Acts 13:20 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And after that, &c.— And after these things, which lasted about four hundred and fifty years, he gave them judges, until Samuel the prophet. Mill in Loc. Carpzov. Introd. part 1: p. 186, &c. According to this, the apostle begins his computation from the birth of Isaac, when Canaan was promised to Abraham and his seed, and carries it down to their getting possession of that land, and its being divided unto them by lot, which was about four hundred and fifty years; so that, according to this interpretation, the time in which the judges reigned in Israel is not hence determined. There are, however, chronologists who settle the matter satisfactorily enough, according to our version. Sir John Marsham, and others after him, have conjectured, that the judges in Israel did not reign over the whole nation one after another, but sometimes more than one reigned at the same time in different parts of the land. However, the reigns of the several judges, when added together, amount exactly to four hundred and fifty years; and it is likely that was the common computation of the Jews in St. Paul's days, from which the apostle had no particular occasion to vary. Dr. Whitby also has the authority of many great names, ancient and modern, to justify him in following the chronology of Josephus, who places the building of the temple in the five hundred and ninety-second year after Israel's going out of Egypt; which would admit of allowing three hundred and thirty-nine years for the administration of the judges, and one hundred and eleven for the years of the several tyrannical oppressions; in all four hundred and fifty years; reserving forty for Samuel and Saul together, forty for David, and four for Solomon, in whose fifth year the temple was begun; and the coincidence of the numbers in the book of Judges is remarkable, as illustrated by Dr. Lightfoot on the place, and Biscoe in his Boyle's Lectures, p. 666. See Lampe's Compendium of Eccles. Hist. lib. 1: cap. 5. Benson, L'Enfant, Whitby, &c.