Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 13:20

"and after these things he gave [them] judges until Samuel the prophet." — Acts 13:20 (ASV)

He gave unto them judges. These men were raised up in an extraordinary manner to administer the affairs of the nation, to defend it from enemies, etc. .

About the space of four hundred and fifty years. This is a most difficult passage and has exercised all the ingenuity of chronologists. The ancient versions agree with the present Greek text.

The difficulty has been to reconcile it with what is said in 1 Kings 6:1: And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel .... he began to build the house of the Lord. Now, if to the forty years that the children of Israel were in the wilderness, are added the four hundred and fifty years mentioned in Acts as having passed under the administration of the judges, about seventeen years for the time of Joshua, forty for Samuel and the reign of Saul together, forty for the reign of David, and three for Solomon before he began to build the temple, the sum will be five hundred and ninety years—a period greater by one hundred and ten years than that mentioned in 1 Kings 6:1.

Various ways have been proposed to address this difficulty. For example, Doddridge renders it, "After these transactions, [which lasted] four hundred and fifty years, he gave them a series of judges," etc., reckoning from the birth of Isaac and supposing that Paul meant to refer to this whole time. However, there are serious objections to this interpretation:

1. It is a forced and constrained interpretation, and one clearly made to resolve a difficulty.
2. There is no propriety in commencing this period at the birth of Isaac. That event was in no way remarkable, as far as Paul's narrative was concerned, and Paul had not even referred to it.

This same approach of reckoning from an earlier point is also offered by Calovius, Mill, Lud, and De Dieu. Others, like Luther and Beza, think the text should be read as three hundred years instead of four hundred. However, this is a mere conjecture, without any authority from manuscripts.

Vitringa and some others suppose that the text has been corrupted by a transcriber who inserted this phrase without authority. But there is no evidence of this; the manuscripts and ancient versions are uniform on this point. None of these explanations are satisfactory.

In seeking a solution to the difficulty, we may remark on the following points:

1. Nothing is more perplexing than the chronology of ancient events. This difficulty is found in all writings, both secular and sacred. Mistakes are so easily made in transcribing numbers—especially when letters are used for numerals, instead of writing the words out in full—that we should not be surprised by such errors.
2. Paul would naturally use the chronology that was in current, common use among the Jews. It was not his role to settle such chronological points; rather, he would speak of them as they were usually spoken of and refer to them as others did.
3. There is reason to believe that what is mentioned here was the common chronology of Paul's time. It aligns remarkably with that used by Josephus. For instance, Josephus states expressly (Antiquities 7.3.1) that Solomon "began to build the temple in the fourth year of his reign, five hundred and ninety-two years after the Exodus out of Egypt," etc. This calculation would allow forty years for their time in the wilderness, seventeen for Joshua, forty for Samuel and Saul combined, forty for the reign of David, and four hundred and fifty-two years for the period of the judges and the intervening times of anarchy. This remarkable coincidence indicates that this was the chronology then in use, and the one Paul had in view.
4. This chronology also has the support of many eminent scholars (see Lightfoot, and Boyle's Lectures, Chapter 20). It is not necessary here to inquire how this computation by Josephus and the Jews originated. It is a sufficient solution to the difficulty that Paul spoke in their usual manner, without departing from his main objective to settle a point of chronology.