Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house and received all who were coming to him,
Parallel Translations
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Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house and received all who were coming to him,
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And Paul dwelt two yeares full in his lodgynge and receaved all that came to him
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And Paul remained two yeeres full in an house hired for himselfe, and receiued all that came in vnto him,
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 30. He received all. The apostle showed an excellent…
30. He received all. The apostle showed an excellent example of constancy, in that he offered himself so willingly to all those which were desirous to hear him. Surely he was not ignorant what great hatred he did purchase; and that this was his best way, if by holding his peace he might appease the hatred of his adversaries. For a man being desirous to provide for himself alone would not have done thus; but because he remembered that he was no less the servant of Christ, and a preacher of the gospel, when he was in prison, than if he had been at liberty, he thought it was not lawful for him to withdraw himself from any which was ready to learn, lest he should foreslow [neglect] the occasion which was offered him by God, and therefore he did more regard the holy calling of God than his own life. And that we may know that he did incur danger willingly, Luke doth shortly after expressly commend his boldness, as if he should say, that setting all fear aside, he did faithfully obey the commandment of God, neither was he terrified with any danger, but did proceed to take pains with whomsoever he met.
Preaching the kingdom of God. He doth not separate the kingdom of God, and those things which belong to Christ, as diverse things, but doth rather add the second thing by way of exposition, that we may know that the kingdom of God is grounded and contained in the knowledge of the redemption purchased by Christ. Therefore, Paul taught that men are strangers and foreigners from the kingdom of God, until having their sins done away they be reconciled to God, and be renewed into holiness of life by the Spirit; and that the kingdom of God is then erected, and doth then flourish among them, when Christ the Mediator doth join them to the Father, having both their sins freely forgiven them, and being also regenerate unto righteousness, that beginning the heavenly life upon earth, they may always have a longing desire to come to heaven, where they shall fully and perfectly enjoy glory. Also, Luke setteth forth a singular benefit of God, in that Paul had so great liberty granted him. For that came not to pass through the winking and dissimulation of those who could hinder it, seeing they did detest religion, but because the Lord did shut their eyes. Wherefore, it is not without cause that Paul himself doth boast that the Word of God was not bound with his bonds (2 Timothy 2:9).
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The word of God cannot be bound.
The word of God cannot be bound.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his…
30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,
Ver. 30. And received all that came in unto him] Being a genuine child of the Church, set forth by that πανδοχειον, Luk 10:34, that inn that receives and helps all sin-sick visitors. Christ himself (saith one) was therefore born in an inn, to signify that in the Church there is lodging for all. Let our houses be little churches and receptacles for the righteous, as Paul’s was, Col 2:5; so that a stranger coming thither, may behold our holy order, and say, as Jacob did of Bethel, "This is the house of God, this is the gate of heaven," Gen 28:17.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Of what nation or quality soever they were, Paul…
Of what nation or quality soever they were, Paul preached salvation to them upon the gospel condition of faith and holiness; and in that imitated God and our Saviour, who refuse none that thus come unto him. And though Paul might have had greater security from trouble by the Jews if he would have desisted, yet a necessity was laid upon him, and a woe unto him if he did not preach the gospel, as 1Co 9:16, which may abundantly excuse and justify him.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Note here, 1. The special favour indulged St. Paul,…
Note here, 1. The special favour indulged St. Paul, now a prisoner at Rome, with so much freedom, and without any molestation, to preach the gospel in his own hired house for two years together.
Where observe, 1. Who preaches; St. Paul a prisoner, who scarcely had liberty to hear, rarely to preach.
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2. Where he preached; even in proud, powerful, and imperious Rome, and in his own hired house there.
3. To whom he preached: To all that came unto him. He set open the doors of his house for all comers, excluding none from the gracious offers of salvation by a Redeemer, upon the condition of faith and obedience.
4. How long he continued his ministry at Rome; for two whole years at that time: he would neither be allured by flatteries, nor hectored by threatenings, to lay down his ministry, or desist from his preaching work.
5. After what manner he preached; with all confidence, boldness, openness, and freedom, with such an undaunted courage as neither a love of life, nor fear of death, could overcome.
6. The subject matter of his preaching: The kingdom of God, and things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ; not vain janglings or envious railings, but Jesus Christ, and the way of salvation by him.
Lastly, with what freedom he did all this, No man forbidding him; neither emperor, nor senate, nor magistrate, nor soldier, nor priest, nor people, though in an heathen city, devoted to idolatry, in the least hindering or forbidding him.
Where note, That Rome heathen of old was far less cruel and much more courteous to the preachers of the gospel, than Rome anti-Christian since has been. Then an apostle might preach two years together without molestation in his own hired house, to all comers; but now a minister of God must there have no public or private place of meeting to worship God according to his word and will, without the danger of an inquisition.
