
to the Apostle; how could he find time to work with his hands,
unless for the bestowing of the word of God he had certain set
times? And indeed God hath not willed this either to be hidden from
us. For both of what craft he was a workman, and at what times he
was taken up with dispensing the Gospel, holy Scripture has not
left untold. Namely, when the day of his departure caused him to be
in haste, being at Troas, even on the first day of the week when
the brethren were assembled to break bread, such was his
earnestness, and so necessary the disputation, that his discourse
was prolonged even until midnight,2543
as though it had slipped from
their minds that on that day it was not a fast:
2544
| 2544 S. Augustin therefore assumes
that the Christians of the Apostolic age did not break their fast
before receiving the Eucharist. See St. Chrys. on Stat. Hom.
ix. § 2. Tr. p. 159, and note g. |
but when he was making longer stay
in any place and disputing
daily, who can doubt that he had certain
hours set apart for this
office? For at Athens, because he had
there found most studious inquirers of things, it is thus written
of him: “He disputed therefore with the
Jews in the
synagogue,
and with the Gentile
inhabitants2545
| 2545 Τοῖς
᾽Ιουδαίοις καὶ τοῖς
σεβομένοις καὶ ἐν τῇ
ἀγορᾷ κατὰ πᾶσαν
ἡμέραν πρὸς
τοὺς παρατυγχάνοντας. For καὶ τοῖς
σεβομένοις Aug. has et
Gentibus incolis: for which some mss.
have Gentibus in viculis. |
in the
market every day to those
who were there.”
2546
Not, namely, in the
synagogue
every day, for there it was his
custom to
discourse on the
sabbath;
but “in the
market,” saith he, “every day;” by reason,
doubtless, of the studiousness of the Athenians. For so it follows:
“Certain however of the Epicurean and Stoic
philosophers
conferred with him.” And a little after, it says: “Now the
Athenians and
strangers which were there spent their time in
nothing else but either to tell or to hear
some new thing.” Let us suppose him all those days that he was at
Athens not to have
worked: on this account, indeed, was his need
supplied from
Macedonia, as he says in the second to the
Corinthians:
2547
though in
fact he could
work both at other hours and of nights, because he
was so
strong in both
mind and body. But when he had gone from
Athens, let us see what says the Scripture: “He disputed,”
saith it, “in the
synagogue every
sabbath;”
2548
this at
Corinth. In Troas,
however, where through necessity of his departure being close at
hand, his
discourse was protracted until
midnight, it was the first
day of the
week, which is called the
Lord’s Day: whence we
understand that he was not with
Jews but with
Christians; when also
the narrator himself saith they were gathered together to
break
bread. And indeed this same is the best management, that all things
be distributed to their times and be done in order, lest becoming
ravelled in perplexing entanglements, they throw our human mind
into confusion.
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