29. The main Roman road, called the Appian Way, was now taken, upon which was the marketplace called Apii Forum, forty-three miles from Rome. Its site is supposed to be marked by some ruins near Treponti. Farther on was a place called the “Three Taverns,” about thirty-three Roman miles from the city and near the present Cisterna.
CHAPTER IX.
PAUL AT ROME.
THE SEVEN CHURCHES.
COLOSSE AND HIERAPOLIS.
1. After their arrival at Rome, Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with a soldier who kept him and to whom he was bound with a chain, Acts 28:20. For two years Paul remained at Rome in a hired house, Acts 28:30, teaching and preaching to all those who came to visit him, and no one forbade him, for the Jews at Rome were under so great fear of the Government that they were exceedingly cautious to cause no uproar. They had not long before been expelled from the city in consequence of an uproar,and they were forced to express any objections to the new faith in a very quiet way.[204]
2. We can learn nothing of the subsequent life of the apostle except from notices which occur in the various epistles. It appears that the Jews were unable to gather any definite charge sufficient to sustain them in any plea against Paul. But during this long residence at Rome several epistles were written and many converts were made through the apostle’s efforts.
3. For his success in preaching see Phile. 14. It is evident that Luke was with him, Col. 4:15; Phile. 24; Timothy also, Phile. 1; Col. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; and others; see Col. 4:7; Eph. 6:21; and John Mark was found “profitable to him,” Col. 4:10; 2 Tim. 4:1; Phile. 24; Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:10, wherein we see that Demas afterward forsook him; Col. 1:7.
At this time the case of Onesimus is interesting; see Epistle to Philemon. Onesimus had escaped to Rome and had been converted to the true faith, but after his conversion returned with a letter from Paul to his master.
The Epistle to the Colossians was now written and sent probably by Onesimus and Tychicus, the latter being charged with another epistle, namely, to the Ephesians.
These letters were written probably in the spring of A. D. 62. About this time Paul was cheered by an offering sent from the church in Philippi, who remembered the apostle in his confinement, Phil. 4. This Epistle to the Philippians was also written from Rome and sent by the same one that brought the gift from the church, namely, Epaphroditus.
4. All we know of the apostle after this is from ecclesiastical writers of the early Christian church. From these it has been supposed that he was tried and acquitted of the charges against him and that after this he visited some of the churches he had been instrumental in planting.