mention of a voyage of St. Paul to Crete is in Acts xxvii. 7. 8. But at that time St. Paul was on his voyage, as a prifoner, to Italy, and feems only to have touched at the ifland. It is true that St. Paul expreffed to the Roman Centurion a wish to pass the winter there: but St. Luke has not mentioned that he went on fhore, nor is it probable that the Roman centurion would have given him permiffion, as he was then a prifoner. With this voyage therefore of St. Paul to Crete the Epiftle to Titus has no connexion.

But that St. Paul not only had been in the island of Crete, but had preached the Gofpel there, not long before he wrote his Epiftle to Titus is evident from its contents for St. Paul fays, ch. i. 5. For this caufe left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things, that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee.' Now as St. Luke has taken no notice in the Acts of the Apoftles of the voyage undertaken by St. Paul to Crete, when he appointed Titus to ordain elders, we have no other means of determining the time when it happened, than a comparison of the facts mentioned in the Epiftle to Titus with what we know in general of St. Paul's travels. It is on this account that commentators are fo much at variance in respect to the date of this Epiftle: and 1 myself entertain at prefent a very different opinion from that, which I formerly entertained. In the first edition of this Introduction, I defcribed, the Epistle to Titus, as written after St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome: in the fecond edition I wavered in this opinion: when I published the third edition I thought it highly probable that this Epiftle was written long before St. Paul's voyage as a prifoner to Italy: aad at prefent I have no doubt that it really was, and that in the chronological arrangement of St. Paul's Epiftles it fhould be placed between the fecond Epiftle to the Theffalonians and the firft Epistle to the Corinthians.

St. Paul fays to Titus, ch. iii. 12. When I fhall fend Artemas unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come.

unto

unto me to Nicopolis: for I have determined there to winter.' Now from this paffage, if we knew what Nicopolis St. Paul meant, and when he was there, the date of this Epiftle would be at once decided. For St. Paul must have been either in Nicopolis, or in the neighbourhood of the place, when he wrote this Epistle, because, as there were many cities of this name, it would have been totally ufelefs to have defired Titus to come to him to Nicopolis, unless the place, where he wrote the Epiftle had determined what Nicopolis he meant.

The question therefore to be afked is: In what country did this Nicopolis lie? The Greek fubfcription to the Epiftle is, Εγραφη απο Νικοπολεως της Μακεδονιας. But this is certainly a mistake: for by Nicopolis in Macedonia, is meant the Nicopolis which was fituate on the river Neffus, was diftinguished from other cities of this name by the title Nicopolis ad Neffum, and belonged in fact to Thrace. But this city was built by the Emperor Trajan, and confequently did not exift in the time of St. Paul.

Further, when St. Paul wrote the Epiftle to Titus, he was just returned from a voyage: and therefore the Nicopolis, where he wrote, could not have been at a confiderable diftance from the fea. Hence it appears, that neither Nicopolis ad Hæmum', nor Nicopolis ad Iftrum, could have been the place where he wrote, though the latter is understood by Theophylact". Still lefs, could the Nicopolis in Armenia, or any other city of this name, in the middle of Afia Minor. Nor could St. Paul mean the Nicopolis, which was fituate in Egypt, not far from Alexandria: for, as it was contrary to St. Paul's cuftom to spend a confiderable time in a small town, which would have circumfcribed the propagation

* See Mill's Note on the fubfcription to this Epiftle.

1 Cellarii Geograph. Tom. I. p. 1327.

m Ib. p. 583.

of

"In his Note to Tit. iii. 12. he fays, "H, de NixoоÀ¡ç τns @gaxns επι, τω Ισρῳ επικειμενη.

• Cellarii Africa. p. 14.

VOL. IV.

C

of the Gospel, he would have paffed the winter at Alexandria, if he had been in Egypt, rather than at a fmall town in its neighbourhood.

Of all the cities, which bore the name of Nicopolis, the most celebrated is that which lay in Epire, opposite to the promontory of Actium, and was built by Auguf tus in honour of his victory over Antony. This is the Nicopolis, which in my opinion St. Paul meant. But there were two other cities of this name, the one in Bithynia", the other in Cilicia, which were not inconveniently fituated, if St. Paul fet fail from Ephesus, when he went into Crete, and returned from Crete into Afia Minor and therefore these two cities must not be paffed over in the prefent inquiry.

