Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary
After Fourteen Years
"1 Then after fourteen years, again, I did go up to Yerushalayim with Barnabas, and took with me also Titus" (torahtimes.org, Gal. 2:1).
comment: Paul means 14 years after his conversion here, not after the three years mentioned in chapter 1:18. He is measuring from the point of his conversion all the events in his narrative, that being the memorable moment for his new life. Finegan (Handbook of Biblical Chronology, rev. ed., §684, pg. 395) is exactly correct in placing Paul's conversion in AD 36, "The conversion of Paul (14 years before [SIC] A.D. 49 counted inclusively) was in A.D. 36 and both the "three years" and the "fourteen years" are shown in Table 189." Finegan shows the three years as AD 36,37, 38. However, it should be at least 37, 38, 39, since Gal. 1:18 says "after (μετα) three years", and possibly even AD 40. So Paul went to Jerusalem (cf. Gal. 1:18) in AD 39 or 40. He then shows the 14th year from Paul's conversion in A.D. 49, which is correct because it is inclusive counting allowed by the word δια. But if not, AD 50 is barely possible.
A key point is that Aretas, King of Arabia (with his capital in Petra) had control of Damascus, when Paul escaped from Damascus in a basket (2Cor. 11:32). Before A.D. 37 Damascus was under Roman sovereignty. The decisive moment was in A.D. 36, "In order to marry Herodias, Herod Antipas the Tetrarch divorced his Arab wife, the daughter of the ethnarch Aretas IV. She fled to her father's court in Petra. Aretas IV awaited his moment. In AD 36, when Antipas had been ruling over the province of Galilee for forty years, and when his ally the emperor Tiberius was in his dotage on the Isle of Capri, Aretas exacted his revenge, invading and annexing Antipas' territories. He routed the Jewish armies and established himself in the northern kingdom of Syria. Damascus, which had been under Roman control since the time of Pompey, was now under the dominion of the Arabs" (pg. 82, A.N. Wilson, Paul, 1998). Further pinpointing Arabian control of the city is the mention of the governor as the "Ethnarch of Aretas the King" (2Cor. 11:32), and not an Ethnarch of Rome. In early A.D. 37 Tiberius ordered Vitellius (proconsul of Syria) to avenge the loss of territory, "to make war upon him [Aretas]" (Jos. Ant. 18.5 [115]). But Tiberius died in the spring, and the Roman army was recalled leaving the Arab king to take control of Damascus. This is further substantiated by the lack of Romans coins in the city after A.D. 34, which only appear again under Nero. The lack of Aretas IV coins associated with Damascus does not mean too much. It only means that the Damascus mint was closed, and that Aretas minted his coins elsewhere. It is the cessation the Roman mintage that indicates Nabatean control.
comment: The words "Επειτα δια δεκατεσσαρων ετων" means literally "Then through fourteen years ....". Here δια is used "of an interval of time, after...Gal 2:1" (BDAG, 3rd edition, pg. 224). Once we understand that Paul is counting from his conversion in A.D. 36, it is clear that the word "again", παλιν, merely means that it was not his first visit to Jerusalem.
Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/Gal0201.html)
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