The great famine in Palestine occurred probably in A.D. 46. The commentators as a rule endeavour, by straining Josephus, or by quoting the authority of Orosius, to make out that the famine took place in 44, and even that it occasioned the persecution by Herod.
The eagerness to date the famine in 44 arises from a mistake as to the meaning and order of the narrative of Acts. Between XI 30 and XII 25 there is interposed an account of Herod's persecution and his miserable death, events which belong to the year 44 ; and it has been supposed that Luke conceives these events as happening while Barnabas and Saul were in Jerusalem. But that is not the case. Luke describes the prophecy of Agabus, and the assessment imposed by common arrangement on the whole congregation in proportion to their individual resources. Then he adds that this arrangement was carried out and the whole sum sent to Jerusalem. The
1 Le Bas-Waddington no. 1192, Studia Biblica IV p. 52 f. 4
50 The Church in Antioch. Chap. III.
process thus described was not an instantaneous subscription The money was probably collected by weekly contributions, for the congregation was not rich, and coin was not plenti- ful in Syrian cities. This collection would take a consider- able time, as we gather both from the analogy of the later Pauline contribution (p. 288), and from the fact that the famine was still in the future, and no necessity for urgent haste existed. The arrangements were made beforehand in full reliance on the prophecy ; but there is no reason to think that the money was used until the famine actually began, and relief was urgently needed. The manner of relief must, of course, have been by purchasing and distri- buting corn, for it would have shown criminal incapacity to send gold to a starving city ; and the corn would not be given by any rational person, until the famine was at its height. When Sir Richard Wallace relieved the distress in Paris after the siege, he did not content himself with telegraphing money from London, nor yet with distributing gold to the starving people in Paris. He brought food and gave it. As he did, so we may be sure did the Antiochian delegates do ; and no rational person will suppose that the corn was brought to Jerusalem until the famine was actually raging. But in a land where transport was difficult, preparations took time ; and Luke states at the outset the general course of the preparations which the Divine revelation aroused.
Thereafter, before describing the actual distribution of relief in Jerusalem, the author's method requires him to bring down the general narrative of events in Jerusalem and Judsea to the point when the famine began ; and then at last he mentions the actual administering of the relief. He, therefore, tells about the persecution of Herod
Sec 3. The Antiochian Collection for the Poor. 51
(which took place near the time when Agabus prophesied), and about Herod's death ; and then at last he mentions the execution of the Antiochian design and the return of the delegates to their own city.
As thus interpreted, Luke's chronology harmonises admirably with Josephus. Agabus came to Antioch in the winter of 43-44 ; and in the early part of 44 Herod's persecution occurred, followed by his death, probably in the autumn. In 45 the harvest was probably not good, and provisions grew scarce in the country ; then, when the harvest of 46 failed, famine set in, and relief was urgently required, and was administered by Barnabas and Saul. It is an interesting coincidence that relief was given liberally in Jerusalem by Queen Helena (mother of Izates, King of Adiabene), who bought corn in Egypt and figs in Cyprus, and brought them to Jerusalem for distribution. She came to Jerusalem in 45, and her visit lasted through the season of famine ; she had a palace in Jerusalem. The way in which she imparted relief to the starving people illustrates the work that Barnabas and Saul had to perform.