The Acts of the Apostles

LANDS, NATIONS, CITIES, AND HOUSES 85
he knows it as the abode and centre of activity of
the Evangelist St. Philip (loc. cit. and viii. 40); he speaks
of the Church in that city (xviii. 22) and the brethren
there (xxi. 16), also of the Praetorium which Herod
the Great had built there (xxiii. 35)
that St. Paul was confined there in mild imprison-
; and he knows
ment. That the orTreipa rj KoXovimevr] 'IraXiKyj was
stationed in Coesarea is, according to x. 1, quite
probably meant by St. Luke ; yet we cannot be
certain that this was his meaning, and it is still less
certain that St. Luke has here made a mistake (as
Schijrer contends, Gesch. des jud. Volks, I.^ s. 462 f.).
The first missionary station of St. Philip in the
southern cities seems to have been Azotus (viii. 40)
thence he worked through the principal towns until
he transferred his seat to Caesarea (loc. cii.). Other
places mentioned are Lydda (with Sharon) ^ and Joppa
(ix. 32/!, 36 ff*.), with their Christian communities.
They are specially mentioned because two great
miracles were wrought in them by St. Peter. In
spite of the exact statements that Lydda was nigh to
Joppa (ix. 38), and that St. Peter dwelt in Joppa " in
the house of one Simon a tanner, w eariv oiKia irapa
OoXaa-aav " (ix. 43 ; x. 6, 17)—tanning was an un-
cleanly trade ^—the narratives do not give the
impression that St. Luke himself had been in those
parts. He speaks here on the strength of information
the source of which was very near at hand. The first
1 The plain of the coast stretching northwards from Lydda and
Joppa is meant.
* If St. Peter enters into a house on the seashore and stays there
a long time {wipai havdi, ix. 43), we may perhaps assume that his
trade of fisherman influenced him. He was no tanner.
;