The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

ACTS CHAP. XII, XIII.

HERE we meet with some scruple in Chronology, and about the precedency of the story in these two Chapters: for though the actions in Chap. 12. be laid first, and that very properly, that the story of Peter may be taken up together, and concluded before the story of Paul come in, which is to be followed to the end of the Book, yet there may be just question whether, the sending of Paul and Barnabas from Antiotch to preach among the Gentiles, which is handled in the beginning of Chap. 13. were not be∣fore some, if not all those things related in Chap. 12. And the question ariseth from these two scruples. 1. Because it is doubtful, in what year of Claudius the famine was, that is spoken of Chap. 12. 28. And 2. because it is obscure, how long Paul and Barnabas staid at Antioch after their return from Jerusalem, Chap. 12. 25. before they were sent away among the Gentiles. But about this we need not much to trouble our selves: since as to the understanding of the stories themselves, there can be little illustration taken from

their time: save only as to this, that the publick Fast in the Church of Antioch, may seem to have some relation to some of the said stories mentioned before, as coincident with them, or near to them, namely, either the famine through the world, Chap. 11. 28. or the persecution in the Church, Chap. 12. We shall not therefore offer to dislocate the order of the stories, from that wherein they lie, the Holy Ghost by the intertexture of them rather teaching us, that some of them were contemporary; then any way incoura∣ging us to invert their order. Only these things cannot pass unmentioned, toward the stating of their time and place, partly of coincidency, and partly of their succeeding one the other, and which may help us better to understand both.

• 1. That whereas Dion the Roman Historian lib. 60. hath placed a sore famine [at least at Rome] in the time of Claudius, in his second year: Josephus carries it, Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 2. as if the bitternes of it at Jerusalem, were in his fourth, which Euseb. in Chron. determines positively; both may be true; for, for famines to last several years to∣gether is no strange thing in History, Divine or Humane, nor in experience in our own age.
• 2. That Herod Agrippa's murdering of James, and imprisoning of Peter could not be before the third year of Claudius: for Josephus a witness impartial enough in this case, in∣forms us, that Claudius in his second Consulship, which was indeed the second year of his reign, made an Edict in behalf of the Jews, and sent it through the world, and after that sent Agrippa away into his own Kingdom: Now his Consulship beginning the first of Ja∣nuary, it was so next impossible that those things should be done at Rome, and Agrippa provide for his journey and travel it, and come to Jerusalem, and murder James and ap∣prehend Peter, and all before the Passover, (unless he hasted as it had been for a wager) that he that can believe Peter to have been imprisoned in Claudius his second year of Con∣sulship and reign, must exceedingly straiten the time of these occurrences, to make room for his belief.
• 3. In the third year of Claudius, therefore, are those stories in Chap. 12. to be reputed; only the last, about Herods death, in the beginning of his fourth, for a Passover in his fourth Herod lived not to see.
• 4. It may be observed that Luke hath placed the going up of Paul and Barnabas with the alms of the Church of Antioch to the poor of Judea, before the murder of James, Chap. 11. 30. but their return thence, not till after that, and Herods death, Chap. 12. 25. not that thereupon we are necessarily to think that they staid there so long, as while all those things in Chap. 12. were acting, but that by that relation the story of Paul and Bar∣nabas is begun again, and we may very well conceive, for all that postscript of Luke after the story of James his Martyrdom, Peters imprisonment, and Agrippa's death, their return to Antoich, and going from thence among the Gentiles, Chap. 13. to have been at that time while some of the things in Chap. 12. occurred.

We will therefore take the Chapters up in the order in which they lye, and only carry along with us in our thoughts, a supposal that some of the stories in either might con∣cur in time. And because we have found here some need to look after the Years of the Emperour, which we have not had before, and shall have much more, forward, especi∣ally when we come up to the times of Nero, it may not be amiss to affix their Years also, as they went along concurrent with the Years of our Saviour.

[CHRIST. XLII] [CLAUDIUS. II] The famine begun: the Church of Antioch send relief into Judea.