CHAPTER III THE APOSTOLIC AGE 107 try our faith. Certain interstellar spaces will always be 4. The dates of the Epistles to the Galatians, Corinvacant in the firmament of the apostolic age that men thians, and Romans, between 56 and 58. The date of the may gaze all the more intensely at the bright stars, before Epistle to the Romans can be fixed almost to the month which the post-apostolic books disappear like torches. from its own indications combined with the statements A careful study of the ecclesiastical writers of the sec- of the Acts. It was written before the apostle had been ond and third centuries, and especially of the numerous in Rome, but when he was on the point of departure for Apocryphal Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses, leaves on Jerusalem and Rome on the way to Spain,243 after havthe mind a strong impression of the immeasurable supe- ing finished his collections in Macedonia and Achaia for riority of the New Testament in purity and truthfulness, the poor brethren in Judaea;244 and he sent the epistle simplicity and majesty; and this superiority points to a through Phebe, a deaconess of the congregation in the special agency of the Spirit of God, without which that eastern port of Corinth, where he was at that time.245 book of books is an inexplicable mystery. These indications point clearly to the spring of the year § 23. Chronology of the Apostolic Age. 58, for in that year he was taken prisoner in Jerusalem See the works quoted in § 20 p. 193, 194, especial- and carried to Caesarea. ly Wieseler. Comp. also, Hackett on Acts, pp. 22 to 30 5. Paul’s captivity in Caesarea, a.d. 58 to 60, during (third ed.). the procuratorship of Felix and Festus, who changed The chronology of the apostolic age is partly certain, places in 60 or 61, probably in 60. This important date at least within a few years, partly conjectural: certain as we can ascertain by combination from several passages to the principal events from a.d. 30 to 70, conjectural as in Josephus, and Tacitus.246 It enables us at the same time, to intervening points and the last thirty years of the first by reckoning backward, to fix some preceding events in century. The sources are the New Testament (especial- the life of the apostle. ly the Acts and the Pauline Epistles), Josephus, and the 6. Paul’s first captivity in Rome, a.d. 61 to 63. This folRoman historians. Josephus ( b. 37, d. 103) is especially lows from the former date in connection with the statevaluable here, as he wrote the Jewish history down to the ment in Acts 28:30. destruction of Jerusalem. 7. The Epistles of the Roman captivity, Philippians, The following dates are more or less certain and ac- Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon, a.d. 61–63. cepted by most historians: 8. The Neronian persecution, a.d. 64 (the tenth year 1. The founding of the Christian Church on the feast of Nero, according to Tacitus). The martyrdom of Paul of Pentecost in May a.d. 30. This is on the assumption and Peter occurred either then, or (according to tradithat Christ was born b.c. 4 or 5, and was crucified in tion) a few years later. The question depends on the secApril a.d. 30, at an age of thirty-three. ond Roman captivity of Paul. 2. The death of King Herod Agrippa I. a.d. 44 (ac9. The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a.d. 70 (according to Josephus). This settles the date of the preced- cording to Josephus and Tacitus). ing martyrdom of James the elder, Peter’s imprisonment 10. The death of John after the accession of Trajan, and release Acts 12:2, 23). a.d. 98 (according to general ecclesiastical tradition). 3. The Apostolic Council in Jerusalem, a.d. 50 (Acts The dates of the Synoptical Gospels, the Acts, the 15:1 sqq.; Gal. 2:1–10). This date is ascertained by reck- Pastoral Epistles, the Hebrews, and the Epistles of Peter, oning backwards to Paul’s conversion, and forward to James, and Jude cannot be accurately ascertained except the Caesarean captivity. Paul was probably converted in mentioned in Gal. 2:1, which he identifies with Paul’s fourth 37, and “fourteen years” elapsed from that event to the journey to Jerusalem in 54, instead of his third journey to the Council four years earlier. Council. But chronologists differ on the year of Paul’s conver243 Rom. 1:13, 15, 22; 15:23-28; comp. Acts 19:21; 20:16; sion, between 31 and 40.242 242 See Hist. Apost. Ch. § 63, p. 235, and § 67, p. 265. The allusion to the governorship of Aretas in Damascus, 2 Cor. 11:32, 33, furnishes no certain date, owing to the defects of our knowledge of that period; but other indications combined lead to the year 37. Wieseler puts Paul’s conversion in the year 40, but this follows from his erroneous view of the journey
23:11; 1 Cor. 16:3. Rom. 15:25-27; 1 Cor. 16:1, 2; 2 Cor. 8 and 9; Acts 24:17. 244 Rom. 15:25-27; 1 Cor. 16:1, 2; 2 Cor. 8 and 9; Acts 24:17. 245 Rom. 16:1, 23; comp. Acts 19:22; 2 Tim. 4:20; 1 Cor. 1:14. 246 See Wieseler, l. c., pp. 67 sqq.
