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was this any thing extraordinary; insomuch as even without wind or sails there were many examples, In tranquillo mari, nulloque velorum impulsu, tertio die ex Italia provectorum Uticam æstu fervente1: and instances to this effect, or others of a similar description, are actually cited by Plinym; to which the reader is referred.

In like manner, Strabo" reckons three hundred and twenty stades, or forty Roman miles, an eight hours' sail; which is at the rate of one hundred and twenty to the twenty-four *. The circumnavigation of Sicily was computed by Ephorus at five days' and nights' sail; which according to the ancient rate of the measurement of that island, would be one thousand stades to the vuxenμepov °. The distance of the promontory called Criumetopon in Crete, from the nearest point in the opposite region of Cyrene, Eratosthenes computed at two thousand stades, Pliny at two hundred and twenty-five Roman miles, Strabo at two days' and two nights' sail P. The distance between Sammonium, another of the headlands of Crete, the Salmone of St. Luke, from Alexandria in Egypt, not less than four thousand stadia, is called in like manner four days' and four nights' sail P. Diodorus makes the island of Pityusa three days' and nights' sail from the pillars of Hercules, and one day and night's sail from the continent of Africa't: neither of which could be

* Dio, xxxix. 50, makes this distance 450 stades, Pliny, H. N. iv. 30, fifty Roman miles.

+ Diodorus, loco citato, calls it

also one day's sail from the continent of Spain: which Pliny, H. N. iii. 11, shews to be a distance of 700 stades.

1 Pliny, H. N. ii. 99. m xix. 1. Cf. Plutarch, Marius, 8. See also an instance in point, Procopius, De Bello Vandalico, i. 14.

H. N. iii. 13. Strabo, vi. 2. §. 1. Diodorus Sic. v. 2.
Strabo, x. 4. §. 5. 229, 230. q Acts xxvii. 7.

n iv. 3. §. 4. 49.

o Pliny, p Pliny, H. N. iv. 20. r v. 16.

less than one thousand stades to the νυχθήμερον, but must have been even more than that *.

Ωμολογημένον γὰρ τοῦτο, says Marcian of Heraclea s, ὅτι ἑπτακοσίους οὐριοδρομοῦσα ναῦς διὰ μιᾶς ἀνύει τῆς ἡμέ ρας εὕροι (δέ) τις ἂν καὶ ἐννακοσίους διαδραμοῦσαν ναῦν, ἐκ τῆς τοῦ κατασκευάσαντος τέχνης τὸ τάχος προσλαβοῦσαν καὶ ἑτέραν μόλις πεντακοσίους διανύσασαν, διὰ τὴν ἐναντίαν τῆς τέχνης αἰτίαν. Το which testimony of Marcian, we may add that of Aristides, Oratio xlviii. 483. §. 15 : καί τοι ναῦς πανημερία θέουσα ὑπ ̓ ἀνέμου κατὰ πρύμναν πνέοντος, προσθήσω δὲ καὶ λιγέος, οὐκ εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατὸν σταδίους ἀνύ σει μάλιστα, ἀλλ ̓ ἴσως μᾶλλον διακοσίους καὶ χιλίους. καὶ ἡμεῖς τοσούτους ἐν εὐπλοίᾳ πολλάκις ἠνύσαμεν, τὸ πᾶν διελόμενοι πρὸς τὰς ἡμέρας ὕστερον.

There can be no doubt that both the art of shipbuilding, and the art of navigation, like every thing else, must have improved with the course of time; and there is apparently authority from Pliny, vi. 24. to rate this improvement in the latter instance at almost three to one: Quondam credita xx dierum navigatione . . . ad nostrarum navium cursus, VII dierum intervallo taxato: and Pliny, it should be remembered, was a seaman himself, and commanded the Roman fleet at the very time of his death. St. Paul's voyage from Macedonia to Judæa was performed in the finest season of the year, and along a well-known route, through a sea the most familiar of all to the ancients: nor does he appear to have been once detained by stress of weather, or adverse circumstances of any kind. We should be justified, therefore, in estimating his progress for the four

* Livy xlv. 41. (Cf. Appian, ix. 17.) Plutarch, Amilius Paulus, 36: Amilius Paulus accomplished the passage from Brundisium to Corcyra, in nine hours'

time. Appian, De Bellis Civilibus, v. 101: Menodorus, U. C. 718, made a passage of 15oo sta des in two days and nights and part of a third day, εἰρεσίᾳ only.

s Apud Geographos Minores, i. 67.

and twenty hours uniformly at one thousand stades, or one hundred and twenty-five Roman miles, and one hundred British; and if the occasion required it at even two hundred stades more.

