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Another date which is nearly certain, or at least may be determined within a year, is the removal of Felix from the procuratorship of Judea, and the entrance of Festus upon that office. On the departure of Felix, the Jewish inhabitants of Cæsarea sent a deputation to Rome to accuse him to the emperor; but Josephus informs us that he was screened by the court influence of his brother Pallas (Ant. xx. 8. 9). The deputation, then, must have arrived at Rome before the year 62; for in that year, according to Tacitus, Pallas was put to death by Nero (Ann. xiv. 65). According to Josephus, Burrus was also alive when the accusers of Felix were at Rome; but he died in March 62. Hence the recall of Felix must have occurred before A.D. 62. Again, Josephus states that, shortly after the entrance of Festus upon office, the Jews sent a deputation to Rome about a matter of dispute between them and that governor; and that the decision was given in their favour in order to gratify Poppaa, the wife of Nero (Ant. xx. 8. 11). Now this could not have happened earlier than the year 62, for according to Tacitus it was not until that year that Poppaa became Nero's wife (Ann. xiv. 60); and allowing some time for the dispute to arise, and the deputation to be sent, Festus could hardly have been earlier in office than the year 60. From these data it has been inferred by the ablest chronologists, that Felix was removed from office and Festus succeeded in A.D. 60.

A multitude of attempts have been made to give an exact chronology of the Acts. The ablest work on this subject is Wieseler's Chronologie des Apostolischen Zeitalters. Lists have been given by Meyer, Wieseler, Olshausen, and Davidson, of upwards of thirty chronological tables, not one of which agrees with another.

We give, for the sake of reference, a table containing a list of the Roman emperors and of the governors of Judea, along with the chief events mentioned in the Acts, chronicled under the years in which these events most probably occurred, similar to the tables given by Alford, Wordsworth, and Conybeare and Howson.

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List of Works, with their Editions, cited in this Commentary.

Akerman's Numismatic Illustrations of the New Testament. London 1846.

Leipzig 1866.

Editio tertia. Tubingæ 1850.
Oxford 1829.
Calvin Translation Society.

Alexander on the Acts of the Apostles. London: Nisbet and Co. 1857.
Alford's Greek Testament, vol. ii. Third edition, 1857.
Baumgarten's Apostolic History. Clark's translation. 1863.
Baur's Apostel Paulus. Zweite Auflage.
Bengelii Gnomon Novi Testamenti.
Biscoe on the Acts of the Apostles.
Calvin's Commentary on the Acts.
Chrysostom's Homilies on the Acts.
Conybeare and Howson's St. Paul.
Cook on the Acts of the Apostles. Second edition. London 1866.
Davidson's Introduction to the New Testament. London: Bagster and
Sons. 1849.

New edition, 1862.

Davidson's Introduction to the History of the New Testament. London: Longmans. 1868.1

De Wette's Apostelgeschichte. Dritte Auflage, 1848.

Doddridge's Family Expositor. London 1840.

Du Veil on the Acts of the Apostles. London 1851.

Eadie's Bible Encyclopædia.

Eusebii Historia Ecclesiastica.

Ewald's Geschichte des Volkes Israel. Zweiter Ausgabe. Sechster Band, 1858.

1 These works of Dr. Davidson are two entirely different books, and view the Acts from two different standpoints. In order to distinguish them in the references, the last published is called the "New Introduction."

Gieseler's Church History. Clark's translation. 1846.

Griesbach's Novum Testamentum Græcum.

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Horne's Introduction to the Scriptures. Ninth edition, 1846.
Humphry's Commentary on the Acts. Second edition. London 1854.
Josephus' Jewish Antiquities and Jewish War.

Kitto's Illustrated Commentary on the Bible.

Kuincel's Novi Testamenti Libri Historici, tom. iii. London 1835.

Lange's Apostolische Zeitalter. Braunschweig 1853.

Lange's Bibelwerk: Der Apostel Geschichten von Lechler. Dritte

Auflage, 1869.

Lardner's Works. 5 vols. quarto. London 1815.

Lekebusch's Composition und Entstehung der Apostelgeschichte. 1854.
Lewin's Life and Epistles of St. Paul. London 1851.

Lightfoot's Horæ Hebraicæ et Talmudicæ. Oxford 1859.

Meyer's Apostelgeschichte. Dritte Auflage, 1861.

Michaelis' Introduction to the New Testament. By Bishop Marsh.

Neander's History of the Planting of Christianity. Bohn's translation.
Neander's Church History. Bohn's translation.

Oertel's Paulus in der Apostelgeschichte. Halle 1868.

Olshausen on the Gospels and the Acts. Clark's translation. 1856.
Paley's Hore Paulinæ.

Pearson's (Bishop) Lectures on the Acts. Cambridge 1851.

Renan's Les Apôtres.

Renan's Saint Paul.

Robinson's Lexicon of the New Testament.

New edition.

London 1858.

Edinburgh: Clark. 1854.

Schaff's History of the Apostolic Church.
Schwanbeck's Quellen der Apostelgeschichte. Darmstadt 1847.
Smith's (Dr. William) Dictionary of the Bible.

Smith's (James) Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul. Second edition,

1856.

Thiersch's History of the Apostolic Church.
Tischendorf's Novum Testamentum Græce.
Tischendorf's Vetus Testamentum Græce.
Whitby's Commentary.

Translated by Carlyle.

Editio septima, 1859.

1850.

Wieseler's Chronologie des Apostolischen Zeitalters. Göttingen 1848.
Winer's Biblisches Realwörterbuch. Zweite Auflage.

Winer's Grammar of the New Testament. Translated by Masson. Fourth

edition.

Wordsworth's Greek Testament: The Acts. Fifth edition.

Zeller's Apostelgeschichte. Stuttgart 1854.

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1

PART I.

PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN JUDEA, AND ITS EXTENSION TO THE GENTILES.

SECTION I.

THE ASCENSION-ACTS I. 1-12.

1 The first treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all things which Jesus began both to do and to teach, 2 Until the day on which He was taken up, after that He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen: 3 To whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God: 4 And, being assembled together, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father, which ye heard from me. 5 Because John baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not long after these days. 6 When they therefore were come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, restorest Thou at this time the kingdom to Israel? 7 But He said to them, It pertains not to you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power. 8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth. 9 And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was lifted up; and a cloud received Him from their sight. 10 And, while they were gazing up to heaven, as He went away, behold, two men stood by them in white garments; 11 Who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking up to heaven? this Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, shall come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath-day's journey.

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