Duration o/ the Third Missionary Journey.— But Antioch was no longer an effective centre for St. Paul's work ; it was out of reach of his new Churchea in Macedonia and Achaia, while his 'Galatian* Churches would be supervised quite as easily from Ephesus, whither he waa pledgetl to return if he could (1821). If advantage was to be taken of the travelling season for the highlands of Asia Minor, no long delay was pos- sible ; the farewells at Antioch S. were therefore probably brief (1823 s-oi^tf-oi Tpo*o* Tina, i^ijXOi* ; contrast the continuous work implied in 11»132 1428 ifiSS), and a start made on the 3rd M.J. about August A.D. 62.
This time the passage across Asia Minor seems to have been less protracted. Nothing is said of a stay in Cilicia (contr. 15^1) ; it is only in the Galatian Churches of the 1st M.J. that St. Paul, as he moved in order from one to another, set himself to * estab- Hsh* all the disciples (iitpxiu^^o^ xadt^iit . . . rrripiXm*, IS'-^). This visitation, and the not very lung ordifficull journey between Antioch P., the westernmost of these cities, and Ephesus, need not have extended over much more than the remaining montha of a.d. 52. Perhaps about the turn of the year, while travelling in the less ruggea districU was still feasible, St. Paul reached Ephesus, and entered on a long residence there, certainly of two years, almost certainly of two years and three months— that is, if 1910 touto Si lyi*ift 1»* iT>j hi ■ refers only to the dis- puting in the school of 'Tyrannus, and excludes the three months of the synagogue preaching, 19". It is true that in the case uf the stay at Corinth (see just above) the later and fuller calcu- lation is inclusive and not excluaive of the earlier and briefer : for Ephesus, on the contrary, the supplementary evidence of Ac 2031 rpttrmt . . . oIk i<r«t/«raA«i» appears to decide the ques- tion in favour of a total length of considerably over two yeara of residence. The period thus reckoned tenninatts at earliest in March or April A.n. 6.S. [A departure not before spring ta confirmed by the evidence of the two Corinthian Eiiistle«. 1 Co, written about the paschal season (March 3t^- April ti ia A.D. 55), announces a plan for leaving Ephesus after Pentecost, for travelling through .Macedonia, and perhaps wintering in Corinth (1 Co 5» Id*'*).— a plan which would provide for a much longer, though lesa immediate, visit to Corinth than the original int-ention of going there on the way to Macedonia (cf. 2 Co ll* and 1 Co W ov OiXm ykp Cu,ae aprt i* vapiltu ;3i7*). Tlie Kpbesian riot may have even precipitated the departure before Pentecost (Ac 20i).] At some time, then, in the spring of a.d. 55, St. Paul launches himself on a new cycle of wanderings, intended to include Macedonia, Achaia, Jerus., and Rome (19-i). (2 Co im- plies that he had planned to preach at Troas, and stayed there long enough to find an opening, but ultimately hurried on into Macedonia, the sooner to meet Titus and the news from Corinth (212. 13). ) Through Macedonia he travelled slowly, visiting as he went the Churches of the 2nd journey, and possibly founding
others (202 i,%xQi,, ri ^iV»i (xi7><t ««/ rafax^Xfo-af a,iTeu( X^*
woXkZ), until he reached Greece proper, or 'Hellas.' There, or
CHRONOLOGY OF NEW TEST.
CHKONOLOGY OF NEW TEST. 423
In other wonis in CoriDth. he stayed three months — obviously the winter months of i.D. 5V66. since the return journey brought him to I'hilippi just in time (or tlie piu^o\xT (March 'l8-"Z5 a.i>. tC), 2U<}. Tlus longer route through Maoedunia was a sudden substitute, at the time of starting, for the direct voyage to Pal. (20^J, and the party had to hurry m consequence if the distance from I'hilippi to jerus. was to be covered in the six weeks between ttie end of the paschal season and Pentecost (20^6). A week (six days) was spent at Troas, and another at Tyre, per- haps while waiting for weather or ships ; but the journey be- tween these two places was made with only necessar}' halts, and appears to have occupied not more than a fortnight. The days toat remained to spare were spent at Ciesarea (21^^), and Jerus. was probably reached just in time for the feast.
St, PauVa Cajitimtifg. — At Jerus, St. Paul was arrested (May JUO. 66), and conveyed thence to Cassarea. where his iuiprison- ment, though not of a rigorous character, had lasted a full two years {luti^t wX^pttBtlryut 24^7) when Porcius Festus succeeded Felix in the middle of a.d. 68. Festus, unlike his predecessor, ^ve a fairly prompt hearing to the case (261-^ ^'-^). and late in the summer tit. Paul, having appealed to Ctesar, was sent, with other prisoners, in charge of a centurion to Rome. But the Toya^ was much delayed by contrary winds, and they were ■tUl off Crete at a time when the great fast (Tisri \Q = circa Sept. 16 ID A.D. 68) had already gone by — how long gone by St. Luke does not say (27^). Even if the wreck took place as late as the beginning of November, and the three months at Malta (2811)are reckoned to the full, the voyage was continued early in February, before navigation would naturally have begun ; but DO doubt an othcial on government business would be more likely than ordinary folk to risk sailing at an unpropitious season. Anyhow, somewhere in the early months of a.d. 69 St. Paul may be believed to have arrived in Rome, and after * two whole years' (8(iTia» tJ^n, 283f), i.e. in the spring of a.d. 61, the book of the Acts closes, and leaves him still a prisoner ; though the mention of the particular period suggests that a dllTerent condition of things supervened at the end of it, in which case the release, and visit to Spain, would follow at this point. [See for the rest of St. Paul's Ufe, tupra, pp. 4'2Ut> 421^]