The Road to Bithynia: A Novel of Luke, the Beloved Physician

by Frank G. Slaughter

  “Good,” Probus said approvingly. “Perhaps I can go back with you. The highlands of Galatia and Lycaonia have always appealed to me.”

  The situation in Antioch was so bad that Paul decided he could accomplish more to heal the dangerous rift in the Church by going at once to Jerusalem. Since Paul was now in good health and much stronger after the sea voyage from Perga, Luke decided to remain in Antioch and again took up residence at the palace of his foster father on the insula. Theophilus was away, but he returned a few days later and welcomed Luke warmly. “There is much we need to talk about, Luke,” he said.

  “Tell me about Apollonius and Mariamne,” Luke urged.

  Theophilus smiled. “I visited them in Ephesus a few months ago. Mariamne thinks she is going to have a baby. They both said they wished you could be there. After Apollonius was saved, they seem to think you have some miraculous power.”

  Luke shook his head. “I am not even certain that I helped him at all.”

  Theophilus looked startled. “You don’t believe it was really a miracle, do you, Luke? Those things are all right for the simple, but intelligent Greeks long ago disproved divine intervention.”

  “Paul performs real miracles. Miracles of faith.”

  Theophilus frowned. “I am afraid I don’t understand you.”

  “I am not sure I understand myself, sir,” Luke admitted “But strange cures do happen just the same.”

  “Do you mean that people can be cured of a real disease simply by having faith that they will be cured?”

  “Something like that,” Luke admitted. “For example, at Pisidian Antioch when I first came with the armies, there was a serious epidemic of dysentery when men drank water polluted from bathing and the discharges of the city. That disease, I am sure, was caused by something in the water that poisoned or damaged their bodies.”

  “The animalcules of Marcus Terentius Varro,” Theophilus agreed. “I remember your mentioning them when you came back from the war. But do you think all disease originates from such a cause?”

  Luke shook his head. “Some illness comes, I am sure, from somewhere inside ourselves, probably from a state of unhealth in the soul.”

  Theophilus smiled. “Remember Plato’s warning against trying to separate the body from the soul.”

  Luke nodded. “That is why I think a disorder of the soul always brings on a disorder of the body, as when a man who is sick in his soul dies from the sheer loss of desire to live.”

  “But what brings on a sickness of the soul? The daimonion of Socrates?”

  “Perhaps, if you want to call it that. I do believe that man is controlled at all times by one of two forces within him, and that the health of his soul depends upon how well the good forces control the bad.”

  “Do you believe, then, that the Nazarene appeals to and strengthens the good forces in man? And that the miracles He performed can be explained in this way?”

  “Yes, I do,” Luke said.

  “But what about the supernatural being the Jews call Satan or the devil? Does he control the evil in men?”

  “The more I read the ancient scrolls of the Jews,” Luke explained, “the more I realize that they wrote in terms of symbols. Many people believe in an actual evil force, concentrated in the person of a supernatural being, but I am sure the devil that troubles man lies within his own being.”

  “That is the Socratic philosophy,” Theophilus agreed. “But why is it there? What is its purpose?”

  “The demon or daimonion in man,” Luke said earnestly, “I believe to be the love of self or the urge to self-importance. When a man yields to the impulse to be more important than his fellows, the demon gains control.”

  “Would you have all men give up self-esteem?” Theophilus demanded. “Even the Nazarene prided Himself upon being the Son of God.”

  “Nothing should give a man more pride than that he was created, as the Jewish poets wrote, ‘in the image of God.’ But when he feeds his demon of self upon greed, lust, and the desire for gain and high position, he encourages the daimonion to gain control. Unless he then nourishes the good part of his soul with humility, helping others, kindness, and pride and dignity in himself as the image of God, there will be a constant battle. And conflict in the soul brings on conflict in the body and disease.”

  “I am beginning to see the connection,” Theophilus admitted.

  “When self gains the ascendancy in men’s souls,” Luke continued, “it damages their bodies just as surely as it damages their outlook on life, their relationships toward others, and their real stature as human beings. And those damages produce disease just as surely as do the animalcules of Marcus Terentius Varro.”

  “Ingenious,” Theophilus said admiringly. “And very logical. But what about these miracles of faith?”

  “Anything which enables man to control and gain advantage over his private demon of self—such as the principles of Jesus and the Christian faith—stops the damage to both soul and body and stops the disease.”

  “But what about an acute illness, such as the pneumonia that almost killed Apollonius?”

  “Probus claims that it was my bleeding him that brought about the cure.”

  “And you?”

  For a moment Luke did not speak, then he said slowly, “I don’t know. Sometimes I believe that it was a direct intervention by the hand of God in order to influence someone to believe in Him.”

  “But who?” Theophilus asked, frowning.

  “Perhaps to show me there is a true God,” Luke said. “Although I don’t know why. But I am sure that I first started to believe in Him then.”