To conclude: See how impossible it was at that day to hinder the progress of the gospel; even as impossible as to hinder the sun from shining, or the wind from blowing. That God, who shut the mouths of the hungry lions, that they hurt not Daniel, did open the mouth of the apostle, that neither Nero nor the Jews could stop it; yea, after this, he was delivered from the mouth of the lion; rescued out of Nero’s hands. And God would have continued to deliver him, had not his death been more for the glory of God and his own advantage than his life, which at last was offered up a sacrifice and sweet-smelling savour, acceptable unto God through Jesus Christ.
Thus St. Luke concludes his history of St. Paul’s life, without giving us any particulars of his death. He leaves him at Rome, a prisoner under Nero, where after two years’ confinement, the scriptures seem to hint, that he was set at liberty, and that he went about preaching the gospel and confirming the churches for some years; but an attempt to trace this apostle farther without scripture light, may be the ready way to lose ourselves. Let us therefore conclude with prayer,
That Almighty God, who through the preaching of his apostle St. Paul did cause the light of the glorious gospel to shine throughout the world, would mercifully grant that we, having his wonderful conversion and instructive example in our remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness unto him for the same, by following the holy doctrine which he taught through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain We are here taking our leave of the history…
We are here taking our leave of the history of blessed Paul; and therefore, since God saw it not fit that we should know any more of him, we should carefully take notice of every particular of the circumstances in which we must here leave him.
I. It cannot but be a trouble to us that we must leave him in bonds for Christ, nay, and that we have no prospect given us of his being set at liberty. Two whole years of that good man's life are here spent in confinement, and, for aught that appears, he was never enquired after, all that time, by those whose prisoner he was. He appealed to Caesar, in hope of a speedy discharge from his imprisonment, the governors having signified to his imperial majesty concerning the prisoner that he had done nothing worthy of death or bonds, and yet he is detained a prisoner. So little reason have we to trust in men, especially despised prisoners in great men; witness the case of Joseph, whom the chief butler remembered not, but forgot, Gen 40:23. Yet some think that though it be not mentioned here, yet it was in the former of these two years, and early too in that year, that he was first brought before Nero, and then his bonds in Christ were manifest in Caesar's court, as he says, Phi 1:13. And at this first answer it was that no man stood by him, Ti2 4:16. But it seems, instead of being set at liberty upon this appeal, as he expected, he hardly escaped out of the emperor's hands with his life; he calls it a deliverance out of the mouth of the lion, Ti2 4:17, and his speaking there of his first answer intimates that since that he had a second, in which he had come off better, and yet was not discharged. During these two years' imprisonment he wrote his epistle to the Galatians, then his second epistle to Timothy, then those to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon, in which he mentions several things particularly concerning his imprisonment; and, lastly, his epistle to the Hebrews just after he was set at liberty, as Timothy also was, who, coming to visit him, was upon some account or other made his fellow-prisoner (with whom, writes Paul to the Hebrews, Plm 1:13 :23, if he come shortly, I will see you), but how or by what means he obtained his liberty we are not told, only that two years he was a prisoner. Tradition says that after his discharge he went from Italy to Spain, thence to Crete, and so with Timothy into Judea, and thence went to visit the churches in Asia, and at length came a second time to Rome, and there was beheaded in the last year of Nero. But Baronius himself owns that there is no certainty of any thing concerning him betwixt his release from this imprisonment and his martyrdom; but it is said by some that Nero, having, when he began to play the tyrant, set himself against the Christians, and persecuted them (and he was the first of the emperors that made a law against them, as Tertullian says, Apol. cap. 5), the church at Rome was much weakened by that persecution, and this brought Paul the second time to Rome, to re-establish the church there, and to comfort the souls of the disciples that were left, and so he fell a second time into Nero's hand. And Chrysostom relates that a young woman that was one of Nero's misses (to speak modishly) being converted, by Paul's preaching, to the Christian faith, and so brought off from the lewd course of life she had lived, Nero was incensed against Paul for it, and ordered him first to be imprisoned, and then put to death. But to keep to this short account here given of it, 1. It would grieve one to think that such a useful man as Paul was should be so long in restraint. Two years he was a prisoner under Felix (Act 24:27), and, besides all the time that passed between that and his coming to Rome, he is here two years more a prisoner under Nero. How many churches might Paul have planted, how many cities and nations might he have brought over to Christ, in these five years' time (for so much it was at least), if he had been at liberty! But God is wise, and will show that he is not debtor to the most useful instruments he employs, but can and will carry on his own interest, both without their services and by their sufferings. Even Paul's bonds fell out to the furtherance of the gospel, Phi 1:12-14. 2. Yet even Paul's imprisonment was in some respects a kindness to him, for these two years he dwelt in his own hired house, and that was more, for aught I know, than ever he had done before. He had always been accustomed to sojourn in the houses of others, now he has a house of his own - his own while he pays the rent of it; and such a retirement as this would be a refreshment to one who had been all his days an itinerant. He had been accustomed to be always upon the remove, seldom staid long at a place, but now he lived for two years in the same house; so that the bringing of him into this prison was like Christ's call to his disciples to come into a desert place, and rest awhile, Mar 6:31. When he was at liberty, he was in continual fear by reason of the lying in wait of the Jews (Act 20:19), but now his prison was his castle. Thus out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness.
