agogues on the Sabbath and I upheld the faith I
had come to preach: that the Messiah promised to the Jews had lived and
had died for us. Whereupon there was a great uproar among the Jews, who
would not believe, and so I tore my garments and said: then I will go
forth to the Gentiles, and find believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, and
leave you who were elected by God as his chosen people, who were his by
adoption, a privilege conferred upon you throughout the centuries, the
race out of whom came the patriarchs, and Jesus Christ himself in the
flesh. I will leave you, for you are not worthy and will perish as all
flesh perishes; will drift into nothingness, and be scattered even as
the dust of the roads is scattered by the winds. My heart is broken for
you, but since ye will it so, let it be so.

So did I speak, but my heart is often tenderer than my words, and I
strove again to be reconciled with the Jews, and abode in Corinth
proving their folly to them by the Scriptures till again they sought to
rid themselves of me by means of the Romans, saying before Gallic: this
fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. But Gallic,
understanding fully that his judgment seat had not been set up for the
settling of disputes of the spirit, but of the things of this world,
drove the Jews out of his court, and there was an uproar and Sosthenes,
a God-fearing man, was beaten. Yet for the sake of the race of the
patriarchs, the chosen people of God, I abode in Corinth till the close
of the second year, when news reached me of the many dissensions that
had arisen in Jerusalem.

The old questions always stirring: whether the Gentiles should be
admitted without circumcision and if the observances of the law were
sufficient; if salvation could be obtained by works without faith, and
many other questions that I thought had long been decided; in the hope
of putting an end to these discussions, which could only end in schism,
I bade the brethren good-bye on the wharf, and, shaving my head as a
sign of my vow to keep the Feast of Pentecost, I set sail with Aquila
and Priscilla for Syria and left them at Ephesus, though there were many
Christians there who prayed me to remain and speak to them; but pointing
to my shaved head, I said, my vow! and went down to Jerusalem and kept
the Feast of Pentecost and distributed money among the poor, which had
been given to me by the churches founded by me in Macedonia, in Greece
and Syria.

I