PAUL'S JOURNEY TO ROME
The material of this lesson is so extensive that only the barest summary can be attempted in the class. The great features of the narrative should be made to stand out clear—the bitter opposition of the Jews, the favorable attitude of the Roman authorities, the journey to Rome. Before the lesson is over the student should have a deeper impression of the character of Paul—his perfect ease and tactfulness in the various relations of life, his unswerving boldness where the gospel was concerned, his inexplicable power. Finally, the peculiar quality of the narrative should be appreciated. These chapters contain the two longer "we-sections" of The Acts.
1. THE JOURNEY TO TROAS
At first Paul had intended to sail direct from Corinth to Syria, but a plot of the Jews caused him to change his plan. Acts 20:3. It has been suggested that the ship upon which he was intending to sail may have carried non-Christian Jews, going to the approaching feast in Jerusalem, v. 16, who could have done him harm upon the voyage. By choosing the route through Macedonia he averted the immediate danger.
The use of the first person plural begins again at Acts 20:5. It was broken off at ch. 16:17. Luke had parted from Paul at Philippi on the second missionary journey; and it is at Philippi that he now appears again. The following journeys, in which Luke himself took part, are narrated with the utmost vividness and minuteness. The narrative amounts practically to a diary—in some sections every day is accounted for.
The departure from Philippi took place "after the days of unleavened bread," that is, after the passover week. Acts 20:6. From the account of the subsequent journey it is not quite possible to tell whether Paul actually succeeded in carrying out his plan of being in Jerusalem at Pentecost. Pentecost, it will be remembered, came fifty days after the beginning of the passover week.
2. TROAS
The description of the last evening at Troas, when Paul prolonged his discourse in the lighted room, is one of the inimitably vivid scenes of The Acts. Probably we are to understand that Eutychus, who fell down from a window in the third story, was really killed and not merely stunned. Verse 10 might seem to indicate that he was only stunned, but the last words of v. 9 point rather to actual, and not merely apparent, death. The miracle is paralleled by the raising of Dorcas by Peter. Acts 9:36-42.
3. THE ELDERS OF EPHESUS
When Paul told the elders that they would see his face "no more," or perhaps rather "no longer," Acts 20:25,38, he did not necessarily mean that he would certainly never return to Ephesus. For a period of years, at any rate, he was intending to transfer his labors to the west; his return to Ephesus, therefore, was at all events uncertain. His long activity at Ephesus, which had occupied the better part of the past three years, was for the present at an end. From the Pastoral Epistles it appears that as a matter of fact Paul did visit Ephesus again after his release from the first Roman imprisonment.
4. ARRIVAL IN PALESTINE
At Tyre and at Cæsarea, Paul received warnings against visiting Jerusalem. These warnings came through the Spirit, Acts 21:4,11, but not in the sense that the Holy Spirit commanded Paul not to go. The meaning is that the Spirit warned him of the dangers that were to befall him. In meeting these dangers bravely he was acting in full accordance with the divine will.
At Acts 21:18 the use of the first person plural ceases, because Luke had no immediate part in the events that followed. It is natural to suppose, however, that he remained in Palestine, for he joined Paul again in Cæsarea, at the beginning of the journey to Rome. For the events of Paul's imprisonment in Jerusalem and in Cæsarea he had first-hand information.
The vow in which Paul took part at the request of James was at least similar to the Nazirite vow described in Num. 6:1-21. Not all the details of such vows are perfectly clear. Paul himself, on his own account, had assumed a similar vow on his second missionary journey, Acts 18:18—unless indeed, as is grammatically possible, the words in that passage refer to Aquila rather than to Paul.
It was not true, as the Christians of Judea had been led to think, that Paul taught the Jewish Christians of the dispersion to forsake the law of Moses, though he was insistent that the Gentile Christians must not adopt that law. It was not even true that he himself had altogether given up keeping the law, though the exigencies of his Gentile work required him to give it up very often, and though he regarded himself as inwardly free from the law. His willingness to take part in a Jewish vow in Jerusalem is therefore not surprising. His action on this occasion was fully justified by the principles of his conduct as described in I Cor. 9:20,21. The keeping of the law was not for Paul a means of obtaining salvation. Salvation was a free gift of God, through the death of Christ. But for the present the general relinquishment of the law and abandonment of the distinctive customs of Judaism on the part of Jewish Christians was not required. Paul was willing to leave that question to the future guidance of God.
