Paul the Prisoner

The seven great years of Paul's work were drawing to a close. Long before this Paul had fixed his eye upon Rome and the West. It was about this time that he wrote to Rome and told them of his plans: He had fully preached the gospel from Jerusalem and round about even to Illyricum. Now he was planning for Rome and Spain. To Rome, indeed, Paul was to come, but only as a prisoner.

Luke tells us that Paul left Ephesus after the tumult which Demetrius had stirred up. His missionary work in these regions was finished, but there were two reasons why he could not go at once to Rome. In the first place, he wished to revisit the churches in Macedonia and Greece. It was about this time that affairs at Corinth had reached a crisis. Timothy's visit had been followed by Paul's. Paul had written again (2 Cor 10 to 13). He had sent Titus and was anxiously awaiting word from him. Now he prepares to go to Corinth himself by way of Macedonia. Troas is his first stop, but he has not heard from Titus and so goes on to Macedonia to meet him. There he hears good news at last and writes his last letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 1 to 9). The letter did not reach Corinth very much before Paul.

Paul's second reason for delay was the collection that he was making for the Jerusalem church. This was one reason for his visit to the Macedonian churches. With all his insistence upon his independent authority as an apostle and the truth of his gospel, Paul never once surrendered his ideal of the church as one body of Christ and one fellowship. Under his direction the churches had been gathering these offerings for some time. Now the money was all to be brought together and taken to Jerusalem. The big offering was to be Paul's proof of loyalty, and Paul looked forward to it as the means that should cement the Gentile churches and the Jewish churches together. And yet Paul was not wholly sure of the issue. He knew the element in Judæa that had sought almost everywhere to block his work, that had attacked him by every possible means both in his gospel and in his person. These men would oppose him when he returned; how would the church as a whole stand? He knew too that he would be in danger from the Jews. How deeply concerned he was is seen from his letter to the Romans written at this time: "I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that are disobedient in Judæa, and that my ministration which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints" (Rom 15:30, 31).

Paul had intended to sail directly from Corinth to Syria. A plot laid against him by the Jews compelled him to leave earlier than he intended. He had apparently fixed the date when he wished to arrive in Jerusalem, and now he uses the extra time at his disposal and returns through Macedonia. At Troas he is joined by those who are to accompany him to Jerusalem, and the group that starts for Jerusalem numbers at least nine. Luke was probably with Paul, and in addition there were seven representatives of the churches whose offerings were being taken. From Macedonia there came Sopater of the Berean church, and Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica. Gaius of Derbe and Timothy of Lystra represented Galatia, while from Ephesus there came Tychicus and Trophimus (Acts 20:4). These men were to be the living testimony to Paul's work which he could show to the Judæan Christians. But Paul's chief desire for their presence was that he might prevent all possible criticism as if he were profiting by these collections. These men were themselves to bear the funds. They were witnesses to Paul's disinterestedness.

As the journey to Jerusalem proceeded, Paul received repeated warnings of the danger to which he was exposing himself. Everywhere that Paul had labored his attitude against the law was known by the Jews. It was not a case of Judaizing Christians, but of the hostility of the Jews themselves. Paul had asserted that Jesus was the end of the law to those that believed. His mission had everywhere been in competition with the Jews. They had seen him lead away their best adherents and sympathizers among the Gentiles, the people who had given the synagogue standing and support. They were his bitter enemies. Restrained elsewhere by Roman authority, would they not here in Judæa wreak their vengeance upon him? Some of these men would be at Jerusalem, for the city always held large numbers of Jews of the dispersion returning for a longer or shorter stay. In any case, his work had long since been reported. Characteristic was the warning which Paul received when the party landed at Cæsarea. Here a Christian prophet from Judæa took Paul's girdle and bound the hands and feet of the apostle. It was his symbolic way of declaring the captivity that awaited Paul.

