Luke has divided this period into minor divisions with relative dates. Thus a year and six months are mentioned at Corinth (
Ac 18:11), besides "yet many days" (
Ac 18:18). In Ephesus we find mention of "three months" (
Ac 19:8) and "two years" (
Ac 19:10), the whole story summed up as "three years" (
Ac 20:31) Then we have the "two years" of delay in Caesarea (
Ac 24:27). We thus have about seven of these fifteen years itemized. Much of the remaining eight was spent in the journeys described by Luke. We are told also the times of year when the voyage to Rome was under way (
Ac 27:9), the length of the voyage (
Ac 27:27), the duration of the stay in Melita (
Ac 28:11), and the times spent in Rome at the close of the book, "two whole years" (
Ac 28:30). Thus it is possible to fix upon a relative schedule of dates, though not an absolute one. Harnack (The Acts of the Apostles, chapter i, "Chronological Data") has worked out a very careful scheme for the whole of Acts. Knowling has a good critical resume of the present state of our knowledge of the chronology of Acts in his Commentary, 38 ff, compare also Clemen, Die Chronologie der paulinischen Briefe (1893). It is clear, then, that a rational scheme for events of Paul's career so far as recorded in the Acts can be found. If 57 AD, for instance, should be taken as the year of Festus coming rather than 59 or 60 AD, the other dates back to 44 AD would, of course, be affected on a sliding scale. Back of 44 AD the dates are largely conjectural.