by David Brown
Certainty in these dates is not to be had, the notes of time in the Acts being few and vague. It is only by connecting those events of secular history which it records, and the dates of which are otherwise tolerably known to us—such as the famine under Claudius Caesar (Act 11:28), the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by the same emperor (Act 18:2), and the entrance of Porcius Festus upon his procuratorship (Act 24:27), with the intervals specified between some occurrences in the apostle's life and others (such as Act 20:31; 24:27; 28:30; and Gal 1:1-24—Gal 2:1-21)—that we can thread our way through the difficulties that surround the chronology of the apostle's life, and approximate to certainty. Immense research has been brought to bear upon the subject, but, as might be expected, the learned are greatly divided. Every year has been fixed upon as the probable date of the apostle's conversion from A.D. 31 [Bengel] to A.D. 42 [Eusebius]. But the weight of authority is in favor of dates ranging between 35 and 40, a difference of not more than five years; and the largest number of authorities is in favor of the year 37 or 38. Taking the former of these, to which opinion largely inclines, the following Table will be useful to the student of apostolic history:
| A.D. 37 | Paul's Conversion | Act 9:1. |
| A.D. 40 | First Visit to Jerusalem | Act 9:26; Gal 1:18. |
| A.D. 42-44 | First Residence at Antioch | Act 11:25-30. |
| A.D. 44 | Second Visit to Jerusalem | Act 11:30; 12:25. |
| A.D. 45-47 | First Missionary Journey | Act 13:2; 14:26. |
| A.D. 47-51 | Second Residence at Antioch | Act 14:28. |
| Third Visit to Jerusalem | Act 15:2-30; Gal 2:1-10. (on which see Notes) | |
| A.D. 51, 53, or 54 | Second Missionary Journey | Act 15:36, 40; 18:22. |
| A.D. 53 or 54 | Fourth Visit to Jerusalem | Act 18:21-22. |
| Third Residence at Antioch | Act 18:22-23. | |
| A.D. 54-58 | Third Missionary Journey | Act 18:23; 21:15. |
| A.D. 58 | Fifth Visit to Jerusalem Arrest and Imprisonment at Caesarea | Act 21:15; 23:35. |
| A.D. 60 (Autumn) A.D. 61 (Spring) | Voyage to and Arrival in Rome | Act 27:1; 28:16. |
| A.D. 63 | Release from Imprisonment At Crete, Colosse, Macedonia, Corinth, Nicopolis, Dalmatia, Troas | Act 28:30. 1 Tim. & 2 Tim. 1:1-18 thru 4:1-22 and Titus |
| A.D. 63-65, or 66, or possibly as late as A.D. 66-68 | Martyrdom at Rome |