juncture of circumstances, and the same kind of occasion. To establish the fact of this coincidence we may compare the passages in the margin 5. There are other Epistles, as those to the Ephesians and to the Colossians and those to Titus and the First to Timothy respectively; of which a similar conformity is perceptible, and which were certainly written together. I cannot indeed contend that the coincidence in the present instance is such, as would lead to the inference that one Epistle was written while the other was still fresh in the mind of the writer; but I think it is such even here as, among other arguments, to prove that both were written within a short time of each other: in which case the Epistle to the Galatians, as neither so elaborate, nor so regular, nor in all respects so deliberate and premeditated a composition as that to the Romans, but manifestly written on the spur of the moment, under the first excitement of feeling produced by an unexpected and disagreeable piece of information, that of the defalcation of any of the writer's converts from the sound and sober form of the faith which they had received from him; we may perhaps conclude was written by St. Paul first. Lastly, if it is reasonable to suppose that the Judaizing teachers would not leave Judæa, to make converts professedly among the Gentiles, before the last of the Apostles, St. Peter, had himself set out upon his great Evangelical circuit; then if the progress of that circuit did not bring even him to Corinth before the beginning of U. C. 807. it is not extraordinary that those teachers also should not arrive there, or even in Galatia, before U. C. 808. Again, Galatians v. 11. is clearly incompatible with an early date; but very much in unison with Acts xx. 3. and Rom. xv. 30, 31. which are synchronous facts and allusions. Again, it is a very ancient tradition, and attested by the subscription of the Epistle itself, that the Epistle to the Galatians was written from Rome; and though the subscriptions to the Epistles in general are entitled to little consideration, yet if the Epistle was actually written when St. Paul was on his way to Rome, the tradition may so far have been correct. There is no intimation in any part of the Epistle that St. Paul intended to revisit the Galatians in person; but rather the contrary and consequently that at the time when he was writing to them he had no means of addressing them, or of correcting their error, except by letter. This too, I think, would be the case after the point of time specified at Acts xix. 21. and from thenceforward, until he arrived at Jerusalem. It was not indeed in the nature of things impossible that he might write the Epistle after this, when he was at Cæsarea; but the first words of the exordium, Παῦλος ... καὶ οἱ σὺν ἐμοὶ πάντες ἀδελφοὶ, imply that he was somewhere at large, and in the society of his usual companions and fellow-labourers, when he wrote it. He makes use of similar language at Acts xx. 34. speaking of those who had been his companions at Ephesus. Had the Epistle been written while he was any where in confinement, some allusion would have occurred in it to his bonds; whereas there is nothing of the kind. h Gal. iv. 18, 19, 20. Nor do I consider the declaration, ἐγὼ γὰρ τὰ στίγματα τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματί μου βαστάζω ', to be any exception to the contrary. It is proved, as I think, by 2 Cor. x. 10. xii. 7, 8, 9. Gal. iv. 13, 14. that this allusion to the prints of the Lord Jesus, is an allusion to his thorn in the flesh. The principle of the allusion is illustrated by Philo Judæus k. Ενιοι δὲ . . . ἵενται πρὸς δουλείαν τῶν χειροκμήτων, γράμμασιν αὐτὴν ὁμολογοῦντες οὐκ ἐν χαρτιδίοις, ὡς ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνδραπόδων ἔθος, ἀλλ ̓ ἐν τοῖς σώμασι καταστίζοντες αὐτὴν σιδήρῳ πεπυρωμένῳ, πρὸς ἀνεξά λειπτον διαμονήν. This custom was of great antiquity in Egypt; for Herodotus alludes to it in his own time! —ἐς τὸ ἢν καταφυγὼν οἰκέτης ὅτεῳ ἀνθρώπων ἐπιβάληται στίγματα ἱρὰ, ἑωυτὸν διδοὺς τῷ Θεῷ, οὐκ ἔξεστι τούτου ἅψασθαι *. And the practice of so branding them * Plutarch, Nicias, 29: καὶ τού τους ὡς οἰκέτας ἐπώλουν (the Athenians made prisoners by the Syracusans) στίζοντες ἵππον εἰς τὸ πρόσω ωπον. Cf. Suidas in Σαμίων ὁ δήμος. Hence slaves were also called στιγματίαι. Mitius id sane, quod non et stigmate dignum | Credidit — Juvenal, x. 183. Yet Herodotus, vii. 35. makes Xerxes actually treat the Hellespont so. The name of ἀτταγᾶς was given metaphorically to slaves so marked, because that species of bird had mottled or party-coloured plumage: see Suidas, Ατταγάς. It appears from Ambrose, Operum ii. 1189. D. E. De Obitu Valentiniani, §. 58. that slaves, or servants, in his time, if Christians, would sometimes bear the name of Christ, and soldiers that of the emperor: Caractere Domini inscribuntur et servuli, et nomine imperatoris signantur milites. i vi. 17. : Criminals were sometimes branded as thieves with the word fur. Hence, apud Plautum, Trium litterarum homo. Lucian, De Dea Syria, iii. 489. §. 