  Paul and Barnabas did not remain long in Jerusalem, returning in less than two months. With them were John Mark and two new workers, Judas and Silas. Accustomed as he was to Paul’s changes in temperament, Luke was still startled by the change in him during so short a time. The Paul who went to Jerusalem had been quietly determined to plead his cause and induce the elders and the patriarch James and Peter to retract their insistence upon the adherence to Judaic laws by Gentile converts. But the Paul who returned was the triumphant apostle, now unquestionably the leader of all those who sought to forward Christ’s kingdom outside Jerusalem and Judea and next in authority to James himself.

  Mark told Probus and Luke how it had all come about, painting for them the dramatic scene when Paul had faced a hostile congregation that was determined it was doing the right thing in forcing Jewish customs upon Gentile converts, and had come out with his every desire approved. The Judaizers, mostly Pharisees who had come to believe in Jesus but were too steeped in the traditional religious laws of the Jewish people to accept Gentiles freely into the Church, had argued their case. Then Paul told how Gentiles and Jews alike had flocked to hear him and Barnabas on their travels. He described the conversion of Sergius Paulus and the dramatic scene when the sorcerer Elymas had been vanquished, going on then to their troubles at Pisidian Antioch and how the church there had been stronger after their whipping than before, largely because of Luke’s effort in organizing it while Paul was recovering from his wounds. He turned next to Lystra and his miraculous escape from death by stoning and the effect that his rising from the rubbish heap and walking into the city had exerted upon Jew and Gentile alike. And he told, too, of the strong church at Iconium, largely developed by Barnabas while Paul had lain in a delirium from the effects of the stoning at Lystra. Each success, each seemingly miraculous delivery from death, was interpreted by Paul as further evidence that God approved the carrying of the word to the Gentiles. Paul had been fighting for the very existence of his own great mission, and Luke well knew how eloquent he could be on such occasions. It was no surprise that he was able to convince James and the elders that his mission to the Gentiles was approved by God.

  “What about Peter?” Luke asked. “We heard that even he had sided with the Judaizers.”

 
“Peter did not entirely support them,” Mark explained. “Since he denied Christ, Peter often hesitates to make a sharp decision for fear that he might be wrong in some part of it. We Jews are bound to see things differently from others, Luke, and Peter is as proud of the heritage of the Jews as any of us. But when he heard Paul’s arguments he was the first to support him.”

  “I am glad,” Luke said sincerely. In his mind he could see the big disciple standing majestically before the crowd and speaking in the simple tone and language of a Galilean fisherman, which was so different from Paul’s impassioned and sometimes mystical utterances. Peter’s approval would have almost as much effect upon the congregation as Paul’s arguments, for Peter’s sincerity always radiated from him like a perceptible aura.

  “James gave his approval to Paul’s work,” Mark told them. “There is no more question about admitting the Gentiles freely.”

  “I hope that means the end of discord in the Church,” Luke said.

  Probus shook his head. “Those who want to believe Paul right will do so, but there are many who dislike him. So long as people continue to be guided by human motives, Jews are going to resent Gentiles and there will be trouble. Paul should have gotten something in writing from James and the elders to prove that they endorse his work.”

  “But he did,” Mark said. “Silas and Judas came along as witnesses, and James wrote a letter which I copied with my own hand. Here is what it says:

  The apostles and the elders as brothers send greeting to the brothers from among the heathen in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. As we have heard that some of our number have disturbed you by their teaching, by continuing to unsettle your minds, we have passed a unanimous resolution to select and send messengers to you with our beloved brothers, Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we send Judas and Silas to you, to bring you the same message by word of mouth. For the Holy Spirit and we have decided not to lay upon you any burden but these essential requirements, that you abstain from everything that is offered to idols, from tasting blood from the meat of animals that have been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves free from these things you will prosper. Good-bye.

  VII

  Healing the split in the church at Antioch proved not quite so simple a task as Paul had anticipated when he returned from Jerusalem with the letter from James. Cloaked in his new authority, he was inclined to be intolerant of everyone who did not immediately agree with him, and there was a constant tension in the church, with tempers ready to explode at any time. In such a situation Luke’s own calmness was an asset, and Barnabas prevailed on him to delay returning to Thecla at Iconium until the situation could gradually be righted.

  And so month after month dragged on. Luke poured out his heart to Thecla in regular letters which went northward along the caravan routes, then westward by the “Old Way” to Iconium. Slow but definite progress was being made in unifying the church, and when word came that Peter was coming from Jerusalem for a visit, Luke began to look forward to seeing his majestic friend once more.

  Peter’s arrival, unfortunately, brought more trouble, for a group of Jewish Christians accompanied him from Jerusalem. At first everyone was busy proudly showing Peter and the visitors the great things which had been accomplished in Antioch. But as the days passed, Luke noticed that those who had accompanied Peter were associating with a small clique who had been recalcitrant about accepting the instructions of James and the elders. When Peter, too, began to associate more with this group and to shun the Gentiles in the common meals and the rituals of the church, it was soon apparent that the rift was rapidly widening again, this time stimulated by Peter himself.

