5. Chronology of St. Paul's sh doce na sup- ie no such point @appui for the chronology of his
econd Book as that furnished in ch. 3}: 5 of his Gospel. Only one of the many points of contact with secular history in the Acts gives an indisput- able datum, viz. the death of Herod Agrippa I. at Cesarea (see Ac 12!-* 1933, and Jos. Ant. XIX. viii.), which happened not long after Easter 44 A.D., and followed upon his persecution of the Church at Jerusalem. The famine that occasioned the visit of relief made by Barnabas and Paul from Antioch, synchronized with Herod’s death (Ac 115-191. 39. 55). but it appears to have lasted several years. If (with Ramsay) we could identify with this mission of charity the visit of Paul to Jerns. relx°ed in Gal 2! (see on this point p. 705°, above), we suould then easily fix the chronology of his earlier Christian course. Taking 45 or 46 (so Ramsay, St. Paul the Trav. ch. iii.) for the date of the Judean famine, the ‘14 years’ of Gal 91, upon this calculation, bring us back to 33 (or 32) A.D. as the year of Paul’s conversion, 33-35 being the ‘3 years’ subsequent (included in the above- mentioned 14) alluded to in Gal 118, 44 (or 45) the year of his summons to help Barnabas at Antioch, 10 years being thus assigned to Paul's unrecorded labours in Cilicia.
The above scheme is open to the following amongst other objections :—(1) It throws back the stoning of Stephen and the judicial proceedings of the high priest against the Christians (Ac 81: 9 ? 11'*)—events antecedent to St. Paul's conversion— to the year 33 at the latest, when Pilate was still in the vigour of his rule. We may infer from St. Luke’s silence, since he Satins informs us on such points in other places, that the Judean perse- cution was unhindered by the Roman Government ; this we can understand as happening in the interval after Pilate’s deposition, which took place in the autumn of A.D, 36 (when he was suspended by L. Vitellius the prefect of Syria and sent for trial to Rome), or in the period immediately preceding, when, under fear of accusation, Pilate’s control of the Jewish authorities was probably relaxed. (2) If St. Paul’s conversion took place in 32 or 33, then Aretas must have been in peaceful
ossession of Damascus so early as the year 35 12 Co 11-8, Gal 18, Ac 9%). This is unlikely. Aretas was at war with Herod Antipas (who had divorced his daughter in favour of Herodias) for some years before the deposition of the latter
PAUL THE APOSTLE 715
in A.D. 37, and inflicted on him a severe defeat (Jos. Ant. Xvitl. v. 1, 2); but this success could not give him possession of Damascus, in Roman Syria. The emperor Tiberius took the side of Antipas in the guard, and under his command Vitellius was at Jerus. at the Pentecost of A.D. 37 on his way to attack Aretas in Petra, when the pent ign was arrested by tidings of Tiberius’ death. The new emperor Caius reversed much of the policy of Tiberius in the East. Antipas fell into disgrace and was deposed, his rival Agrippa being released from prison and made king ; and Aretas is found in a of the coveted cit of Damascus after this time. In all probability, it was ceded by Caius Caligula (see Lewin in Life and Epp. of St. Paul’, i. 67, 68; also Schiirer, HJP i. ii. 354, 357). The years 36-38 supply the political situation at Jerus. and Damascus, under which this train of events—including the execution of Stephen, the overt and systematic attempt of the Jewish rulers to crush the sect of the Nazar- enes, and the circumstances attending the flight of Saul from Damascus—is historically intelligible. For the later period of St. Paul’s life Panieny finds a datum in the marks of time given in Ac 205. 1; from these it is clear that Paul left Troas on his last rane to Jerus. on a Monday morning, while he had left Philippi for Troas immediately the Passover feast was ended ; and the number of intervening daysis continuously stated. Given these conditions, the problem is to find the year in which the Jewish Passover so fell as to make them
ossible. Lewin (Fasti Sacri, Nos. 1856, 1857) and msay (St. Paul the Trav. xiii. 3, Expositor, v. iii. 336, v. 201) have separately worked out this
problem, Lewin giving 58 and Ramsay 57 A.D. as the solution. Ramsay’s calculation appears to be sound, granting that St. Luke’s data are precise. Assuming 57 to be the year of St. Paul’s last voyage to Jerus. and his consequent arrest and imprisonment in Cesarea, we get the date 59 for Felix’ removal and the succession of Festus to the procuratorship, for Paul’s appeal to Cesar and his autumn voyage to Melita, with 60-62 for the term of his first imprisonment in Rome. Five years then remain—a period none too long—for the last stage of his life, including the revisitation of his eastern Churches, the long-deferred mission to Spain, the mission in Crete, and the subsequent extended tour in Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia witnessed to by the Pastoral Epp., and for the months of his second imprisonment and trial. 67 A.D., falling just within the reign of Nero, is the date for St. Paul’s martyrdom which best accords. with Roman tradition and the Chronikon of Euse- bius: here tradition should be at its strongest. Counting backwards from A.D. 57, we get 53 as the date of St. Paul’s arrival at Ephesus in the early part of the third missionary tour, and 49-52 as the probable term of the tour of Paul and Silas; the first journey (sc. of Barnabas and Paul) lay between 46 and 49 A.D. The Council at Jerus. (Ac 15 and Gal 2) then falls in the year 49, i.e. 13 years—in Luke's inclusive reckoning (by years current), 14 years—after Paul’s conversion (Gal 2"), assuming, as we have done provisionally, 36 as the date of his conversion. If the three years of Gal 118 be not included in the 14 of 2', we must carry back Paul’s conversion to 33 or 34 A.D, ; but the difficulties previously noted seem to forbid this supposition. Supposing him to have been 30 at the time of Stephen’s stoning,—‘a young man,’ but competent, according to Jewish practice, for public office, —then he was born c. 6 A.D., and was not much beyond 60 at the time of his death. He may have been older, but scarcely younger than this. He calls himself ‘such an one as Paul the aged,’ when writing to Philemon (ν ἢ: according