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II. Yet it is a pleasure to us (for we are sure it was to him) that, though we leave him in bonds for Christ, yet we leave him at work for Christ, and this made his bonds easy that he was not by them bound out from serving God and doing good. His prison becomes a temple, a church, and then it is to him a palace. His hands are tied, but, thanks be to God, his mouth is not stopped; a faithful zealous minister can better bear any hardship than being silenced. Here is Paul a prisoner, and yet a preacher; he is bound, but the word of the Lord is not bound. When he wrote his epistle to the Romans, he said he longed to see them, that he might impart unto them some spiritual gift (Rom 1:11); he was glad to see some of them (Act 28:15), but it would not be half his joy unless he could impart to them some spiritual gift, which here he has an opportunity to do, and then he will not complain of his confinement. Observe,
1. To whom he preached: to all that had a mind to hear him, whether Jews or Gentiles. Whether he had liberty to go to other houses to preach does not appear; it is likely not; but whoever would had liberty to come to his house to hear, and they were welcome: He received all that came to him. Note, Ministers' doors should be open to such as desire to receive instruction from them, and they should be glad of an opportunity to advise those that are in care about their souls. Paul could not preach in a synagogue, or any public place of meeting that was sumptuous and capacious, but he preached in a poor cottage of his own. Note, When we cannot do what we would in the service of God we must do what we can. Those ministers that have but little hired houses should rather preach in them, if they may be allowed to do that, than be silent. He received all that came to him, and was not afraid of the greatest, nor ashamed of the meanest. He was ready to preach on the first day of the week to Christians, on the seventh day to Jews, and to all who would come on any day of the week; and he might hope the better to speed because they came in unto him, which supposed a desire to be instructed and a willingness to learn, and where these are it is probable that some good may be done.
2. What he preached. He does not fill their heads with curious speculations, nor with matters of state and politics, but he keeps to his text, minds his business as an apostle. (1.) He is God's ambassador, and therefore preaches the kingdom of God, does all he can to preach it up, negotiates the affairs of it, in order to the advancing of all its true interests. He meddles not with the affairs of the kingdoms of men; let those treat of them whose work it is. He preaches the kingdom of God among men, and the word of that kingdom; the same that he defended in his public disputes, testifying the kingdom of God (Act 28:23), he enforced in his public preaching, as that which, if received aright, will make us all wise and good, wiser and better, which is the end of preaching. (2.) He is an agent for Christ, a friend of the bridegroom, and therefore teaches those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ - the whole history of Christ, his incarnation, doctrine, life, miracles, death, resurrection, ascension; all that relates to the mystery of godliness. Paul stuck still to his principle - to know and preach nothing but Christ, and him crucified. Ministers, when in their preaching they are tempted to diverge from that which is their main business, should reduce themselves with this question, What does this concern the Lord Jesus Christ? What tendency has it to bring us to him, and to keep us walking in him? For we preach not ourselves, but Christ.