It is somewhat surprising that the Book of The Acts mentions the great collection for the Jerusalem church only incidentally, in the report of a speech of Paul. Acts 24:17. The interest of Luke in this part of the narrative is absorbed in the relations between Paul and the non-Christian Jews and the Roman authorities. The internal affairs of the Church are left for the most part out of account. The Acts and the Pauline Epistles, here as so often, must be allowed to supplement each other. Luke gives a vivid picture of the external events, and a clear view of the relations of Christianity to the outside world; while Paul affords us a deeper insight, in some respects at least, into the inward development of the Church's life.
5. PAUL BEFORE AGRIPPA
The famous reply of Agrippa to Paul, Acts 26:28, is exceedingly difficult to translate and to interpret. The translation in the Revised Version is by no means certainly correct. The words may mean, "A little more of this persuasion will make me a Christian!" or else, "You seem to think that the little persuasion you have used is sufficient to make me a Christian." In any case, the sentence displays a certain perplexity on the part of the king. He certainly does not mean that he is on the point of accepting Christianity—his words have a half-ironical tone—but on the other hand his interest is aroused. The same thing is probably to be said for Festus. He said, "Paul, thou art mad; thy much learning is turning thee mad," but he said it with a loud voice as though he were agitated. There was something uncanny about this prisoner!
6. THE ACCESSION OF FESTUS
The dates of many events in the apostolic age have usually been fixed by counting from the accession of Festus. Unfortunately, however, that event itself cannot be dated with certainty. Some put it as late as A. D. 61, others as early as A. D. 55. If the date A. D. 60 be provisionally adopted, then Paul's arrest in Jerusalem occurred in A. D. 58, and his arrival in Rome in A. D. 61. The conclusion of the narrative in The Acts would then fall in the year A. D. 63. It will be remembered that the proconsulship of Gallio now affords an additional starting point for a chronology of the apostolic age.
7. LATER HISTORY OF THE JERUSALEM CHURCH
After the meeting between Paul and James, which is narrated in Acts 21:17-26, the Jerusalem church, at least so far as any direct narrative is concerned, disappears from the pages of the New Testament. It will be observed that in the account of Paul's last visit, only James, the brother of the Lord, and "the elders" are mentioned as representatives of the church. Possibly some of the twelve apostles may be included under the term "elders," but it is also perfectly possible that the apostles were all out of the city.
James, the brother of the Lord, continued to be the head of the Jerusalem church until he was martyred—in A. D. 62, or, as others suppose, in A. D. 66. Before the war which culminated in the capture of Jerusalem in A. D. 70, the Christians of the city fled to Pella beyond the Jordan. From that time, on, though the Christians returned after the war, Jewish Christianity was quite uninfluential. The supremacy of the Jerusalem church was gone. But that church had already rendered a priceless service. It had laid the foundations of Christendom. It had sent forth the first missionaries. And it had preserved the record of Jesus' life. The Synoptic Gospels, in substance at least, are a product of the Jerusalem church.
In the Library.—Purves, "Christianity in the Apostolic Age," pp. 160-166, 231-239. Davis, "Dictionary of the Bible": articles on the many persons and places mentioned in the narrative, especially "Felix," "Festus," and "Herod" (4). Ramsay, "St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen," pp. 283-362; "Pictures of the Apostolic Church," pp. 270-285, 310-364. Lewin, "The Life and Epistles of St. Paul," vol. ii, chs. ii, iii, iv, v, and vi. Conybeare and Howson, "The Life and Epistles of St. Paul," chs. xx, xxi, xxii, xxiii, xxiv and xxv. Stalker, "The Life of St. Paul," pp. 121-133. Lumby, pp. 266-380. Cook, pp. 485-534. Plumptre, pp. 136-184. Rackham, pp. 370-513.