St. Paul’s Companions in Rome, X. Aristarchus

ST. PAUL'S COMPANIONS IN ROME. BY COL. R. M. BRYCE-THOMAS.

X. —ARISTARCHUS. There is but little of the history of this faithful adherent of St. Paul that we have any light thrown upon. He is known as Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, and we first get to hear of him in the Ephesian tumult raised by the silversmith, Demetrius, during which he was apparently roughly used by the mob at Ephesus (Acts 19: 29). The Apostle had visited Thessalonica some few years before this and had made some converts there (Acts 17: 1 to 4), and it is most probable that Aristarchus was not only one of these, but that he had thrown in his lot with the Apostle and accompanied him on his mission work to other cities, because he is later on spoken of as one of Paul's two companions whom the

Ephesian mob rushed into the theatre at Ephesus (Acts 19: 29). During the Apostle's subsequent long journey to Jerusalem, Aris- tarchus was to be found by his side (Acts 20: 4). It is reasonable to suppose that this faithful friend remained in Palestine during Paul's two years' imprisonment there, for we find him again ac- companying the Apostle when the latter shipped for Rome as a prisoner in charge of the centurion Julius (Acts 27: 2). Dr. Plumptre thinks that he was intending to return to his native city, but that the subsequent alteration of plans (Acts 27: 6) led to his accompanying Paul to Rome. He had been so long faithful to his friend the Apostle that it would rather appear as if he had thrown in his lot with him altogether and had no intention of for- saking him at all, and this view is strengthened by the fact that we find him sharing Paul's imprisonment throughout the two years during which the latter dwelt in his own hired house in Rome (Col.

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4: 10 andlPhilemon 24). So far as one can gather from the few instances*in which his name is mentioned, he was always near the Apostle, ready to render him service and to work with and for him in the'cause of the gospel from the time that he was converted in Thessalonica in A. D. 53 up to the close of Paul's first Roman im- prisonment in A. D. 64. This friendship was therefore one of several years' standing, and must have been a source of consider- able comfort and consolation to the aged Apostle in the trying circumstances of his later life, and during his weary and lengthy imprisonments both in Palestine and in Imperial Rome. Dr. Kitto in his Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature says that the traditions of the Greek church represent Aristarchus as bishop of Apamea in Phrygia, and that he was eventually beheaded along with St. Paul in the days of Nero. The Roman martyrologies make him bishop of Thessalonica, but this is vague or doubtful. The Greek name Aristarchus means "Most Excellent Ruler."

XI— ONESIPHORUS. Another Ephesian friend of the Apostle was the noble-minded and warm-hearted Onesiphorus, who was probably one of his num- erous converts. How touchingly St. Paul speaks of him to Timo- thy when comparing his devotedness with the defection of the cowardly Asiatics, among whom he singles out the two men Phy- gellus and Hermogenes! Onesiphorus had come to Rome for some purpose of which we have no knowledge, but being aware that Paul was somewhere in that city as a prisoner, he diligently

searched for him, and did not cease to do so till he had found him in his prison cell (II Tim. 1: 15-17). During the Apostle's first Roman imprisonment it would have been always easy to trace him, for he dwelt then in his own hired house, or preached as publicly as a prisoner could do, and was doubtless known by name not only to all Christians but also to very many of the Pagan residents of the city. however, quite another thing during his second It was,

and final imprisonment in A. D. 66. There he had no liberty what- ever, and it is just possible that his actual whereabouts was not

known even to many of the Roman Christians. He had compara- tively few friends who visited him at that time while confined in

the dreaded Mamertine dungeon, for, as Dr. Farrar puts it, — "in a city thronged with prisoners and under a government rife with suspicions, upon which it acted with the most cynical unscrupu- lousness, it was by no means a safe or pleasant task to find an ob- scure, aged, and deeply implicated victim." Onesiphorus was, however, above such base timidity, and his search for his friend was eventually rewarded, and when he had found him, this staunch and bold fellow-Christian was not satisfied with a single visit, but readily faced the dangers which attended such interviews and went again and again. The Apostle told Timothy that Onesiphorus "oft- refreshed him" by his loving visits and companionship. Demas, like some of the Apostle's Asiatic converts, had abandoned him in his adversity, but there were a few true friends who clung to him at that time even as they had done during the hours of his prosperity, and among these noble ones was the kindly Onesiphorus. He was no "summer friend," as Dr. Macduff terms those Asiatics who turned their backs upon the aged prisoner as soon as it became too dangerous to be looked upon as his intimates or companions, but he rose above the mean personal considerations of his fellow countrymen, and willingly faced both scorn and danger in order to bring some rays of comfort athwart the dark shadows of the life of his congenial earthly friend and beloved spiritual father. How deeply this sympathy on the part of Onesiphorus touched the Apostle's heart, may be seen by the latter's reference to him after Onesiphorus had gone back to Ephesus. In penning his second epistle to his beloved son, Timothy, in which he requested him to come quickly to him in his then almost friendless condition, St, Paul wrote as follows: — "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was at Rome he sought me out very dili- gently and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day" (II Tim. 1: 16-18). This prayer would seem to indicate that Onesiphorus had passed away before the Apostle wrote, and had won, perchance, a martyr's crown even before his spiritual father. Such words as, "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus," no mention being made at all of Onesiphorus himself; and then again, "The Lord grant that he may

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find mercy of the Lord in that day," seem to point to the fact that he had reached and crossed the great stream that divides this life from the next, and this surmise is strongly supported by some of the closing words of the great Apostle's letter to Timothy: "Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus" (II Tim. 4: 19). It will be noted that it was only the household of Onesiphorus that St. Paul saluted, and that while he sent his salutations to Prisca and Aquila, he made no mention whatever of his old and tried friend Onesiphorus himself. But the bright memory of his visits which had so often cheered the aged Paul in his dreary prisonhouse, lingered, we maybe sure, in his heart while

life was left to him, and his prayer for Onesiphorus was doubtless fully answered, both in the case of his faithful friend personally, as well as in that of his household. This servant of the Lord proved himself to be in very truth to the aged Apostle in his time of calamity and desertion, what his Greek name (Onesiphorus) implies, namely a "Profit Bringer."

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