3. With what liberty he preached. (1.) Divine grace gave him a liberty of spirit. He preached with all confidence, as one that was himself well assured of the truth of what he preached - that it was what he durst stand by; and of the worth of it - that it was what he durst suffer for. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. (2.) Divine Providence gave him a liberty of speech: No man forbidding him, giving him any check for what he did or laying any restraint upon him. The Jews that used to forbid him to speak to the Gentiles had no authority here; and the Roman government as yet took no cognizance of the profession of Christianity as a crime. Herein we must acknowledge the hand of God, [1.] Setting bounds to the rage of persecutors; where he does not turn the heart, yet he can tie the hand and bridle the tongue. Nero was a bloody man, and there were many, both Jews and Gentiles, in Rome, that hated Christianity; and yet so it was, unaccountably, that Paul though a prisoner was connived at in preaching the gospel, and it was not construed a breach of the peace. Thus God makes the wrath of men to praise him, and restrains the remainder of it, Psa 76:10. Though there were so many that had it in their power to forbid Paul's preaching (even the common soldier that kept him might have done it), yet God so ordered it, that no man did forbid him. [2.] See God here providing comfort for the relief of the persecuted. Though it was a very low and narrow sphere of opportunity that Paul was here placed in, compared with what he had been in, yet, such as it was, he was not molested nor disturbed in it. Though it was not a wide door that was opened to him, yet it was kept open, and no man was suffered to shut it; and it was to many an effectual door, so that there were saints even in Caesar's household, Phi 4:22. When the city of our solemnities is thus made a quiet habitation at any time, and we are fed from day to day with the bread of life, no man forbidding us, we must give thanks to God for it and prepare for changes, still longing for that holy mountain in which there shall never be any pricking brier nor grieving thorn.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own…
And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house,.... In a house which he hired with his own money; in which his friends Luke, Aristarchus, and others, dwelt with him; where he was guarded by a soldier: whether at the expiration of these two years he was set at liberty, and for ten years afterwards travelled into Italy, France, and Spain, preaching the Gospel, as some think; or whether he then suffered martyrdom, is not certain; the latter is most probable:
and received all that came in unto him; there, as the Syriac version reads, that is, into his lodging, as the Ethiopic version expresses it; which is not to be understood of his hospitality, for it cannot be thought that he should provide food and lodging for all that came unto him; but that be admitted all that would to come and hear him, and freely preached the Gospel to them: it should seem by this, as well as by what is said Act 28:23; that many of the Jews came into his lodging, and heard him expound, that it was a large house he had hired and dwelt in; and such an one Jerom (y) thinks it was, like that he supposes he would have Philemon provide for him, which he desires in his epistle to him, ; namely, a house in the most noted place in the city, for the conveniency of those that came to him; large enough to hold many; free from noise and disturbance; and not situated in a scandalous neighbourhood, nor near to shows and plays; and that the lodging should rather be on the floor than in an upper room: and such a house, with all the conditions that Jerom mentions, the Papists pretend to show at Rome to this day; where, as their tradition is, Luke composed, or however finished this his history; which, as the above writer observes (z), reaches to the two years of Paul's stay at Rome; that is, until the fourth year of Nero; from whence, adds he, we learn that in the same city this book was composed: and it is certain, that Luke was with him, when the apostle wrote his second epistle to Timothy from Rome, and when the time of his martyrdom seemed to himself to be at hand, Ti2 4:7.
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(y) Comment in Philemon v. 22. Tom. 9. fol. 116. I. (z) Catalog. Script. Eccl. sect. 17. fol. 91. C.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And Paul continued two whole years - After which…
And Paul continued two whole years - After which this book was written, long before St. Paul's death, and was undoubtedly published with his approbation by St. Luke, who continued with him to the last, 2 Tim. iv, 11. And received all that came to him - Whether they were Jews or Gentiles. These two years completed twenty-five years after our saviour's passion. Such progress had the Gospel made by that time, in the parts of the world which lay west of Jerusalem, by the ministry of St. Paul among the Gentiles. How far eastward the other apostles had carried it in the same time, history does not inform us.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 30. Paul dwelt two whole years in his…
Verse 30. Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house] As a state prisoner, he might have had an apartment in the common prison; but peculiar favour was showed him, and he was permitted to dwell alone, with the soldier that guarded him, Ac 28:16. Finding now an opportunity of preaching the Gospel, he hired a house for the purpose, and paid for it, St. Chrysostom observes, by the fruits of his own labour. Here he received all that came unto him, and preached the Gospel with glorious success; so that his bonds became the means of spreading the truth, and he became celebrated even in the palace of Nero, Php 1:12, Php 1:13; and we find that there were several saints, even in Caesar's household, Php 4:22, which were, no doubt, the fruits of the apostle's ministry. It is said that during his two years' residence here he became acquainted with Seneca, the philosopher, between whom and the apostle an epistolary correspondence took place. In an ancient MS. of Seneca's epistles in my own possession, these letters are extant, and are in number fourteen and have a prologue to them written by St. Jerome. That they are very ancient cannot be doubted; but learned men have long ago agreed that they are neither worthy of Paul nor of Seneca.