  Paul reacted as he would have been expected and indeed as he had every right to do, with a deep anger against Peter. Only a few months before Peter had espoused the acceptance of Gentiles upon equal terms into the Church, now he was going against his own pronouncements. Luke and Barnabas argued that Peter had vacillated before and that he must soon see the error into which he was being led. But Paul insisted that Peter must be publicly rebuked if the rift which was already widening again were to be permanently healed.

  Fire was in Paul’s eyes as he stood up to speak before the congregation on the following Sabbath. As he watched him defy those who stood against him, Luke’s thoughts went back to the day on which he had first seen Paul as prosecutor for the Sanhedrin at the trial of Stephen. The years and the recurrent bouts of fever, plus his injuries at the hands of his enemies, had not dealt lightly with the apostle. Their weight had bowed his shoulders, and his rather short body was less erect. But his head still had its leonine cast, and his eyes—for all that he suffered from a persistent inflammation which sometimes made it almost impossible for him to see—still burned with the hot fire of his spirit. He had become more bald through the years, and his beard was thinner and tinged with gray. But the long flexible fingers of the artisan had lost none of their grace and dexterity, for he had worked continually at his trade of tentmaker, even in Antioch. As Paul talked now, his hands moved constantly, almost as an artist would use a brush, painting in gestures as well as words the thoughts he wished to express.

  Peter sat quietly in the elevated space where, as was customary in Jewish synagogues, the “rulers of the synagogue” had their places. Among the new ecclesiae, or congregations, however, they were called “elders” and “deacons.” For all his size and exuberant good health, Peter’s complexion had always been sallow and pale. His hair, only just now beginning to be shot through with gray, was rich and full, and his beard curled about a chin which may have been weak, since Peter was not a strong and dominant character, although he had been given a position of leadership by Jesus. But there was something about the big apostle that inspired love just the same, a quiet dignity and majesty and a light of kindness and tolerance shining in his eyes. Peter could understand the vacillations and indecisions of others because he had suffered such things himself.

  When Paul began to speak his voice lashed the congregation like a whip, bringing people sharply upright with surprise. Everyone could see that he was burning with a deep anger, an emotion more powerful than the usual dynamic fire which motivated him. “Men and brethren,” he said, “I speak to you today because the Church is in danger. Certain people have come among you and seek to unsettle your faith, the same faith which I have taught you and through which you have placed your trust in me. I say to you that if anyone is preaching a doctrine to you which is contrary to the one which you received from God through me, a curse be upon him.”

  These were strong words, and a deep murmur ran through the congregation, for everyone in the building knew that it was Peter to whom this public condemnation was directed.

  “You all know,” Paul continued, “that not long ago Barnabas and myself journeyed to Jerusalem because then, as now, false prophets had come among you, preaching that men could not be saved as God revealed to me merely by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection, but must needs be circumcised and keep the laws of Moses. At Jerusalem I laid before James and the elders the way to salvation which I have preached unto you and to the brethren in Galatia, Cyprus, and Cilicia, and which all of you have believed. And when the leaders saw that I had been entrusted with the charge of taking the truths of Christ to the Gentiles and the heathen, just as Peter was entrusted to take it to the Jews—for the same Spirit of Christ which had been at work in Peter for his apostleship to the Jews had been at work in me, too, for the apostleship to the heathen—these same leaders gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, with the understanding that we should go to the heathen and they to the Jews. They asked us only to remember the poor, which we were eager to do.

  “Now Peter knew this, and when he first came to Antioch he ate and associated with everyone, whether Jew or not, whether circumcised or not. Recently other false prophets have come from Jerusalem, saying
that the Jews should not eat with the uncircumcised, and Peter has joined them. So I say to him now, before this congregation: If you are living like a heathen and not like a Jew, although you are a Jew yourself, why do you try to make the heathen live like Jews?”

  Paul paused for a moment, then went on: “We ourselves are Jews by birth, and yet we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ. Through the law I have myself become dead to the law, even as you who have accepted Christ with me have done, so that I may live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live, but Christ is living in me; the life I now live as a mortal man I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. And if right standing with God came only through the law, as the false prophets have told you, then Christ died for nothing.

  “But Christ did not die in vain, for all of you are the sons of God through faith in Him. And all of you who have been baptized into union with Christ have clothed yourselves with Him. There is no room for Jew or Greek, no room for slave or freedman, no room for male or female, for you are all one through union with Jesus Christ. In union with Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor the lack of it counts for anything; but only faith that is spurred on to action by love. The whole law of Christ is summed up in one saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ If then you continue to bite and eat one another, beware lest you be destroyed by one another.

  “Practice living by the Spirit, for the products of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk where the Spirit leads. Let us stop being ambitious for honors, so challenging one another and envying one another. For if anybody thinks he is somebody when really he is nobody, he is deceiving himself. Everyone should test his own work until it stands the test, then he will have grounds for boasting with reference to himself alone, and not with reference to someone else. For everyone must carry his own load.”