52
THE APOSTLE
nor born of the imagination of my heart, but given to me by the Lord Jesus Christ himself in Arabia, and it being fully disclosed, I went up to Jerusalem and abode with Peter, the Lord's head servant whilst he lived in the flesh; and having learnt from him the story of the Resurrection I fared for fourteen years up and down Asia preaching it, to return with Barnabas to Jerusalem, taking Titus with me, for dissensions divided us and we were at strife in the conference.
MATHIAS: So dissension has begun among you already!
pauL: Dissension there must be always, since men do not see and think alike, but if the rudiments of our faith be the same, we should yield a little. And Peter, James, and John, seeing that the spirit of the Lord had descended into me, held out their hands in good fellowship, and again I fared from city to city till I was called to Antioch to settle whether circumcision should be imposed upon the Gentiles; and coming upon Peter eating with Gentiles in a tavern, I said to him and to his company, which comprised Barnabas and other Jews: Ye are neither Jews nor Christians.
MANAHEM: Christians!
PAUL: We who are of Christ have come to be called Christians. And that day in Antioch I said to Peter, James, and John: If circumcision be imposed upon the Gentiles, and if they be forced to live as Jews whilst ye live as Gentiles, then indeed the Lord Jesus has died in vain and the world will continue in the idolatries which have shamed it since Moses came out of Egypt and smote the golden calf, saying: There is no God but one. I listened to them with patience, till, seeing that Barnabas was siding with Peter, I said: Ye are but waverers from whom no good will come; and so I shook the dust of Antioch from my shoon and went forth.
MATHIAS: We would hear how thou didst fare among the Gentiles, but before hearing it we would have some instruction from thee as to what manner of man was Peter. Whence came he?
PAUL: From Galilee, a fisher in the lake, one of the disciples to whom Jesus said: Henceforth ye shall be fishers of men.
MATHIAS: So the Christians began among the poor, uninstructed fishers of Galilee!
PAUL: Thou wouldst not have had them begin among the wise and the learned?
