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CHRONOLOGY
ACTS
EPISTLES
90
OF
AND
49
50 3rd Jerusalem
7. `Increase'
16:5
51 2nd Mission
Galatians
FELIX
Jews
18
52 Gallio
1 and 2
Thess.
Expelled 18 months
53 Feast Sept. 16th Hebrews
Death of CLAUDIUS
Ephesus
19:1
54 4th Jerusalem
19:21
55 3rd Mission
3 years
20:31
56
57
7. `Arrest'
22:
58 5th Jerusalem
1 and 2
Corinthians
59
2 years prison
Romans
FESTUS
24:27
60
in Caesarea
61
28:
62
2 years prison
MYSTERY
End of Acts
63
in Rome
made known
Fire at Rome
Nero
64
Spain and
1 Timothy
the West and Titus
7. `Finished'
2 Tim. 4
65
Evil doer
2 Timothy
Two dates, namely A.D. 44, the death of Herod (Acts 12:23) and the fire of Rome, A.D. 64, peg the Acts down
upon the calendar of the world, the rest is a matter either of arithmetic or of careful reading and comparison. As we
said at the beginning of this article, some datings must remain tentative, but for all practical purposes the above
chronology will prove to fit the circumstances and give a faithful all-over picture of the whole of the apostle's
ministry.
CHURCH
The English word `church' has come down to us from the Greek through the Gothic. Walafrid Strabo, who
wrote about A.D. 840 gives as the explanation of the word `kyrch' the Greek kuriake, a word that means `related to
the Lord', as he kuriake hemera `the Lord's day'. The Scottish word `kirk' retains the sound of the Greek original
still. In ordinary parlance, the word church can refer both to the body of worshippers assembled together, or to the
building in which they are met, but there is no instance in the New Testament where the word `church' refers to a
building. In the ministry of Paul a transition in the usage of the word is observable which is dispensationally
important. Before Acts 28 and while the hope of Israel still obtained, the apostle addressed six epistles to different
companies of believers. `Unto the churches of Galatia', `Unto the church of the Thessalonians', `Unto the church of
God which is at Corinth'. Thus five of these early epistles use the word `church' in a local sense. Romans is the
exception in this group, this epistle is not addressed to `the church which is at Rome' but `To all that be in Rome,
beloved of God, called to be saints' (Rom. 1:7), the word church being reserved for the last chapter, where it occurs
five times.
This prepares the way for the great change which meets us in Ephesians and Colossians. In these great epistles
of the Mystery, the word church is not used in the opening salutation, but is invested with new glory, the first
occurrence being in Ephesians 1:22,23, `The church which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all'. The
word translated `church', is with one exception the translation of the Greek word ekklesia, which becomes in
English ecclesia and enters into the composition of such words as ecclesiastical etc. The one exception is Acts
19:37, `robbers of churches', which the R.V. more correctly renders `robbers of temples'. Ekklesia occurs in the
New Testament 115 times, three of these occurrences being translated `assembly' the rest `church'. The Septuagint
version uses the word about eighty times, but we will defer their examination until we have finished our survey of
the usage of the word in the New Testament.