The story of this journey as given by Luke shows also that Paul's deep affection for his churches was returned by them. We read of the meeting at Troas, from which place the company started, and how Paul spoke till midnight and then till morning. It was their last time together and they found it hard to part. At Miletus he meets the Ephesian elders. "And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him." At Cæsarea they pleaded with Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. His answer shows the mutual affection: "What do ye, weeping and breaking my heart?" But all this could not move Paul from his purpose: "I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

From Cæsarea Paul went up to Jerusalem, his little company being increased by some members of the Cæsarean church and by one Mnason, a native of Cyprus and an early convert, who was to be Paul's host in the city. To the assembled church Paul reported his work. He had not seen them for three years. He told them of the establishment of the work in Ephesus, of its spread throughout Asia, and of its continued development in Macedonia and Achaia. Then his associates handed over their gifts. It must have been a large offering. It had been two years in the gathering. Much of it had come out of the poverty of its donors. The apostle, who would not take a penny for himself, had given constant care and effort to this. Would the Jerusalem church accept it in like spirit? Would the gift with his story of the work make them feel that his churches were really one with them? And would they overlook their scruples on the one hand and overrule the little group that had been making him so much trouble by their attack?

Paul was doomed to a measure of disappointment. They received him kindly and they praised God for the progress of the gospel, but they could not forget their concern for the law. James, the brother of Jesus, seems now to have become the recognized head of the church. No one else is mentioned beside him. It is a striking fact that the two leaders who now faced each other, James and Paul, were neither of them of the twelve. James stood for reverence for the law. The church had become more conservative. The Jewish leaders now saw no cause for persecution. Many thousands of the Jews had joined the new faith, which did not mean to them any separation from the old. And so the leaders made a request of Paul. What troubled them was not the reception of the Gentiles, nor even that Paul had not required the law of these. "The report is around," they said, "that you tell the Jews that are converted that they do not need to keep the law. We have something to propose that will show that you keep the law as a faithful Jew. Here are four poor men who have just completed their term of the Nazirite vow. Do you now join them, shaving your head and paying for their offerings." Paul has been criticised for entering upon this plan. He had certainly not been walking "orderly, keeping the law." And yet this accommodation to the prejudices or weakness of others was in line with his practice all these years; he had been a Jew to the Jews, and to those without the law as without law.

It was this decision, however, that brought on the crisis. Following the old law in this case (Num 6:13-20), Paul had gone into the temple. Certain Jews, who had known him in Ephesus, had seen him a few days before in company with Trophimus of Ephesus, a Gentile and one of those who had come with the offering. Evidently, they had recognized Trophimus also. Now, seeing Paul in the temple, they concluded at once that he had taken Trophimus also into the sacred place. It was an offense punishable by death, and they would have inflicted the penalty at the time had not the Roman guards rescued him. It was not simply hatred of Paul that was involved here. Most of the mob probably knew no more than that some one was charged with desecrating the holy place. But that was enough. The sanctity of the temple was more to them than life, and the experience of the last years with the Romans had kept their fear of desecration alive and their passions aflame. The captain himself could make nothing of the tumult. Only one man was cool; that was Paul. It was not the first time he had faced an angry mob, or even death. He was not thinking of safety now. He asked of the Roman captain permission to speak, and before the angry mob he undertook a defense of his life and his faith.

It speaks eloquently of the courage and commanding power of the man that he could win a hearing at such a moment, but one need not wonder that his words did not help his case with the excited crowd, or that they did not listen long. They heard him while he told of his conversion. It was not the reference to Jesus as the Messiah that brought the speech to an abrupt end, but the mention of the Gentiles. At that all the excitement broke loose again. The captain, seeing that no light was to be gotten here, carried off his prisoner and prepared to scourge him. It was the brutal method used in some cases to secure a confession. With a Roman citizen, however, it was never permitted, and Paul's declaration of his citizenship stopped the proceeding. The captain made a final attempt to get light upon the matter the next day by calling a meeting of the Sanhedrin and setting Paul before it. This too ended in a tumult. They were in no mood to give such a man a hearing, and Paul soon saw this. Luke reports that he divided the enemy by his declaration that the trouble arose because he believed in the resurrection, thus setting the Pharisees of the council against the Sadducees; the ground for such a declaration would be his preaching of the resurrection of Christ.