59 : στίζονται δὲ πάντες, οἱ μὲν ἐς καρπούς, οἱ δὲ ἐς αὐχένας. καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦδε ἅπαντες ̓Ασσύριοι στιγματοφορέουσι. In reference to the persecution of the Jews in Egypt by Ptolemy Philopator, between B. C. 222 and 205, it is said, 3 Macc. ii. 29 : τούτους τε ἀπογραφομένους χαράσσεσθαι καὶ διὰ πυρὸς εἰς τὸ σῶμα παρασήμω Διονύσου κισσοφύλλῳ, οὓς καὶ καταχωρίσαι εἰς τὴν προσυνεσταλμένην αὐθεντίαν. Certain of the heretical sects adopted a similar mode of distinguishing themselves. Irenæus, i. xxiv. 101. 1. 28. De Carpocratianis: Alii vero ex ipsis signant, cauteriantes suos discipulos in posterioribus partibus exstantiæ dextræ auris. Epiphanius, Operum i. 106. D. Con k Operum ii. 220. 1. 46. sqq. De Monarchia, lib. i. 1 ii. 113. selves was expressly forbidden the Jews". St. Paul's thorn in the flesh, whatsoever it was, did as plainly denote whose servant he was; by whose grace, notwithstanding this infirmity, his ministerial labours were crowned with success, and whose strength was made perfect in his weakness; as if the naine of the Master whom he served, and whose property he was, had been branded or printed on his body. The result of these reasonings is to confirm our original proposition, that the Epistle to the Galatians was not written before U. C. 807. nor after U. C. 809; and therefore most probably U. C. 808: but whether before the Second to the Corinthians, or after the Epistle to the Romans, or between the two, I cannot undertake to determine; nor in fact is it of any importance to do so. The same uncertainty must always exist with regard to the place where it was written, further than simply thus much; that if it was written in U. C. 808. it was written from some one or other of those quarters, in which St. Paul spent the whole of tra eosdem, v : σφραγῖδα δὲ ἐν καυτῆρι, ἢ δι ̓ ἐπιτηδεύσεως ξυρίου ἢ ῥαφίδος, ἐπιτιθέασιν οὗτοι, οἱ ὑπὸ Καρποκρᾶ, ἐπὶ τὸν δεξιὸν λοβὸν τοῦ ὐτὸς, τοῖς ὑπ ̓ αὐτῶν ἀπατωμένοις. Το bear στίγματα, however, was not every where a mark of disgrace. On the contrary, like the practice of tattooing among certain of the Indian tribes, it was in some cases reckoned honourable. Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, i. 9: στίζονται παρὰ Θραξὶν οἱ εὐγενεῖς παῖδες, καὶ παρὰ Γέτταις (Γέταις) δοῦλοι—ii. 12: πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ ἐθνῶν ὄντας, ἐν οἷς οἱ πλεῖστοι στίζονται. Dio Chrysostom, xiv. 442. §. 40: τί δέ ; ἐν Θρᾴκη γέγονας; ἔγωγε. ἑώρακας οὖν ἐκεῖ τᾶς γυναῖκας τὰς ἐλευθέρας, στιγμάτων μεστὰς, καὶ τοσούτῳ πλείονα ἐχούσας στίγματα καὶ ποικιλώτερα, ὅσῳἂν βελτίους καὶ ἐκ βελτιόνων δοκοῦσι; Yet a different account of the origin and import of these στίγματα of the Thracian women is given in the Greek Anthology; viz. that they were intended as a memorial and a punishment of their crime in murdering Orpheus. It concludes, ποινὰς δ' Ορφῆϊ κταμένῳ στίζουσι γυναῖκας | εἰσέτι νῦν, κείνης εἵνεκεν αμπλακίης. Anthologia, i. 2o5. Phanoclis i. m Lev. xix. 28. this year: that is, the first part he spent in Asia, but the rest, and the chief part perhaps in Macedonia, if not in Achaia. And having arrived at this conclusion, we may resume the course of our subject, which was the continuance of St. Paul's last journey from Greece to Jerusalem, U. C. 809. It will appear from the Table of Passovers in Dissertation vii. that the Passover was celebrated U. C. 809. on March 19: and the Pentecost on May 9. It was by the time of this feast that St. Paul proposed to arrive in Jerusalem: and that he accomplished his purpose in the interval between his leaving Philippi, and his being apprehended in the temple, is evident from the presence of the Jews of Asia in Jerusalem, at the time of the latter event. But the same Jews were not present at Cæsarea also, when he was soon after examined by Felix °. We may infer then that Pentecost was over by that time; and that those Jews were returned to their homes. As St. Paul had to travel from Corinth as far as Philippi by land, and as he spent at Philippi the Paschal week; which would fall, according to the reckoning above made, between March 19. and March 26. inclusive; it is probable that he set out from Corinth about the end of February, and arrived at Philippi about the third week in March. His three months' residence in Greece then terminated about the end of February, U. C. 809, and began consequently about the middle or the beginning of December, U. C. 808: which is entirely agreeable to what we before concluded of the length of his stay in Macedonia. Between the time of the arrival in Jerusalem, and the day of St. Paul's first examination before Felix, there was exactly a twelve days' interval P: the accu n Acts xx. 16. o xxi. 27. xxiv. 18. p xxiv. II. |