A Chronological Study of Paul

8/20/2019 A Chronological Study of Paul

1/9

A Chronological Study of Paul's Ministry

By Dennis McCallum

Why is Chronology Important?

Chronology is the study of the sequence of events in an historical text, and thecomparison of those events with other known events from other sources. The Bile

is an historical document, and part of assessing the value of any historical narrativeis the study of Chronology. !hen events in the Bile line up with known dates

confirmed outside the Bile, is suggests a high level of reliaility in the ilical

text. "lso, some areas of doctrine are ased on chronological assertions, as we shallsee in the case of #al. $. This outline explains in shortened form how scholars datethe events in the ministry of %aul. " more complete study of this process is

availale in &ack 'innegan, A Handbook of Biblical Chronology.

Sequential Outline of the Movements of Paul y Ma!or Periods

The first step in studying chronology is to assemle a sequence of events alongwith all chronological notes. (n other words, a narrator will say, )for over two

years) or )in time for the %assover.) These notes, when assemled, form a timechain, often with some missing spots. *ere are the important events for %aul+s

ministry

A" #he period from the conversion of Paul until the lst trip to $erusalem"

-. "cts /0l$1. %aul was converted on the road to Damascus$. *e entered Damascus and stayed there for an unknown amount of time "cts

/-/1

2. %aul went to "raia for an unspecified period, and returned to Damascus

afterward #al.--31.

4. The whole period from his conversion until his departure from Damascus isgiven as )2 years)#al.--51

6. *e went to &erusalem at this time, and stayed for -6 days "cts /$70$/8

#al.--51

%" #he period from the &st visit until the nd visit to $erusalem"

-. "fter the -6 days at &erusalem, %aul was sent away to avoid capture, and

sailed from Caesarea to the regions of 9yria and Cilicia "cts /2:8 #al.-$-1

http://www.xenos.org/personal/den.htmhttp://www.xenos.org/personal/den.htm


2/9

$. "fter a period ranging from 5 to -4 years, %aul traveled to "ntioch withBarnaas and stayed for l year "cts --$68 #al.-$-0$- see elow1.

2. %aul then traveled to &erusalem from "ntioch, staying for a short time. This

was in connection with the collection taken up in "ntioch ecause of "gaus+ vision "cts --$302:8 #al.$-1. *e then returned to "ntioch.

C" #he period from the nd until the (rd visit to $erusalem"

-. "fter the relief visit $nd visit1 to &erusalem, %aul returned to "ntioch.

$. ;ery soon afterwards, the -st missionary pon arrival, he went to %hillipi, then to 9amothrace, ?eopolis, "mphipolis,Thessalonica, Berea, "thens, and finally to Corinth where he stayed for - -@$

years.

• "fter the Macedonian and #reek ministry, he traveled to Aphesus, Caesarea,and ack to "ntioch in 9yria.

-. %aul+s 2rd Missionary &ourney "cts l50$l1

• %aul traveled from "ntioch to %hrygia and #alatia for the third time.


3/9

• *e then traveled ack to Aphesus where he stayed $ l@4 years.

• "fter the Aphesian ministry, he sailed to Macedonia, and went y foot to#reece including a second stop at Corinth(( Cor. -2-1.

• *e then walked ack to Macedonia stopping at %hillipi, and set sail for

Troas.

• 'rom Troas, he sailed for &erusalem stopping on the way at "ssos, Mytelene,

Chios, 9amos, Miletus, Aphesus, Cos, hodes, %atara, Tyre, %tolemais, andCaesarea.

)" Paul's arrest in $erusalem. and imprisonment at Caesarea *Acts &/&012/(-

-. %aul was arrested in &erusalem shortly after arriving from his 2rd Missionary&ourney and taken to Caesarea where he was imprisoned for $ years.

3" Paul's trip to 4ome *Acts 015-

-. %aul left from Caesarea and sailed to 9idon, Myra, and 'air *avens on

Crete, where he stayed until after the Day of "tonement.$. *e then sailed west until shipwrecked on Malta, where he stayed 2 months.

2. !hen 9pring came, he sailed to 9yracuse, hegium, and %uteoli, finallyarriving in ome, where he was imprisoned for $ more years.

3" Paul's movements after the 4oman imprisonment"

-. %aul was apparently freed in after the oman imprisonment. there is Bilicaland early church historical evidence and that %aul was released and traveled

more, including a trip to 9pain. Clement of ome in ( Clement, and ((Tim.1"t some point he returned to ome where he was martyred in the summer of

74 ".D.

Assigning dates to the events in the list aove"

"fter assemling the chronological sequence, the next step is to discover, if possile, a firm time )peg) somewhere in the sequence. (f any event in the

sequence can e dated independently and relialy, the other events can also edated y counting ackward and forward from the peg. (n the case of %aul, we have

a very good peg dating his Corinthian ministry during the second missionary visit.

-. 6allio *Acts l5/l- The mention of #allio as proconsul of "chaia offers the

possiility of estalishing a fixed point in the chronology of %aul+s life. 'romthat point, we can reckon forward and ackward to estalish the est times

for all of the events mentioned.


4/9

• "chaia was the area of ancient #reece south of Macedonia. The province

was made responsile to the 9enate y Claudius in ".D. 44.

• The term of office for a %roconsul governor1 was l year $ years in rare

cases1.

• The eginning of the term of office was May or &une. This is indicated ythe fact that in ".D. 4$, Claudius ordered all proconsuls to leave ome for

their provinces y "pril l. (n ".D. 42, he amended his law so that proconsulsonly had to leave y the middle of "pril. Thus, allowing for travel time, the

term of office would have started in early summer and lasted from summer to summer.

