(A) Imprisonmtnt. ■ — At the feast there were multitudes of his fellow-countrymen who had come into collision with him in the cities of the Dispersion, where they dwelt, but had been pre- vented by the Roman authority under which they lived from ]iroceeding to extremes. When these became aware of his presence in the Holy City, they felt that they could now indulge the teelings of revenge which they had had to restrain else- where. An opportunity was atiorded through St. Paul yielding to the advice of St. James and the other apostles, who advised him to perform in the Temple a rite which would prove that he still lived as a Jew. In the s.acred edilice he was laid hold upon and would liave been torn in pieces had he not been rescued by the Roman guard in the castle of Antonia, which overlooked the Temple area. For days the Jews made the wildest efforts to get him into their clutches, not scrupling to enter into a plot for his assassination. But the Roman authorities kept firm hold of their prisoner, and it was not long before he was in safety within the fortress of Ciesarea. His safety, indeed, was only that of a prison ; nor was he perfectly safe, because the governor, Felix, was a man who might have yielded to a bribe to deliver him up. Indeed, when, after two years, a new governor, Festus, came to take the place of Felix, the prisoner was so afraid of some such treachery befalling him that, making use of his right as a Roman citizen, he appealed unto Ctesar. It was the law that, when a prisoner had done so, he must be sent to Rome at once ; and so, in a manner very different from any of which he had dreamed in his evangelistic projects, he found himself on the way to the Eternal City. His biographer, St. Luke, was in the company, which consisted of no fewer than 276 souls ; and the narrative of the voyage which he has put together from the experiences of the weeks they were on their way is said to be the most remarkable record of travel which has come down from ancient times. Many perils were encountered ; and, before all was done, St. Paul had become virtually both captain of the ship and general of the troops, all on board owing their lives to him. After being shipwrecked on the island of Malta, they obtained another ship, which carried them to Puteoli, on the south-west coast of Italy, and from this place they marched along the famous Appian Way to their destination. News of Ills approach having reached the Church at Rome, some of the brethren came out to meet him on the way, at which ' he thanked God, and took
courage' (Ac 28"). In the AV it is stated that on their arrival at Rome, ' the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard' (v.'"); but ui the RV the statement has been transferred to the margin, and now reads, 'The centurion delivered the i>risoners to the captain of the pr.Ttorian guard ' ; and it so happens that the ollicor who held tiiis position at the time is known from profane history to have been one Burrus by name, a person of justice and humanity. But scholarship inclines at jiresent to tlie opinion that the ollicer into whose charge he passed was the princeps pfrc(jri)wru7)i, the head of the Roman fnimentarii, who acted as agents between the Eni|ieror and the armies in the provinces.
The trial ought to have come on at once. But the delays of the law are proverbial, and they were not likely to be less prolonged than usual when the reigning Emperor was a man who would postpone any call of duty for a call of jileasure. Im]n'isonment was, however, for Roman citizens ccmlinement of a very mild description ; and St. I'aul was iiermitted to live in his own ' hired dwelling ' ( v.^"), guarded only by a soldier, to whom he was chained. Here he was allowed to receive visitors ; and he made ample use of tlie jirivilege. The local Jewish community came to interview him ; so, no doubt, did the members of the Chris- tian community. Visitors and delegates from his churches, far and near, came to relieve his bodily wants or to consult him on the state of their own all'airs ; young men, who had laboured with him elsewhere, flocked round him and carried his messages wherever he desired. In short, though humble to the bodily eye, his prison-room became a pharos, shedding the beams of the gospel and tlie light of this missionary's genius towards all quarters of the known world.
(i) Last years. — From what has been said above about the Pastoral Epistles, it will have been gathered that the present writer accepts the evi- dence for a second imprLsonraent and for an interval between the tirst and the second imprisonments, dur- ing which St. Paul resumed his missionary wander- ings. For this the evidence is strong. Eusebius writes : ' After he had made his defence, it is said, the Apostle was sent again upon the ministiy of preaching, and, upon coming to the same city a second time, he .sutl'ered martyrdom ' {HE ii. 22) ; and, much earlier, Clement said of him tliat ' having taught the whole world righteousness, and for that end travelled even to the utmost bounds of the West, he at last sutFered martyrdom, by the command of the governors, and departed out of the world, and went unto his holy place, being become a most eminent pattern of patience unto all ages' {ad Cor. i. 5. 7). As this was written at Rome, it is hardly likely that by ' the utmost bounds of the West ' Rome itself can be intended. What further is meant is to be learnt from St. Paul's own words in the Epistle to the Romans (15--"^) : ' I was hindered these many times from coming to you : but now, having no more any place in these regions, and having these many years a longing to come unto you, whensoever I go unto Spain (for I hope to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if lirst in some measure I shall have been satislied with your company) — but now, I .say, I go unto Jerusalem, ministering unto the saints. . . . When therefore I have acconijilished this, and have .sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by you unto Spain.' There is a persistent tradition, though it is late, that he visited Spain. But the strongest evidence is in the Pastoral E]nstles themselves, in which we see him evangelizing Crete, which he cannot have done when he touched at that island on his way to Rome as a prisoner, though lie may have been so