CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST IMPRISONMENT AT ROME.
A.D. 61–63.
BEYOND the point where the last Chapter ends, the sacred narrative, contained in the Acts of the Apostles, does not conduct us. The incidents connected with St Paul’s imprisonment at Rome, and his subsequent history, must be gathered from various allusions in several letters he wrote during this period.
His trial it would seem, then, was for a considerable time postponed. His accusers, whose arrival was not even expected by the Roman Jews (Acts xxviii. 21), do not appear to have reached Rome before the summer or autumn of the year[1151] A.D. 61, and the necessity of obtaining evidence as to the charges against him from Judæa, Syria, Cilicia, Pisidia, and Macedonia, added to the fact that according to the Roman law the witnesses both of the prosecutors and the accused must be examined on each of the charges separately[1152], would necessitate an adjournment of the case from time to time to suit the convenience of the Emperor.
During, however, this long period of delay the Apostle was not obliged to remain inactive. Allowed to live in a house by himself, and to receive any who wished to visit him, he had many opportunities of preaching the word, and the glad tidings of the Kingdom (Acts xxviii. 31). Nor were his efforts fruitless. To use his own language, he begat many children even in his bonds (Philem. 10), and through the numerous and deeply attached friends, by whom he was surrounded, he was enabled to communicate with many of the Churches which he had planted. Thus there were with him at this time Luke, the beloved physician, and his old companion (Col. iv. 14; Philem. 24); Timothy his favourite disciple (Philem. 1; Col. i. 1; Phil. i. 1). Tychicus[1153] (Col. iv. 7; Eph. vi. 21); John Mark, whom he had once[1154] been obliged to reject as having abandoned the ministry, but who, he now allowed, was profitable to him (comp. Col. iv. 10, 2 Tim. iv. 11); Demas, now, indeed, a faithful fellow-labourer (Philem. 24); Col. iv. 14), though soon, alas, to be drawn away by love of this present world (2 Tim. iv. 10); Aristarchus of Macedonia (Col. iv. 10); and Epaphras[1155] of Colossæ (Col. i. 7).
But amongst these, thus ministering unto him, was one in whom he felt a peculiar interest. This was a slave, named Onesimus, who had run away from his master Philemon[1156], a Christian[1157] of Colossæ, and had fled to Rome, where, amidst the vast population of the metropolis, he probably hoped to escape the notice of his pursuers. Through circumstances which have not been recorded, the fugitive slave became acquainted with the imprisoned Apostle, and was converted to the faith of Christ. There appears to have been something peculiarly attractive in his character, and so useful did he prove in various private ways, that St Paul would have kept him at Rome and employed him in the service of the Gospel (Philem. 13), but, with his habitual regard for the rights of others, he decided that he must first return and be reconciled to his master; and to make this duty less painful, he sent with him a letter[1158] to Philemon, in which he requested his master to forgive him, and offered to reimburse any loss he might have sustained by his running away (Philem. 19), and at the same time expressed his thankfulness to God for the account which he had heard of Philemon’s faith and love (Philem. 4–7).
But Onesimus was not to return to the East alone. Tychicus was on the point of setting out thither also, and it was the Apostle’s wish that he should be the bearer of a letter to the church of Colossæ[1159]. Of the condition of this church he had heard through Epaphras, now present in Rome, and who is regarded by some as its probable founder[1160] (Col. i. 7), and the news was such as to give him serious concern. Through the coming of some teacher, probably from Alexandria, the Colossians had become imbued with a spirit of a half-Jewish and half-Oriental philosophy, tending to corrupt the simplicity of their faith, and to obscure the dignity of Christ by a spurious union of Jewish observances with a worshipping of angels, and an extravagant asceticism. These growing evils St Paul deemed his duty to counteract, and in the Epistle, of which Epaphras was the bearer, set forth with special prominence the eternal glory and inherent dignity of Christ (Col. i. 15–23), and after cautioning the Colossians against false philosophy, legal observances, angel-worship, and asceticism (Col. ii.), exhorted them to various Christian virtues (Col. iii.–iv. 6), referred them to Tychicus and Onesimus for information respecting his condition (Col. iv. 7–9), and requested them to forward the Epistle to Laodicea, and to read that from the same place (Col. iv. 16).