The object of St. Paul's last journey was to arrive in Jerusalem by the time of the recurrence of Pentecost; and we must begin with tracing it from Philippi ; from whence it set out after the days of unleavened bread, or rà avuat; that is, not until the close of the Paschal week, U. C. 809, A. D. 56. In that year the mean full moon, as it has been already observed, fell upon March 20: but the Passover, according to our calculations, would be kept on March 19. The last day of the Paschal week A. D. 56, was consequently March 26 which the tables exhibit upon Friday, but which I should consider to be Sunday.

The language of St. Luke will not allow us to suppose that St. Paul set out before March 26: but he might have set out upon March 27: the necessity of which supposition will further appear hereafter. On this principle he would set out on a Monday. In five days' time he arrived at Troas; and at Troas he is said to have stayed seven days. Let us assume that as he left Philippi on Monday, March 27, so he arrived at Troas on Saturday, April 1, and that his seven days' residence there expired on Saturday, April 8.

The day when he departed again to Assus is called the first day of the week"; and such it would be if these calculations are true: and I think the coincidence itself is a strong confirmation of their truth. The narrative indeed at first sight may be thought to imply that it was the day after the first day of the week; but upon further consideration, the circumstances of

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the account must leave no doubt that St. Luke dates his μία τῶν σαββάτων from the time when the disciples met to break bread, and St. Paul's discourse, begun before μεσονύκτιον, or midnight, was protracted ἄχρις auryns, that is, until daylight, on the very morning of his departure. These particulars then began after the close of the Jewish sabbath, Saturday, April 8, and expired on the morning of Sunday, April 9.

Between April 9, inclusive and the day of Pentecost, May 9, exclusive the interval was just thirty days: and it was so spent partly by the time taken up in travelling, and partly by the stoppages specified in particular places that, according to the conjecture advanced, St. Paul must actually have arrived in Jerusalem the day before Pentecost, May 8.

I. From Troas to Assus the distance was not so great but that a person might easily accomplish it by a single day's journey on foot. We may assume, then, that St. Paul took shipping at Assus, not later than Monday, April 10.

II. After he set sail from Assus, having touched the same day at Mitylene, Th Tovon he made the island of Chios; T de répa he touched at Trogilium, a small island close by Samos ; and T exouévy he came to Miletus. All this was by the regular track ", and in no instance over a space which would exceed an ordinary day's sail; and in the last instance of all, it would not be one half so much t. We may assume,

* Confer Pausanias x. 12. who makes Marpessus 240 stadia distant from Alexandria Troas, which would be almost twice that of Assus.

+ Apuleius, Florida, 128:

speaking of the relative distance of Samos and Miletus by sea from each other, observes, Utrumvis clementer navigantem dies alter in portu sistit.

v Strabo, xiv. 1. §. 13, 14. 518, 519. Pliny, H. N. v. 37. w Pliny, H. N. ii. r12. v. 37-39.

then, that St. Paul would arrive at Miletus early in the day, not later than Thursday, April 13.

III. The distance of Miletus from Ephesus, according to the maps, was less than twice the distance of Ephesus from Magnesia ad Mæandrum: which Pliny calculates at fifteen Roman miles, and Strabo at a corresponding number of Greek stadia, one hundred and twenty. The entire distance from Ephesus to Smyrna, which was greater than from Ephesus to Miletus, is estimated by the latter only at three hundred and twenty stades y. Hence the distance of Ephesus from Miletus, according to the Tabulæ Peutingerianæ, is considerably overrated: and it would be very possible that, if St. Paul sent messengers to Ephesus as soon as he arrived at Miletus, on Thursday, April 13, the elders from that church might be come to him at Miletus, and hear his parting address, on the morning of Saturday, April 15.

IV. On leaving Miletus he came first to Cos-and Tens to Rhodes; and thence to Patara: the two former of which distances we will reckon at one day's sail each; but the last was not so much. I assume then that he touched at Patara, early on Monday, April 17 and therefore might find the ship, bound for Tyre, that same day*.

* Numerous instances might be produced of voyages to or from the Hellespont, along the track pursued by St. Paul, which would illustrate the truth and fidelity of St. Luke's account. I will mention one only-that of Pompey, as described by Lucan in the eighth book of his Pharsalia.

Setting out from Mitylene in Lesbus in the evening, (109. x H. N. v. 31. Strabo, xiv. 2. §. 29. 651.

146. 159.) it passes the same night, (195.)-Quas Asiæ cautes, et quas Chios asperat undas: and the next day (202. 244.)-Ipse per Icariæ scopulos, Ephesonque relinquens | Et placidi Colophona maris, spumantia parvæ Radit saxa Sami : spirat de litore Coo | Aura fluens: Gnidon inde fugit, claramque relinquit | Sole Rhodon, magnosque sinus Telmessidos

y xiv. 1. §. 2. 498. 2. §. 29. 651.

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