This thread has been exploding in many directions.
However since I am feeling rather secure about Jesus being crucified in 28, according to my research (as explained in
http://historical-jesus.info/appa.html &
http://historical-jesus.info/appb.html and I consider Acts as not complete trash (why should I?) or dependent on Paul's epistles, I still stand by my tabulation of Paul's 2nd & 3rd journey.
Some remarks:
1) "again" in Gal 2:1 is witnessed in the vast majority of ancient texts about Galatians: Reference:
http://www.laparola.net/greco/index.php for Gal 2:1 & selecting variants reading.
So I have reasons to stick with 14 years in Jerusalem from the earlier visit to that city.
Furthermore, if "again" was not originally in Paul's epistle, why would Paul specify 14 years? By doing so, he had to provide a starting point in time for these 14 years.
2) I believe that some unusual event is triggered by a preceding event which happened soon before.
- Such as to explain why John the Baptist suddenly gets very popular and the Romans let crowds to meet him. See
http://historical-jesus.info/digest.html.
- Such as why would the Church of Jerusalem want to see Paul explaining his gospel to the Gentiles ASAP (Gal 2:1-5). That's explained by Acts 18:12-17.
- Such as (according to Acts) why would a conflict be happening between the preaching of "Greek" proto-Christians in Jerusalem and other Jews (which I placed in 35) & starting persecution against those "Greeks"; and why would the "riot" happen in Ephesus (which I placed in 56)?
The best explanation would be these dates correspond to an anniversary of Jesus' crucifixion in period of 7 (very sacred number) years period (most likely because of big expectations for the Kingdom to come then), causing a great rapid increase of proto-Christians or Christians, at the detriment of local Jews or interest group, such as silversmiths.
Please note I never used that 7 years theory of mine to date anything about Paul's travel and events within them. It just provides more solidity to my dating.
And (from Acts) the aforementioned persecution (7 years after Jesus' crucifixion) and the "riot in Ephesus", caused by a sudden sharp drop in the sale of representations of Diana (7 x 4 years after Jesus' crucifixion), is mathematically unlikely to happen at random in time after 7 years periods. The chance of that happening (by chance) is about 2 chances out of 100, that's 2%.
And there are also the tumult in Rome among Jews about a Chrestus (most likely date for that in 49 = 28 + (3x7)) and the big increase of Christians in Antioch (most likely date for that is 42 = 28 + (2x14)).
For details and further explanations, consult
http://historical-jesus.info/appb.html under
3.5
3) Yes I know, Acts took a beating lately and many trashed the whole text. But I don't follow trend.
4) We can always find some remote parallels from the vast OT to almost any text passages in the NT, if one put some efforts in the endeavor. BTW, ektroma (1 Cor 15:8-9) is part of an interpolation, as I found out and explained with many arguments here:
http://historical-jesus.info/co1c.html#add.
5) Gal 1:18-24 fits well in the original text, despite Marcion's deletion of that passage. And certainly Marcion could not accommodate James as brother of the Lord and Paul preaching the same faith as the one of the churches of Judea.
Cordially, Bernard