As bearers of these letters Tychicus and Onesimus set out for Asia Minor. But Tychicus was charged with another letter, the Epistle to the Ephesians, either addressed to the Christians in the capital of proconsular Asia, or intended as a circular letter for the use of the various churches in that province[1161]. In this Epistle, the thoughts and language of which betray a very considerable resemblance to those employed in that to the Colossians, the Apostle, after a summary (chiefly in the form of thanksgiving) of the Christian doctrines (Eph. i.–iii. 19), exhorted the Ephesians to unity (Eph. iv. 1–16), the abstinence from heathen vices (Eph. iv. 17–v. 21), the faithful discharge of their domestic duties as wives and husbands, children and parents, servants and masters (Eph. v. 22–vi. 9), and urged them, amidst surrounding dangers and temptations, to be vigilant, and to array themselves in the whole panoply[1162] of God (Eph. vi. 10–20).
After the dispatch of these three letters in the spring of A.D. 62, the Apostle’s heart was cheered by the arrival of a contribution from the Philippians, brought by Epaphroditus, a leading presbyter in that church. Though apparently in ill-health when he set out, he had, in the face of some unusual danger, persevered in his journey (Phil. ii. 30), in order that he might present to the Apostle this fresh proof of the noble liberality of the church over which he presided.
Till the close of the year A.D. 62, or the commencement of A.D. 63, Epaphroditus continued at Rome, and while tendering his services to the Apostle fell dangerously ill. Subsequently, however, he fully recovered, and was filled with anxiety to return to his friends at Philippi, who he learnt were in much distress on receiving intelligence of his sickness (Phil. ii. 26). St Paul was also himself anxious that he should return (Phil. ii. 25, 28), and resolved to make him the bearer of a letter to the Philippian church in acknowledgment of the kindness he had experienced from its members. His own circumstances were somewhat changed since he wrote to the Colossians and Ephesians. Though what had befallen him had tended rather to the furtherance than hindrance of the message he proclaimed, and his chains had become well-known throughout the whole prætorium[1163] (Phil. i. 12, 13); though also by the energy of the Apostle himself and of many of the brethren no little impression had been made on the masses of heathendom in the city (Phil. i. 14–18); yet the course of political events was sufficient to excite considerable apprehension. The virtuous Burrhus was dead[1164], and had been succeeded in the command of the prætorian guards by Fenius Rufus and Sofonius Tigellinus, the former a man of no capacity, the latter notorious for determined wickedness. About the same time also Nero contracted an alliance with the infamous Poppæa[1165], a Jewish proselytess, whose influence over the emperor was strongly exerted in favour of the Jews, and in furtherance of their cause.
The horizon, therefore, of the Apostle was dark and lowering, and he could not look forward with the same confidence as before to his speedy release (comp. Philem. 22 with Phil. ii. 17, iii. 11), but he could write to the church he had planted at Philippi, and though the time might be at hand for his blood to be poured forth as a libation (Phil. ii. 17) over the sacrifice of his continued zeal in his Master’s cause, he could rejoice in their progress and the tidings he had received of their welfare (Phil. i. 3–5). In the Epistle, therefore, of which Epaphroditus was the bearer, he expressed his heartfelt thankfulness for all he had heard of their constancy under persecution (Phil. i. 29, 30), and liberality, which distinguished them above all other churches (Phil. iv. 15); exhorted them to continued unity and fortitude, to humility and earnestness (Phil. ii. 1–16); expressed his intention of shortly sending Timothy to them (Phil. ii. 17–24); warned them against Judaizing teachers (Phil. iii. 1–8), and urged two female converts of distinction, Euodias and Syntyche, who had been guilty of strife and altercation, to love and reconciliation (Phil. iv. 2, 3), and all to a holy and a Christian life (Phil. iv. 4–9). With this Epistle, which concludes with a significant salutation from the Christians in Cæsar’s household (Phil. iv. 22), and points to the progress of the Gospel there, even amidst the scenes of terrible wickedness[1166] now enacted in the imperial household, Epaphroditus set out for Macedonia.