The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

VERS. XXXII.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

If after the manner of men, I have fought with beasts.

THIS is that great danger, concerning which he speaks, 2 Cor. I. 8, 9. which is not at all to be understood of the Tumult raised among the Ephesians by Demetrius: for this Epistle was written before that tumult: but according to the letter, that the Apostle was really cast to wild beasts in the Theatre. Nor does it obstruct this opinion, that Luke relating the Acts of Paul, omitted this so notable an History, since he hath omitted very many other: nor that those that fought with beasts, were different from those that were cast to beasts, since the latter must fight with them, or perish without any hope. But on the contrary there are these two things make for it.

I. That in Demetrius his insurrection, the chief of Asia (Asiarchae) afforded them∣selves Pauls friends, Act. XIX. 31. That is, Those Priests among the Heathen, whose of∣fice it was, to publish those Plays of the Theatre for the honour of the Gods. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. e 1.1 They asked Philip the Astarch (The Interpreter renders it Mu∣nerarius,

The setter forth of the Games) to let loose a Lion upon Polycarp: But he answer∣ed, He might not, because now the fighting with wild beasts (those Games) was over. The same were the Phoenicharchae, and the Syriarchae f 1.2

But now whence came it to pass, that these Asiarchs were friends to Paul? Was it as being persons that embraced the Gospel? Why therefore were they still Asiarchs? But it seems rather that Paul, being set to combate with beasts, was preserved by some wonder∣ful and stupendious manner; so that the Asiarchs themselves seeing the miracle, were car∣ried away with admiration of the thing, and the good will towards him.

II. What else doth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 mean, than I have fought with beasts in that manner as men fight with beasts? Or, I have fought with beasts in this very humane body. And that which he adds, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, In Ephesus, renders the sense more clear, and restrains it much more to the letter. For if it were so to be understood, I fought at Ephesus with Demetrius and his fellows, as if it had been with beasts, it had been much more suitable to have brought an example of his stoning in Lystra, Act. XIV. 19. of his whipping at Philippi, Act. XVI. 22, 23. &c. For in Demetrius his uproar at Ephesus you find him to have born or undergone no, not one blow, I had almost said, nor any danger. Gaius and Aristarchus indeed being drawn into the Theatre endured some vio∣lence, being perhaps presently to be cast to the beasts. But read and read again the whole story, Act. XIX. and there is not a syllable of any wrong, that Paul at that time endu∣red in his person.

Notes

• e 1.1

  E••sib. Eccles. H••st. lib. 4. c. 15
• f 1.2

  Novell. 89. at the end, &c.