While he was in captivity, the Church at Philippi, to which he was exceedingly dear, sent him some pecuniary assistance by the hands of their minister, Epaphroditus, who, it appears, risked his life in the service of the apostle, and was taken with a dangerous malady. When he got well, he returned to Philippi, and, it is supposed, carried with him that epistle which is still extant; and from it we learn that Timothy was then at Rome with Paul, and that he had the prospect of being shortly delivered from his captivity. See Php 1:12-13; Php 2:25; Php 4:15-16, Php 4:18, &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Act 28:30-31. And Paul dwelt two whole years at…
Act 28:30-31. And Paul dwelt two whole years at Rome, in his own hired house — Before he was heard by Cesar, or his deputy, upon his appeal; and received all that came to him — Whether Jews or Gentiles. Preaching the kingdom of God — As established in the person of his beloved Son; and teaching those things which concerned the Lord Jesus — And the religion he had instituted in the world; with all confidence — All freedom of speech; no man forbidding him — Neither emperor, nor senate, nor magistrate, nor soldier, nor priest, nor people, though in a heathen city, devoted to idolatry, in the least hindering or forbidding him. It appears, from this passage, that the persecution against the Christians at Rome was not then begun: the Romans had not yet made any laws against the disciples of Jesus; for what is here related happened within the first ten years of the reign of Nero, before his cruelty against Christians broke out. Observe, reader, that Rome heathen of old was far less cruel, and much more courteous to the preachers of the gospel, than Rome antichristian has since been. Then an apostle might preach two years together, without molestation, in his own hired house, to all comers: but now a minister of God must there have no public or private place of meeting to worship God according to his word and will, without danger of an inquisition! As the apostle’s house was open to every comer, it is not to be doubted that many resorted to him daily; some out of curiosity to hear and see the chief of a sect which was now become so numerous, and was said to be endued with extraordinary powers, and others from an honest inclination seriously to inquire into the strange things which he spake concerning Jesus of Nazareth, and to examine the evidence which he offered in support of them. Now to all these the apostle willingly preached, bearing witness to Christ at Rome, even as formerly in Jerusalem. And though Luke has not mentioned it, Paul himself hath told us, that his testimony concerning Jesus was well received, and that he made many converts in Rome, among whom were some even of the emperor’s domestics, whose salutation he sent to the Php 4:22. Further, he says, that the brethren in Rome, encouraged by his example, perhaps also strengthened by the gift of the Spirit, which he imparted to them, according to his promise, (Rom 1:11,) preached the gospel more openly and boldly than they would otherwise have done, Php 1:14-15. Such was the victory of the word of God, and such progress had the gospel made by the end of these two years, in the parts of the world which lay west of Jerusalem, by the ministry of Paul among the Gentiles. How far eastward the other apostles had carried it, in the same time, history does not inform us. As Luke concludes his history with Paul’s abode at Rome before his journey into Spain, we may infer that he wrote both his gospel and the Acts while the apostle was still living, of whose actions he was himself an eye-witness, and by whom, it is very probable, this book was revised, as the ancients also say his gospel was. During this, his first confinement at Rome, the apostle wrote four epistles, which still remain; namely, one to the Ephesians, another to the Philippians, a third to the Colossians, and a fourth to Philemon: and after his release, he wrote his epistle to the Hebrews. In the epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Timothy joined Paul. But he is not mentioned in the inscription of the epistle to the Ephesians, though it was written about the same time with the others, and sent along with the epistle to the Colossians. From this circumstance we may infer, that the letters to the Philippians, the Colossians, and Philemon, were written a little before the letter to the Ephesians, and while Timothy was at Rome; but that after they were finished, and before the letter to the Ephesians was begun, he left the city to go to Philippi, agreeably to the apostle’s promise to the Philippians to send Timothy to them soon, (chap. Act 2:19,) and to what he tells the Hebrews, that Timothy was actually sent away, chap. Act 13:23. The letter to the Ephesians, being written soon after that to the Colossians, and while the matter, and form, and very expressions of that letter were fresh in the apostle’s mind, the two resemble each other so much, that they have been termed twin epistles, and throw light on each other. For which reason the apostle very properly ordered the Colossians to cause their epistle to be read in the church of the Laodiceans, to which it is supposed the Ephesians, agreeably to the directions given them by Tychicus, sent a copy of their epistle. If this conjecture be right, the epistle to the Ephesians is the letter from Laodicea, which the Colossians were ordered to read in their church, Col 4:16.
It must now be observed, that Paul, during his two years’ confinement at Rome, having preached the gospel with great success, and edified the churches of Greece and Asia by the divinely-inspired letters which he wrote during that period, was at length released, probably in the spring of A.D. 65, answering to the ninth year of Nero. Luke, indeed, has not directly mentioned Paul’s release; but by limiting his confinement to two years, he has intimated that he was then set at liberty. His confinement at Rome issued thus favourably through the goodness of his cause, and through the intercession of some powerful friends in Cesar’s family, who had embraced the Christian faith, and who were greatly interested in the fortune of one who was so strong a pillar of the new religion which they had espoused.