In this way Paul's imprisonment began. It was perhaps the most trying period of his life. Dangers Paul did not fear, nor even the threat of death. He had long since given himself up to his Master for life or death. It was from prison that he wrote, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." But this was neither life nor death. Beyond the sea were his churches still needing his guidance. To the west were fields that he had planned to reach. But he must remain for five years a prisoner, held by the bitterness of his foes on the one hand, on the other by the weakness, selfishness, or indifference of his judges.

A plot against Paul's life, which his nephew brought to the captain, caused his immediate transference out of Jewish territory to the safer confines of Cæsarea, the official residence of the procurator. Thus Paul retraced his journey of a few days before. The procurator at this time was Antonius Felix, a man who had once been a slave. Cruel and incompetent, the historian Tacitus declares that he kept the temper of a slave while wielding kingly power. Here Paul's enemies from Jerusalem, led by the high priest Ananias, brought their charges against him, having engaged as advocate one Tertullus, apparently a Roman. They charged him with stirring up insurrection, with profaning the temple, and with being a ringleader of the new sect of the Nazarenes. Paul admits the last, though denying any wrong in it. The two first he challenges them to prove. Felix simply postponed the case. He held Paul, however, as a prisoner with a double motive, Luke says—desiring to placate the Jews, with whom he had had trouble enough, and hoping for money from Paul. Apparently, he was not unkindly disposed toward Paul. The latter had considerable liberty, his friends were permitted access to him, and Felix himself called Paul to him more than once.

After two years Felix was succeeded by Festus. The first visit which the latter made in his province was to Jerusalem. This was his chief city and the chief problem of his administration. To the demand of the Jews that Paul should be sent to Jerusalem for trial, Festus replied that he would try him in Cæsarea. So there was another trial at Cæsarea which established as little against Paul as the first. Instead, however, of setting Paul free, Festus now proposed to agree to the request of the Jews and take the case to Jerusalem. And so at length Paul made use of his privilege as a Roman citizen and demanded that he be tried at the imperial court at Rome.

Luke tells us of two other speeches that Paul made during this time. The first was before Felix and his wife Drusilla, the other was after the coming of Festus on the occasion of a visit from Agrippa and his sister Bernice. Drusilla, Agrippa, and Bernice were children of Agrippa I and great-grandchildren of Herod the Great, the last two especially of notorious immorality. It was significant of Paul that he should be willing to speak to them, that he should reason of "righteousness, and self-control, and judgment to come," and that his defense before Agrippa should become a sermon on repentance and faith in Christ. Paul could forget his own safety and everything else in the one passion of his life—the preaching of his gospel.

The journey to Rome was destined to prove a long one. We have a vivid and detailed account of it, which gives us a better picture of sea travel in that day than any other writing that has come down to us. We owe this to the fact that Luke was Paul's companion. Aristarchus of Thessalonica was also with him. There were a number of other prisoners, which presupposes a good company of soldiers by way of guard. The centurion in charge was named Julius. It was not possible to get a ship direct to Italy, and so a coasting vessel was taken which would take them to a port from which they could transship for the longer voyage. This latter was done at Myra, a port on the southern coast of Asia Minor, where they found one of the many vessels that plied between Alexandria and Italy and with the usual cargo of wheat. It must have been a large vessel for that day, as it had in addition to its cargo two hundred and seventy-six people on board.

From the first the voyagers suffered through untoward winds. They beat along the coast until they reached Cnidus, from which place they made for the island of Crete, reaching at last the harbor Fair Havens. The season was advanced and Paul urged that they winter here. But the harbor hardly deserved its good name, and it was decided to make for Phoenix, further along the coast. They had not gotten far from Fair Havens when a storm from the northeast swept down upon them. The task of the seaman, without compass or steam, was hard enough in that day in any case. Now they were swept on day after day without sun or stars even to let them know their course. The ship's company seems to have reached a stage of despair where they would not even eat. In the night Paul had one of those visions which marked more than one turning point in his life. He told them of the vision the next day, how the angel of the God "whose I am, whom also I serve," had told him to be without fear, that he was to reach Rome and that the company should also be saved. The shipwreck itself is described with vivid detail by Luke. In these moments of peril the commanding figure was not captain of vessel or of soldiers, but the prisoner, Paul. He prevented the sailors from leaving the boat, and it was consideration for him that caused the centurion to check the plan of the soldiers, who wanted to kill the prisoners lest they escape.

