EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 23 



We have therefore the time of St. Paul's residence at Eph* 

 esus after he had written to the Corinthians, the time taken 

 up hy his progress through Macedonia — which is indefinite, 

 and was probably considerable — and his three months' abode 

 in Greece ; we have the sum of those three periods allowed 

 for Aquila and Priscilla going back to Rome, so as to bt 

 there when the epistle before us was written. Now, what 

 this quotation leads us to observe is, the danger of scatter- 

 ing names and circumstances in writings like the present, 

 how implicated they often are with dates and places, and 

 that nothing but truth can preserve consistency. Had the 

 notes of time in the epistle to the Romans fixed the writing 

 of it to any date prior to St. Paul's first residence at Cor- 

 inth, the salutation of Aquila and Priscilla would have con- 

 tiiadicted the history, because it would have been prior to 

 his acquaintance with these persons. If the notes of time 

 had fixed it to any period during that residence at Corinth, 

 during his journey to Jerusalem when he first returned out 

 of Greece, during his stay at Antioch, whither he went down 

 to Jerusalem, or during his second progress through the 

 lesser Asia, upon which he proceeded from Antioch, an 

 equal contradiction would have been incurred ; because, 

 from Acts 18 : 2—18, 19-2G, it appears that during all this 

 time Aquila and Priscilla were either along with St. Paul, 

 or were abiding at Ephesus. Lastly, had the notes of time 

 iw this epistle, which we have seen to be perfectly incidental, 

 compared with the notes of time in the first epistle to the 

 Corinthians, which are equally incidental, fixed this epistle 

 to be either contemporary with that or prior to it, a similar 

 contradiction would have ensued ; because, first, when the 

 epistle to the Corinthians was written, Aquila and Priscilla 

 were along with St. Paul, as they joined in the salutation 

 of that church, 1 Cor. 16 : 19 ; and because, secondly, the 

 history does not allow us to suppose that between the time 

 of their becoming acquainted with St. Paul and the time of 

 St. Paul's writing to the Corinthians, Aquila and Priscilla 



