Scripture Coincidences

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 5, 1883

Scripture Coincidences.

"AND in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration." Acts 6:1.

I find an instance of consistency without design in this passage, on comparing it with Josephus. It seems that when the disciples became more numerous, a jealousy began to discover itself between the Grecians and the Hebrews. The circumstance is casually mentioned by St. Luke, as the accident which gave occasion to the appointment of deacons; yet how strictly characteristic is it of the country and times in which it is said to have happened.

"There was a disturbance at Cæsarea," writes Josephus, "between the Jews and Syrians respecting the equal enjoyment of civil rights; the Jews laying claim to precedence because Herod, who was a Jew, had founded the city; the Syrians, on the other hand, admitting this, but maintaining that Cæsarea was originally called the Tower of Straton, and did not then contain a single Jew." (Antiq. xx. 7, § 7.) In the end the two parties broke out into open war. This was when Felix was governor. On one occasion, under Florus, we read of 20,000 Jews perishing at Cæsarea by the hands of the Greek or Syrian part of the population. (Bel. Jud. II. 18. 1.) And again we are told that "fearful troubles prevailed throughout all Syria, each city dividing itself into two armies and the safety of the one consisted in forestalling the violence of the other. Thus the people passed their days in blood and their nights in terror." (Bel. Jud. II. 15. 2.)

It is most improbable that the writer of the Acts, if he were making up a story, should have bethought himself of a circumstance at once so unimportant as this murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, and yet so truly descriptive of the people where his scene was laid. This little incident (the more trifling the better for our purpose) carries with it the strongest marks of truth; and, like the single watch-word, is a voucher for the general honesty of the party that utters it. Indeed, the establishment of one fact may be thought in itself to entail the credibility of many more.

If it be certain that there was a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, then it is probable that there was a common fund out of which widows were maintained; that many sold their possessions to contribute to this fund; that it must have been a strong motive which could urge to such a disposal of their property; that no motive could be so likely as their conviction of the truth of Christianity; and that such a conviction could spring out of nothing so surely as the evidence of miracles. I do not say that all these matters necessarily follow from the certainty of the first simple fact, but I say that admitting it, they all follow in a train of very natural consequence.

"And after certain days King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Cæsarea to salute Festus." Acts 25: 13.

This Agrippa (Agrippa Minor) had succeeded, by permission of Claudius, to the territories of his uncle Herod; at least, Trachonitas, Batanæa, and Abilene, were confirmed to him. From this passage in the Acts it appears, as might be expected, that he was anxious to be well with the Roman Government, and accordingly that he lost no time in paying his respects to Festus, the new representative of that Government in Judea. It is a singular and minute coincidence well worth our notice, that Josephus records instances of this same Agrippa's obsequiousness to Roman authorities, of precisely the same kind. "About this time," says he, "King Agrippa went to Alexandria, to salute Alexander, who had been sent by Nero to govern Egypt." (Bel. Jud. II. 15. § 1.)

And again (what is yet more to our purpose,) we read, on another occasion, that Bernice accompanied Agrippa in one of these visits of ceremony; for having appointed Varus to take care of their kingdom in their absence, "they went to Berytus with the intention of meeting Gessius (Florus) the Roman governor of Judea." (Jos. Life, § 11.)

This is a case singularly parallel to that in the Acts: for Gessius Florus held the very same office, in the same country, as Felix.

"And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains and principal men of the city, at Festus' commandment Paul was brought forth." Acts 25: 23.

It might seem extraordinary that Bernice should be present on such an occasion—that a woman should take any share in an affair, one would have supposed, foreign to her, and exclusively belonging to the other sex. But here again we have another proof of the veracity and accuracy of the sacred writings. For when Agrippa (the same Agrippa) endeavored to combat the spirit of rebellion which was beginning to show itself amongst the Jews, and addressed them in that famous speech given in Josephus, which throws so much light on the power and provincial polity of the Romans, he first of all "placed his sister Bernice (the same Bernice) in a conspicuous situation, upon the house of the Asamonæans, which was above the gallery, at the passage to the upper city, where the bridge joined the temple to the gallery;" and then he spoke to the people. And when his oration was ended, we read that "both he and his sister shed tears, and so repressed much violence in the multitude." (Bel. Jud. II. 16. § 3.)

There is another passage, occurring in the life of Josephus, which is no less valuable; for it serves to show yet further the political importance of Bernice, and how much she was in the habit of acting with Agrippa on all public occasions. One Philip, who was governor of Gamala and the country about it, under Agrippa, had occasion to communicate with the latter, probably on the subject of his escape from Jerusalem, where he had been recently in danger, and of his return to his own station. The transaction is thus described:—

"He wrote to Agrippa and Bernice, and gave the letters to one of his freedmen to carry to Varus, who at that time was procurator of the kingdom, which the sovereigns (i. e. the king and his sister-wife) had intrusted him withall, while they were gone to Berytus to meet Gessius. When Varus had received these letters of Philip,"

and had learned that he was in safety, he was very uneasy at it, supposing that he should appear useless to the sovereigns now Philip was come." (Josephus' Life, § 11.)—From Blunt's "Undesigned Coincidences."