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Some have questioned whether he ever returned into the east again, which yet, from Phm 1:22, and Heb 13:23, he seems to have expected. Clemens Romanus (ad Corinthians epist, 1. cap. 5) expressly tells us, that he preached in the west, and that to its utmost bounds, which must at least include Spain, whither he intended to go, Rom 15:24-25. Theodoret adds, that he went to the islands of the sea, and numbers Gaul (that is, France) and Britain among the disciples of the tent-maker. But in what order he took these places, or how tong he remained in any of them, cannot be determined. We are told, however, that about A.D. 65, or 67, (for chronologers differs) he returned to Rome, where, some say he met with Peter, who was thrown into a prison, with other Christians, on pretence of being concerned in the burning of the city. Chrysostom tells us, that he here converted one of Nero’s concubines, which so incensed that cruel prince, that he put him to death; probably after an imprisonment, in which the second epistle to Timothy was written. How long Paul continued in prison, at this time, we know not; but from his being twice brought before the emperor, or his prefect, it may be presumed that he was imprisoned a year or more before he was condemned.
The danger to which Paul was exposed, by this second imprisonment, appeared so great to his assistants, that most of them fled from the city. Luke alone remained with him: and even he was so intimidated, that he durst not stand by him when he made his first answer, 2Ti 4:11; 2Ti 4:16. From this epistle we learn, also, that although the apostle’s assistants, terrified with the danger that threatened him, forsook him and fled, he was not altogether without consolation. For the brethren of Rome came to him privately, and ministered to him, as we learn from his salutation to Timothy, 2Ti 4:21. It is universally agreed, among all ancient writers, who mention his death, that he was beheaded at Aquæ Salviæ, three miles from Rome; for, being free of that city, he could not be crucified, as Peter was, according to the tradition of the Latin Church, on the very same day. It is said, and there is great reason to believe it, that this glorious confessor gave his head to the fatal stroke with the greatest cheerfulness, and also that he was buried in the Via Ostiensis, two miles from Rome, where Constantine the Great erected a church to his memory, A.D. 318, which was successively repaired and beautified by Theodosius the Great, and the Empress Placidia. But his most glorious monument remains in his immortal writings, which come next under our consideration: and the author of this work will esteem it one of the greatest honours which can be conferred upon him, and the most important service his pen can perform for the church of Christ, to be, in any measure, instrumental in illustrating them, and rendering them more edifying than they had been before to the reader.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Paul dwelt two whole years - Doubtless in the…
Paul dwelt two whole years - Doubtless in the custody of the soldiers. Why he was not prosecuted before the emperor during this time is not known. It is evident, however Act 28:21, that the Jews were not disposed to carry the case before Nero, and the matter, during this time, was suffered quietly to sleep. There is great probability that the Jews did not dare to prosecute him before the emperor. It is clear that they had never been in favor of the appeal to Rome, and that they had no hope of gaining their cause. Probably they might remember the former treatment of their people by the emperor (see the notes on Act 18:2); they might remember that they were despised at the Roman capital, and not choose to encounter the scorn and indignation of the Roman court; and as there was no prosecution, Paul was suffered to live in quietness and safety. Lardner, however, supposed (vol. v. p. 528, 529, ed. 8vo, London, 1829) that the case of Paul was soon brought before Nero and decided, and that the method of confinement was ordered by the emperor himself. Lightfoot also supposes that Paul’s “accusers, who had come from Judea to lay their charge against him, would be urgent to get their business despatched, that they might be returning to their own home again, and so would bring him to trial as soon as they could.” But nothing certainly is known on the subject. It is evident, indeed, from 2Ti 4:16, that he was at some time arraigned before the emperor; but when it was, or what was the decision or why he was at last set at liberty, are all involved in impenetrable obscurity.
In his own hired house - In a house which he was permitted to hire and occupy as his own. Probably in this he was assisted by the kindness of his Roman friends.
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And received all ... - Received all hospitably and kindly who came to him to listen to his instructions. It is evident from this that he was still a prisoner, and was not permitted to go at large.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Two whole years in his own hired lodging. That…
Two whole years in his own hired lodging. That is, in the lodgings which St. Paul was permitted to hire for himself, and to live there, with a soldier chained to him for his guard. Happy soldier, if he knew how to make use of such a favourable opportunity! We may take notice by all this narration of St. Luke, (as when he says here, ver. 16, when we arrived at Rome, &c.) that he was all the way in the ship with St. Paul. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 30And [But] Paul21 dwelt [remained, ἔμεινε] two whole years…
B.—PAUL PROCLAIMS THE KINGDOM OF GOD DURING TWO YEARS AT ROME, WITHOUT HINDERANCE, ALTHOUGH HE IS A PRISONER
Act_28:30-31
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30And [But] Paul21 dwelt [remained, ἔμεινε] two whole years in his own hired house,and received all the came in unto him, 31Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern [teaching concerning] the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him [confidence, without hinderance, ἀκωλύτως].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Act_28:30-31. a. As Paul was a prisoner, he could earn no money by manual labor; the rent of his own hired house was, doubtless, paid by the Christians of Rome, although other congregations also, like that at Philippi [Phil. Acts 4], assisted in supporting him.