Before I proceed, I muft obferve, that St. Luke, in the Acts of the Apoftles, is equally filent in refpect to St. Paul's vifit to Nicopolis, as on his voyage to Crete. For this reafon many commentators have supposed, that both the one and the other happened at a period subsequent to the clofe of St. Luke's hiftory, and confequently after the end of St. Paul's imprisonment in Rome. To this opinion however Lardner has made. the following objection, which I do not think of fufficient weight to overturn it, though I do not defend the opinion itself. Namely he objects, that St. Paul, after he was releafed from his imprisonment in Rome, had attained too great an age to be able to undertake any new work, and that after that period he probably confined himself to the edification of those churches, which he had already established. But to this objection it may be replied, that if St. Paul was able to travel into countries, where he had already preached the Gospel, he was equally able to travel into countries where he had not preached the Gofpel: and that, though greater exertions are requifite to convert heathens to Christianity, than to confirm in the faith those who are already Chriftians, yet, as St. Paul was endued with the

P Cellarii Geograph. Tom. II. p. 308. [ Supplement, Vol. II. p. 168.

power

a Ib.

p.

269.

power of working miracles, the deficiency of natural vigour in an advanced state of life might have been fupplied by his fupernatural endowments. A more important objection might be made from the circumftance, that the interval, between St. Paul's release from his firft imprisonment in Rome and the commencement of his fecond imprisonment, was too fhort to admit of this voyage. St. Paul was probably released from his first imprisonment, about the beginning of the year 65';` in the year 66, he was beheaded, and he was already returned to Rome fome time before the winter, at least in the month of Auguft. Now in this interval he is faid to have travelled to Philippi, into Afia Minor, to Coloffa, and even to Jerufalem. There is hardly any time left therefore for a voyage into Crete; especially as St. Paul was already returned from that ifland before the winter, that is, according to this hypothefis, the winter of 65, which he intended to pafs at Nicopolis, as he himself fays in the Epiftle to Titus, ch. iii. 12. I admit however that this objection will lofe a part of its weight, if St. Paul's martyrdom, the time of which has never been fixed with chronological accuracy, took place one or two years later, than the year, which is ufually affigned.

But, in respect to the main point, I accede to the opinion of Lardner, and of those writers whom he has quoted in fupport of it: and I fee at prefent no neceffity for referring St. Paul's voyage to Crete to a period fubfequent to the clofe of the Acts of the Apoftles, merely because St. Luke has paffed it over in filence. For it is certain that St. Paul undertook feveral voyages, previous to the laft voyage defcribed by St. Luke, as appears from what St. Paul himself fays in his fecond Epiftle to the Corinthians, which was written foon after his departure from Ephefus mentioned Acts xx. i. In this Epistle, ch. xi. 25. he tells the Corinthians, that he had thrice fuffered Thipwreck of which St. Luke has given no account in his narrative. Now it is not improbable, that

See Ch. xxi. Sect. 2.

one

one of the voyages was the voyage made by St. Paul to Crete. I have already fhewn that St. Luke was absent from St. Paul during the whole of that period, which extends from Acts xvii. 1. to ch. xx. 6. in which interval he has omitted feveral important facts, to which St. Paul alludes in his Epiftles. Among these facts may not improbably be reckoned St. Paul's voyage to Crete, and his fubfequent visit to Nicopolis. When the Apoftle came to Corinth the fecond time, and there wrote his Epistle to the Romans, he must have already preached the Gospel in Epire: for he fays in this Epiftle, ch. xv. 19. round about unto Illyricum I have fully preached the Gospel of Chrift.' Since therefore it Since therefore it appears from the Epiftle to Titus, that when St. Paul wrote to Titus, his intention was to pass the winter in Nicopolis, we may not unreasonably fuppofe, that this was the winter, in which he propagated Chriftianity throughout Epire and Illyricum.

I therefore not only abandon the opinion, that the Epiftle to Titus was written after St. Paul's imprisonment in Rome, in conformity with the fentiments of Lardner and other eminent critics, but I venture to go even a step further, and to place it in point of time before the second Epiftle to the Corinthians, because in this laft-mentioned Epistle St. Paul alludes to feveral voyages, which are omitted by St. Luke. That the reader may be enabled to judge of the probability or improbability of this affertion, I will ftate the paffages in that period of St. Paul's life, when St. Luke was abfent from him, to which we may refer the Apostle's voyage to Crete, and the winter, which on his return from that island he paffed in Nicopolis, without violating the order of St. Luke's narrative. These paffages are three in number, namely:

1. St. Paul spent a year and an half at Corinth, Acts xviii. II. From this place he might have made an excurfion to Crete, for we muft not fuppofe that he spent the whole of this period, without once having quitted Corinth. St. Paul, in like manner is faid to have refided

three