expressed in a small group of occasional letters, into a series of well-marked stages? These letters were, after all, the products of special circumstances, of special situations. Paul did not write as one who gradually, in successive works, presents a system of thought to the world. We may readily admit that more parallels may be found, on careful search, between Philippians and Romans than between it and the other Imprisonment-Epistles (although this state- ment must be made with caution, see Von Soden, Hand-Comm., iii., 1, p. 16, on the marked resemblances between Phil. and Coloss.). But that does not touch the question of date. Paul’s letters must be interpreted from the historical background of each of them. To use as an argument for the ante-dating of Philippians the fact that the other two letters of the Captivity ‘exhibit an advanced stage in the development of the Church” (Lft., Phil., p. 45) seems, to say the least, hazardous, when, on Lightfoot’s own showing, no more than a year can have elapsed between the earlier and the later writings. The “advanced stage in the development of the Church” emerges suddenly in view of the dangerous situation in which the Christians of Asia were placed at the time.
It is more difficult to speak with any confidence as to the actual date. The chronology of Paul's life has recently been the subject of keen discussion. For our purpose the crucial date is that of the arrival of Festus as Procurator of Judwza. Everything depends on determining the year in which the Procurator Felix was recalled and replaced by Festus (see Harnack, Chronologie d. altchristl, Litt., p. 233). It is impossible here even to give a sketch of the various lines of argument used to fix approximately the all-important date. O. Holtzmann, who depends upon the authority of Tacitus and Josephus, and is followed, among others, by Harnack (who emphasises, in addi- tion, the testimony of the Chronicle of Eusebius), argues for the end of the year 55 or the early part of 56. This would make 57 the year of Paul's arrival in Rome, and thus, if our former arguments are valid, Philippians would have to be assigned to the year 59, as he ap- proached the close of his two years’ captivity at Rome. This dating is much earlier than the received chronology, which would refer the re- call of Felix to 60 and the Apostle’s arrival in Rome to 61. In that case our Epistle would fall somewhere within the year 63. We are inclined, however, to accept the view of Mr. C. H. Turner in his masterly article on the Chronology of N. T. in Hastings’ Bible Dict. After a fair-minded and cautious survey of all the arguments, he is led to adopt 58 as the year of the recall of Felix and the arrival of Festus in the province of Judeaa. Paul would thus have reached