• 9ome iographical information on #allio is availale. *is full name was =.

&unius #allio "nnaeanus. *e was a rother of 9eneca, the oman%hilosopher. #allio is recorded in history y oth Tacitus and Dio Cassius.

• The Delphi (nscription is a copy of a letter from the emperor Claudius to the

city of Delphi located across the ay from Corinth1. (n it, we find the nameof #allio mentioned in his official capacity of proconsul, and the letter is

dated.

• The date given is the $7th )imperial acclamation) of emperor Claudius. "n

imperial acclamation was an honorary appellation y which the omansoldiers saluted their general after a military victory. =ater, the 9enate took

over the giving of the imperial acclamation, and the nature of the appellation

changed to one signifying supreme power. Amperors during this period werereceiving these honors on a regular asis, often more than once in a year. The$7th and $3th imperial acclamation of Claudius occurred in 6$ ".D.

o This date is arrived at y considering another honor known as the

)triunician power.) oman magistrates known as triunes en


5/9

the time period from &an. $6 to "ugust l, ".D. 6$1. Therefore theDelphi inscription can e dated as having een written during the first

half &an0&uly1 of 6$ ".D. C.

1. 7arro8ing the date !hen was %aul rought efore #allio

• "cts l5--0l$ states that %aul stayed a year and six months in Corinth. *ewas then rought efore #allio y the &ews, )while #allio was proconsul of "chaia.) (t is likely that #allio was newly arrived in "chaia at the time of

this trial. "s a new magistrate, he would e anxious to curry favor with thenatives y granting their legal requests. *e would thus provide a ripe

opportunity for the &ews to try to get rid of %aul. (t is proale, therefore,that %aul was rought efore #allio in the summer of 6l ".D.

Counting %ac98ard

"fter estalishing the sequence of events, and the chronological notes involved,and driving a firm time )peg) into the ground, we can use the sequence to count

ackwards or forward. ther corroorating material should fit in naturally.

-. "rrival at Corinth00 Counting ackwards from the time that %aul was

rought efore #allio lEl@$ years which was the amount of time previouslyspent in Corinth1 we come to the winter of 4/@6: ".D. as the time of %aul+s

arrival at Corinth.

• There is evidence to support this conclusion from the historian rossius. (n"cts -5$, it says that when he arrived at Corinth, %aul )found a &ew named

"quila, a native of %ontus, lately come from (taly with his wife %riscilla, ecause Claudius had commanded all the &ews to leave ome.) rossius

says that this was the expulsion referred to y 9eutonius in Claudius $6,)since the &ews constantly made disturances at the instigation of a certainChrestus, he expelled them from ome.) (t has een suggested that

)Chrestus) was, in fact, Christ, which, if true, would make this one of the

earliest mentions of &esus in secular history.1 rossius also says that thisexpulsion occurred in the /th year of Claudius+ reign. (f we consider the firstyear of his reign to e the reckoning point, since he started on &an. $61 then

the ninth year would have een ".D.4/. Thus, it could truly e said that"quila had )lately come) when he met %aul in the winter 4/@6:.

-. Beginning the $nd missionary


6/9

date of his arrival in Corinth winter 4/@6:1 would ring us to the spring of 4/ ".D. as the start of his $nd Missionary &ourney.

$. The &erusalem Council00 This would indicate that the &erusalem Council

occurred in the winter of 45@4/ ".D. possily &an.0 'e. of 4/ ".D.1. %aulwould have spent only a short time in &erusalem, and then would have

returned to "ntioch with the news of the Council+s decisions.

2. The 'irst Missionary &ourney00 This


7/9

• #al.$$ gives the reason for the visit in vs.-. %aul says )...it was ecause of a

revelation that ( went up.) This would e a very appropriate description of the "gaus visit, ut a very poor one of the council visit. There is no vision

or revelation mentioned in connection with the council visit.

• #al $$ also says that %aul sumitted to the apostles the gospel that he was

preaching, ut that he did so )in private.) Get, at the &erusalem council, %aulhad to argue his theology pulicly00 efore oth the leaders and everyone

else see "cts -641.

• #al. $-: says that the only thing the "postles had to say was that %aul

should )rememer the poor). "t the &erusalem council, they said four things,

and none of them had to do with the poorF "s a matter of fact, the content of the rulings given at the &erusalem council related directly to the su


8/9

$. The Third Missionary &ourney00 "fter allowing the winter to pass, %aulstarted his 2rd Missionary &ourney in the spring of 6$ ".D. %aul+s


9/9

-24: Community %ark Dr., Columus * 42$$/ 7-41 5$2076::9end questions or feedack to wemasterIxenos.org

J$:-$ Henos Christian 'ellowship (See our usage guidelines. )

9hareThis Copy and %aste

0 9ee more at http@@www.xenos.org@[email protected]&L%%Tr;.dpuf

http://www.xenos.org/classes/chronop.htm
mailto:[email protected]://www.xenos.org/copyright.htmhttp://www.xenos.org/copyright.htmhttp://www.xenos.org/copyright.htmhttp://www.xenos.org/classes/chronop.htm#sthash.eJKPPTrV.dpufmailto:[email protected]://www.xenos.org/copyright.htmhttp://www.xenos.org/classes/chronop.htm#sthash.eJKPPTrV.dpuf

Documents

A Chronological Study of Paul