Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/821

 CHRONOLOGY

737

CHRONOLOGY

Accordingly, St. John mentions at least three

paschs in the course of the ministry. One (ii. 13) shortly after the baptism, another of which we have just been speaking (vi, 4;, and the third, at the time of the Passion (xi. 55). So that the simplest explana- tion of the length of the ministry would be to say it 111 over two years. But how does that conclu- sion lit in with the narrative of the Synoptists? The difficulty is that St. .Mark, the most complete witness of what is railed the "synoptic tradition", does not take much account of time. As Papias said, " he wrote accurately, if not orderly" (dcpt^us typaipev, oi p.tvToi rdfei— Eus.. III. xl). Still, even if St. Mark does not make mention of paschs, it does not follow- that there were none. Thus, we know that there was a pasch shortly after our Saviour's baptism (Jolin, ii, 13), and yet St. Mark does not mention it. He does, however, mention one in xiv, 1, the Pasch of the Pas- sion. And if he does not mention another pasch, he makes remarks from which we can infer the existence of one. Thus in ii, 23, he speaks of the plucking of the ears of corn and evidently refers to the early sum- mer, whilst vi. 39, with its allusion to the green grass, seems to take us to the spring-time. From the events related between these two paints it seems clear that a year intervened, and so, as in St. John, we have to find room for another pasch. Our conclusion is that the most natural explanation of St. Mark would lead us to a duration of two years for the ministry.

(12) Date of the Crucifixion. — It is clear that the Crucifixion took place under Pontius Pilate, and hence Our Saviour must have died between a. d. 26 and 36 (Ant.. XVIII, iv, 2). It is also clearly laid down in the Gospels that the Crucifixion took place on a Fri- day. For we are told that the Resurrection took place on Sunday, and also that it occurred three days after the Crucifixion, but according to the Oreek and Jewish mode of reckoning, the third day is what we should call the second day. A difficulty is. however, raised as to whether Our Saviour died on the 14th or loth ot Nisan. Some are of opinion that, whilst St. held the Crucifixion to have been on the 1 ltd (xix. 31 i, the Synoptists were in favour of the 15th (Mark. xv. 42). But it does not seem possible that either St. John or St. Matthew, who were so inti- mately connected with the facts related, should have been mistaken in this matter, or that, in the same way, either the Synoptists or the Fourth ( iospel erred. Nor are we without explanations to reconcile the ap- parent differences between the < tospels. St. John, we

know, favours the 1 1th of Xisan. Hut St. Mark, too, tells us how Simon of Cyrene helped Christ to carry the Cross (xv, 21), and how Joseph of Arimathea buried the Body facts which seem to tell against the .1 Day (xy, 13 sqq.). Besides, the weight of Christian antiquity is in favour of the Hth of Xisan. as ii Ii competent modern scholars as Professor Sanday and the late Bishop Westcott.

If we could make up our mind fully that the ( ruci- fixioii took place on the 14th of Xisan. it would help

us to determine in what year it happened, lor though we cannot always lie certain whether a Friday fell on the Hth or 1.1th of Xisan, still we can be fairly satisfied that the years 29, 30, and 33 fulfilled the ,.ry conditions, though von Soden, in Cheyne's "Encyclopedia", is of opinion that the year 29 does not do so. It has already been seen that the Cruci- fixion must have happened somewhere between 26

and :;i;. It may also be taken tint it did not occur after 33, because in the next year I li posed

from the high-priesthood by Vitellius. We are left, then, with the years 29, 30, and 3.3 to choose between

for the death of Jesus Christ. We cannot be certain in our choice. But naturally we should expect the date of such an important evmt to be handed down by tradition: and We find a very ancient tradition, going back to a. d. loll, for the date a. d. 29, in the III.— 47

consulship of the Gemini. In favour of it are Clement of Alexandria. Origen, the Apocryphal Acts of Pilate, Ilippolytus, and the Pseudo-Terfullian.

(13) The Apostles. — Frederick Blass (Acta Apos- tolorum, p. 21) tells us of the chronology of the Acts of the Apostles that we cannot be certain of our dates within a less period than about ten years. That is a strong statement, but nothing will bring home to us bitter how ambiguous the chronology is than the large number of different systems that have been adopted by interpreters of this book.

Taking the year 29 as that of the Crucifixion, three other dates are at once fixed. For the Resurrection took place three days after the Crucifixion; the Ascension 40 days after that, and ten days later the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles. Other dates are not so simple. In Acts, xii, 1-25, is given an ac- count of Herod's persecution, the martyrdom of St. James, St. Peter's miraculous liberation from prison, the death of Herod, and the return .if Sts. Paul and Barnabas from Jerusalem, whither they had travelled to convey the alms of the Church in Antioeh (xi, 30). All these events seem closely connected with the death of Herod (xii. 23); and from what Josephus says, and the evidence of the coinage, we cannot be far wrong in placing that event in the year 44. From the date of the recall of Felix, governor of Judea, and the arrival of his succe ..» I e tus, we ought to be able to decide the year of the end of St. Paul's career, as sketched in the Acts. For shortly after the ar- rival of Festus, St. Paul was sent a prisoner to Home. Harnack places this event in 57, Lightfoot in 61, Ramsay in 60. Perhaps we may say 02, for he was sent to Home by Festus, shortly after his arrival in Judea. But this was not long before the death of Pallas in a. D. 62 (Tac, Ann., XIV. lxv). In Rome St. Paid remained two years, hence till 64 (Acts, xxviii. .30). The Acts end here, but tradition says that St. Paul was released at the end of two years' captivity in Rome, and paid his long-contemplated visit to Spain (St. Clement. Muratorian Fragment, etc.). He also visited Southern Gaul and. as we learn

from the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, among other place-., Crete, Macedonia, and Miletus. This expedi- tion would have taken about three years.

St. Paul's recorded missionary journeys, which began wdien he and Barnabas wen' sent forth by the Holy Ghost to preach (xiii, 4), ended with his arrest in Jerusalem in the year 59 (xxii i before ins imprison- ment at Csesarea and Rome. The third missionary journey (xviii. 23-xxi. 15) must have occupied <piit'e four years, for he spent over two years at Ephesus (xix, 10). besides passing through Macedonia and Greece, going slowly through Macedonia and spend- ing three months in Corinth. This journey would

have begun, as far as we can see, in the summer of 55. The second journey (xv, 36-xviii, 22), a work mostly of revisiting churches (xv, 36), ended not very long before the third missionary expedition began, prob- ably in 54, and began about tine, years previously, in 51. The first _' I i ter \\ are taken up

with the Council of Jerusalem. There is much differ- J opinion as to I to it.

Thus Hamack places it in 47, Lightfoot in 51, Ramsay in 50. It would seem most likely to have occurred in 51, the year of the beginning of the second missionary journey, for it was concluded only "some days''

(xv, :;iii Let, .re that expedition was begun. Having

fi\..l the .late ..f the ( 'ouiicil of Jerusalem. we a re in a ttO .'tie the .late . if Si, Paul'

Jerusalem after his conversion. For (Gal., ii, 1) it was I I years before the council, oi in the year .37. From the same Epistle (i, 18) we know that St. Paul's

conversion took place three years previously, in 34.

U.'nm place the martyrdom of St. Stephen a year

earlier (i.e. in 33 | not more; for Saul was still "breathing

out threatenings and slaughter" I icts, ix, l)at the (late