On thi8 thesiB three remarks ™?K^* "''Hlf'll^J-^^VoThe n the met >il ot simple obser^■ation by .omethmg m the
S5a's^;^th^°&ti^^^^^^^^^
from the resSte^r simple observation. Certainly, the days ot he".^m.M ;?.<=/.»;« or Nisan 14 for these vearsaccordmg to
gfurt'h^'^v-errnc^^'tlfe It^^nt '^lf!^r^lxf'°^"^oS> ?upphed by L«?n'si^<«rt S«ri. or Wieseler^s 6^r<mclog^J 115 (and accepted by Ramsay), being always one day, and some- times two days, the earlier *
mai tW at Borne, and both under Nero, has be- in eirect the constant tradition of the Church , Peter and Paul, with some date under ^elo, h^^d^dtheRomaAepiscopallistjnJuliusAnc^- (Ilarnark, Cironologie, pp. 124 11., 1 ' ' • ^,^'-""';"" to ionysiua of Corinth, they taught tog.-.tber in Itah and were martyred .ari rt.. airb. .a,p6v in iwij , aui ■> _Qj J gj Clement
LlC::hi^f. f.-W esling the Corinthians alK,ut AD 96 sets before their eves ' the noble exampes of our own generation,' the good apostles 1 e e. and Paul, and that great multitude of elect which was gahered together with them in ^jve" sutt'..^^^ ingslnd tortures, women being exposed as Danaids and Dirces (1 Clem. v. vi. : avvr,6polaen ^oKbirMBo':). That the 'great multitude' is that of the Neron.an marms would be all but certain from the parallel "ccoimt in Tacitus of the multitudo t»?en^ and ZdZludibria of the Christian victims o Nero 4„n XV 44) : and the whole proof is clenched by tcoincidenc;ofTaeitus'mentiouoftheem,H3rors
wardens— ie. the horti Nerontam on the \ atican fim-asthe sceneof the. executions, ..ith the state- ment of the Roman Gains (ap. Ens. U.E. u. 25, c. AD 200), that the relics of St. Peter rested on the Vatican as those of St. Paul on the Ostian Way.
4
M
M
67 68 69
Alexandrine. Apr. 9, T. Mar. 2fl, 8a. Apr. 17, Sa. (or Mar. 18? Tb.) Apr. 6, T. Mar. 25, Sa. Apr. 13, F.
Lewin. Apr. 10, W. Mar. 30, Su. Mar. 19, F.
Apr. 7, Th. Mar. 27, M. Apr. 15, Su.
Wieaeler.
Apr. 18, So.
Apr. 7, Th. Mar. 27, M.
Apr. 15, Su
Now, suppos'ing, as seems a fair estimate, that the Xlexandrinedate U the earliest possible for each year, and two days later the latest, Nisan 14 may Lve been a Thursday in any of the three years A D. 54 (Apr. 11), 56 (Mar. 18), 57 (Apr. , ). ^^hat, then, can fairly be claimed for Kamsay's investiga- tion is, that against the other three yeare, A-D. o5, 58 59, a certain presumption of improhabUity does remain ; and witli regard to the two later of these three years this result serves to confirm the result attained in the last section. Combining this with the previous enquiry, A.D. 56 and o' appear the probable alternatives for the year of St. Paul s arrest, A.D. 58 and 59 for the recall of Fehx and close of the two years' capti^-ity at Csesarea.
10 The Persecution under Nero, and Martyrdoms of St Peter and St. Pa«/.-That the two apostles were martyred on the same day is an erroneous deduction from the common festival on June .i J, which is really the day of the common translation of their relics to the safe conceahnent of the t-ata-
• That the Alexandrine date is always beforehand with the date .lependinE on simple observation wiU be due to the cycle S^mV.S reckoning .Ni».-in 1 fmm the liu>e o "tronon'.cal new moon, not from the lime, about SO houn Ut«r. when it Ant became visible to obeervM*.
Suet, is not m the habit of fi%mg dates at ail
as something vastly '^^"?"\1^2^.'^"\\nch followed. It
normal condition of o'='=^.'0°='' "^"> S°'?,,o, w death to the
is true again.that E^^^ebms assigns the apo.Uesde __^
I very end of Nero's reign, A.B.bS. But he ties in ^^^^^
\ whole persecution, as thelast and «ont^ai^.t^^_^^^^,^
vaguest terms ""^'^-^ ^ero 9 (10) J,xT,r,r,^^.^^^^ ^.^ ^^^
persecution ; and this, ^^""'"^.^IrdeZh W within a year at Sf Tac. and of 0""f./'^™f;'^"^,''^'^'64 middle of (io (Hirnack. any rate of the great ttre. ""'l' "e of A ». b-* "l^a y^,;,
o c p. 240, still more precisely. Julj A.D. tw . ""'• ^" the possibilities unreasonably.)
Probablv modem writers would not ha,ve been so^rducU^itTadmit this. « the [e-v-l ^tna"n ology .had .not H°"fj' f,t„ Jof a n 63. so that thftwo'y a^t lSs\vhicirw°uia intervene before 1, s mlrtvrd^ni on the dating just suggested would hfSsuSt to cover what is known or iea.on
^i;^;:^tuJeniZti.i;pmiss^..i73^;-3,
But it his been now shown (see Nos »• *• 9> V'^^^.^J 60, but 58 or 59. is the true date o J'ej'tus ariival
P.^tabli'.'hes the ienyiinus ad quern, pa.Ta.Ue\ to tne
CHRONOLOGY OF NEW TEST.
CHRONOLOGY OF NEW TESL 421
de,-;ire lony before expressed by liiui (Ko 15-') to go oil from Koine to S|i.iiii, is iiiaile more tlian probable by the testimony of Si. Clement, lliiit the aposlle 'preached righteousness to the whole world, and reached the boundaiT of the West ' ((irl rd Tipiia Tijs Suaeus ^X$ur, ad Cor. v. ), and of the Muratorian Canon [e. A.D. 200], ]>rufeetiunem Pauli ab urbe ful Spanifiin projicisccntis. l''or a journey to districts so untouched, « licre the very founda- tions of Christianity would still have to be laid, at leitst a year must be allowed , and six months more must be added for the preachinj; on the route through Soutlieru Gaul — Marseilles, Aries, Nimes, Narbonnc — if the I'aXoria to whicli t'rescens was Bent (2 Ti 4'") was, as Eusebius, HE iii. 4, and other Greek Fathers supjiose, not the lesser Gaul of Asia Minor, but the greater Gaul of the West.