Paul’s Arrest and Journey to Rome
Paul’s Arrest and Journey to Rome
When at last they reached their destination, they had not been in Jerusalem a week before some Asian Jews started maliciously alleging that Paul had undermined Moses’ law by his teaching and defiled the temple by bringing Greeks into it. A riot broke out, and Paul was rescued from being lynched by the prompt action of the military tribune (Acts 21:17–22:29).
During the next two years and more the apostle was held a prisoner. During the same period Luke was at liberty in Palestine, no doubt gathering material for his Gospel and the Acts. Paul had to undergo a series of trials in Jerusalem and Caesarea before the Sanhedrin (Acts 22:30–23:10), before the procurator Felix (Acts 24:1–21), before his successor Festus (Acts 25:1–12) and before King Agrippa and his wife Bernice (Acts 25:13–26:32). But since as a Roman citizen he had exercised his right to appeal to Caesar, he was eventually sent to Rome for trial.
The long and perilous sea voyage included the exciting escape from shipwreck on the island of Malta, which Luke tells with graphic detail (Acts 27:1–28:10), and at last Paul reached the Rome of his dreams. The Christians welcomed him, and the Jews came to visit him and hear the gospel from his lips.
Luke has now traced the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem, the capital of Jewry, to Rome, the capital of the world. He ends his narrative with a picture of his hero, the apostle Paul, who although under house arrest was still an indefatigable evangelist:
Paul … welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 28:30–31)
It was not only by spoken witness, however, that the apostle exploited his two years’ imprisonment in Rome. He also spent time writing to various churches, and the so-called “prison epistles” which belong to this period are the letters to the Ephesians (probably a circular letter to Asian churches of that region), to the Colossians, to Philemon (a personal letter instructing him to receive back as a brother his runaway slave, now converted) and to the Philippians (though some think this letter was written earlier from a supposed imprisonment in Ephesus). It is not easy to give a summary of the message of these letters, for each was occasioned by a different local situation. Yet if there is one truth which stands out in them all, it is the greatness of Jesus Christ. The very fullness of God, Paul writes, was pleased both to dwell in him and to work through him, on the one hand creating the universe and on the other reconciling all things to himself. He has now been exalted to God’s right hand, far above all principalities and powers, and has been given the preeminent name, so that every knee should bow to him and every tongue confess him Lord. This cosmic Christ is also the head of the church, whose members are called to be what they are—a holy, united and victorious people.
The supremacy of Christ is also the theme of a very different New Testament book, the Letter to the Hebrews. Both its author and its destination are unknown, for neither is named in it. But its purpose is to prevent certain Jewish Christians from lapsing into Judaism by emphasizing the finality of Jesus Christ. In him all priesthood and sacrifice have been fulfilled, and by him an eternal redemption has been won.