b. This book was, unquestionably, not left unfinished, as Schleiermacher supposed, in consequence of some hinderance which Luke accidentally encountered; it is equally improbable that the concluding part of the book should have been lost, as Schott conjectured. The remark, on the other hand, which Meyer here makes, corresponds to all the circumstances, and is in accordance with the truth, viz. that the last two verses, as far as the style is concerned, are rounded and sonorous, and constitute a fitting conclusion of the whole narrative. For precisely as at the close of Luke’s Gospel, Luk_24:52-53, the occupations of the apostles during a certain period, are described in a sentence exhibiting a participial construction, so here, too, the account of the labors of Paul during a still longer period, terminates with two clauses, in which a similar participial construction is introduced. [See Introduction, § 2.—On the subsequent history of Paul, his supposed journey to Spain, etc., the time of the composition of the three Pastoral Epistles (Tit.; I. and II. Tim.) etc. etc., see, in addition to J. J. van Oosterzee’s Commentary on these Epistles, in a subsequent volume, also Conyb and H.: Life, etc. of St. Paul, Vol. II. p. 450, Acts 27 (written by Conyb.), and p. 551, Appendix.—See, especially, among the most recent authorities, Wiesinger’s General Introduction to the Pastoral Epistles, and the special Introductions to each one of the three—in his Commentary, constituting Vol. V. 1 Abth. of the continuation of Olshausen’s Commentary on the New Testament.—Tr.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
It is true that, as far as the facts are concerned, we painfully feel the want of all positive and direct information with regard to the manner in which the case of Paul was ultimately decided. However, while he exhibited a noble spirit and great fidelity as an apostle, still, he was merely the herald, and not the Lord and King Himself. Jesus Christ reigns as the King—such is the conclusion of this book. While we contemplate the great fact that the kingdom of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are proclaimed by the apostle of the Gentiles during so long a period, and with no hinderance whatever, in Rome, the central city of the world, the person of Paul himself imperceptibly recedes from our view.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Act_28:30. And Paul dwelt two whole years … and received all that came in unto him.—If Paul was permitted to hire a house for himself, and enjoyed the privilege of remaining in it, we may regard the whole circumstance as one of the favorable results of the full reports which Festus had made of his case, and as a blessing which followed his faithful testimony to the truth, at Cesarea. At the same time, he was subjected to expense, which, however, the voluntary contributions of the Philippians assisted him in bearing, Php_4:10-14. (Rieger).—There are no hardships which can justify us in neglecting the duties of our calling; Mat_11:2; 1Co_7:20. (Starke).—Received all that came in unto him.—What a noble character that servant of Christ possesses, who is made all things to all men [1Co_9:22], who kindly receives all that seek counsel and comfort for their souls, and who opens his house and his heart to all who desire to be saved! It is not well, when it is reported of a pastor, that he is difficult of access. Our Lord Jesus often encountered hypocrites and deceivers; nevertheless, he always sought their spiritual welfare, and his language was: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” [Joh_6:37]. (Ap. Past.).
Act_28:31. Preaching the kingdom of God, etc.—God opens a door for his word in a wonderful and unexpected manner, Act_14:27; Col_4:3. When the church enjoys peace, we should the more diligently proclaim the truth, and prepare for future trials, Act_9:31. After Christ had sent the Holy Spirit, he caused his Gospel to be made known to the whole world, not, however, with the aid of carnal weapons, but by the preaching of the word, and He has, even to the present time, been its almighty Protector. May He continue to cause His word to be every where proclaimed, “no man forbidding,” unto the salvation of many souls, and unto the glory of His great name! (Starke).—Teaching … with all confidence.—Of this confidence of the apostle at Rome, we have additional evidence in the Epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, and to Philemon, which were written in that city; they are all fragrant with the oil of joy, wherewith Jesus had anointed him. (Besser).—No man forbidding him.—It was, in those times, considered a very great mercy, when the Gospel could be preached without hinderance; it was a source of comfort to teachers, and they diligently employed the time during which they could enjoy it. But we, on the contrary, whose liberty has so long been established, have well nigh forgotten how great this mercy is. As we have therefore opportunity, let us labor, and do good! [Gal_6:10]. (Ap. Past.)—What a noble theme—the progress of the Gospel from Jerusalem to Rome—the writer of the book of THE Acts has chosen! When will it be carried back to Jerusalem? God employed even his most richly endowed servants in doing His will only in their own sphere. It was given to no one to survey the whole field of labor; that knowledge the Lord reserved unto Himself. O God! Thy kingdom come! (Rieger).