It was the island of Malta, south of Sicily, where they landed. The winter season was spent here, three months in all, after which they shipped for Rome in another Alexandrian vessel which had wintered in the island. At the port of Puteoli they left the boat, the remaining journey of about one hundred and thirty miles being made on foot. They found disciples at Puteoli and the kindly centurion permitted a stay of a week. Meanwhile word was sent on to Rome. Some of the Roman brethren came out forty miles on the road, as far as the Market of Appius, to meet Paul, and still others were waiting him at The Three Taverns, a little farther on.

For two years Paul was kept a prisoner in Rome awaiting his trial. They were not idle years. We know of at least four letters dispatched during this time—those to the Philippians, the Colossians, the Ephesians, and Philemon. A large measure of freedom was allowed him. A soldier, a member of the pretorian guard, was with him constantly, but Paul lived in his own rented quarters and could receive visitors as he wished. Of these there must have been a great number. Luke tells of the conference that Paul had with the leaders of the Roman Jews. The Christians would naturally come to him, and, in addition, Paul used his opportunity to preach the gospel to guard and visitor and whomever he might reach.

The church at Rome is one of the signs of the rapid spread of Christianity. We have no knowledge at all as to how it was founded. Its membership was largely Gentile. It was from this church that Priscilla and Aquila had come, and Paul had probably met other members before this. His letter to this church had been written from Corinth some three years before. There must have been a considerable Christian community even then. Paul's own labors added to that number. The constant change of his guard enabled him to give his message to the Pretorian troopers (Phil 1:13). Onesimus must have been a type of others from the lower classes that he won. The message spread even to the servants of the imperial household (Phil 4:22), and Paul's courage emboldened other disciples to a more active ministry (Phil 1:14). Nero's persecution a little later shows that the church had become strong enough to attract public attention.

The close of Paul's life is hidden from us. Of one thing we are certain, though it is not told us in the New Testament itself: Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome. This we learn from the letter written by Clement of Rome, a message of the Roman church to that at Corinth dating from the last years of the first century. But what the events were connected with his death we do not know. There are two theories which scholars hold. Some consider that Paul was acquitted at his first trial, that he carried out his plan of a visit to Spain and to his old churches in the East, and suffered martyrdom at Rome after a second imprisonment and trial. Others hold that Paul was condemned and suffered death at the close of this first imprisonment.

Connected with this question is the problem of what are called the pastoral epistles—First and Second Timothy and Titus. Many scholars hold that these letters do not come from Paul's hand in the form in which we now have them. Their argument is that the conditions reflected here indicate a later period in the life of the church, and that the language and the form of teaching do not correspond with Paul's other writings. Many of these scholars, however, hold that we have here portions of Pauline letters to which other matter was later added.

In any case, these letters do not describe for us the actual close of Paul's life or determine the time. That remains hidden from us. We do know, however, that which concerns us most. That is the character and life and achievement of this man. He has drawn for us his own picture in those letters in which he pours out his soul. Luke has portrayed him for us in such scenes as those of his voyage to Rome: the kindliness, the helpfulness, the faith, the courage, the mastery of himself and of others, the natural leadership that made him inevitably the first in any company whether of ship and soldiery or of his own disciples. And most eloquent of all, we have the witness of what he wrought, a Christianity made conscious of its independence and its power, of its world-saving message and its world-embracing fellowship, and established on firm foundations throughout the empire.

Directions for Reading and Study

Read Acts 20 to 28.

Make a list of Paul's addresses as reported in these chapters, giving for each the place, the occasion, and the persons present.

Trace upon the map Paul's journey from Troas to Jerusalem and from Cæsarea to Rome. Make a list of the places stopped at upon each journey.