—Notwithstanding all these persecutions, the Gospel advanced with such success, that Luke is enabled to conclude his narrative of the Acts of the Apostles in these terms, which resemble an “Amen!” appended to all the promises of God. Thus this reference at the close of the book to the “kingdom of God”, most happily corresponds to the beginning, Act_1:3. (Williger).—In the vast and wealthy capital of that great empire, Paul proclaims the might and glory of the kingdom of God, as a kingdom of the Spirit, whose “fruit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” [Gal_5:22-23]. The tidings concerning Christ, the Prince of peace, around whom all things in the kingdom of God, both small and great, revolve, penetrate even into the palace of the emperor (Php_1:13). Thus Paul employed the time during which he was a prisoner, in establishing that important congregation at Rome, which was destined to be the mother-church and, indeed, the missionary church of all the congregations which, after this period, were gathered among the Gentiles. (Leonh and Sp.).—Luke does not speak of subsequent events, as it was not his intention to write a biography of St. Paul. He had now exhibited the riches of divine grace, and the power of the Lord Jesus, as revealed in the progress of the Church, from the Mount of Olives to the city of the seven hills; greater things he could not relate, and Theophilus had now read enough in order to close with “Hallelujah.” (Besser).—Let us, then, imitate Paul, and take his noble, adamantine, soul as our pattern, so that, following in his wake, we may safely sail over the stormy ocean of life, and enter the waveless haven of peace, and thus obtain that salvation which God has prepared for those who love him, through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the, Father and the Holy Ghost, in like majesty and glory, blessed forever. (Chrysostom, quoted by Leonh. and Sp.).
ON THE WHOLE SECTION.—Paul, preaching the kingdom of God in Rome: I. A glorious fulfilment of the promise which the Lord had, at the beginning, given to his servant, Act_9:15; II. A solemn and impressive prediction of the future victories of the kingdom of God on earth.
Paul, at Rome: I. A living monument of divine mercy; II. A shining example of apostolic fidelity; III. A joyful herald of Christ’s reign over the whole world; IV. A messenger, addressing the effete heathenism of the times, and uttering solemn warnings respecting the judgments of God.
Paul’s ministry of two years at Rome, the crown of his apostolic labors: I. In the centre of the heathen world he erects the cross of Christ, before which all heathen temples are to sink into the dust; II. Although subjected to bodily restraint, he provides with true pastoral fidelity and love even for his distant congregations (the Epistles written during this imprisonment); III. While waiting for the call of his Lord, he prepares to seal the work of his life with his blood.
From Jerusalem to Rome! Such was the course of the Gospel, as described in the Acts of the Apostles. Its path was marked, I. By the sufferings and ignominy of its heralds; II. By their heroic faith and ardent love; III. By the victories gained through mighty deeds, and divine miracles; IV. By the diffusion of the blessings of grace and salvation, designed for the present and future generations.
Paul, the preacher bound with a chain, or, The word of God is not bound [2Ti_2:9]: I. Bound to no one spot on earth; when it was cast out of Jerusalem, the ancient city of God, Paul erected his pulpit in the capital of the Gentile world; II. Restrained by no earthly power; the power of Rome was as little able as the hatred of the Jews, to close the mouth of the apostle; III. Confined to no particular individual; even after Paul had finished his course, and sealed his testimony with his blood, the preaching of the cross continued its victorious course over the world.
Paul, still a prisoner at Rome—to-day, as well as 1800 years ago: although his imprisonment may now, as well as formerly, under the Roman emperor, be mild and not ignominious, still, he continues to be a prisoner under the spiritual ruler in Rome; for, I. Paul, the herald of evangelical liberty, is bound with the chain of human traditions; II. Paul, the preacher of that righteousness which is by faith, is bound by the law of righteousness by outward works; III. Paul, the man of apostolic poverty and humility, is bound by the pomp and display of papal claims to the government of the world.
“No man forbidding him [without hinderance]” —the significant concluding words of the book of the Acts of the Apostles: I. They are words proclaiming the victory gained over ancient Rome—a victory alike over hostile Jews and hostile Gentiles; II. They are words of warning, addressed to modern Rome, warning it against any impious and vain attempt to quench the word of God; III. They are words of admonition, addressed to the Evangelical Church, exhorting it to apply with a grateful spirit the free and unhindered word of God; IV. They are words of promise, intended for the church of the future, directing attention to the time of consummation, when the Gospel will have subdued the world.
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles, not a mere fragment! It is true that we reach the end sooner than we would have desired, for there are many interesting subjects of which it does not speak in detail; at the same time it furnishes us with all that we really need. I. It exhibits the founding of a Church against which the gates of hell cannot prevail; II. It describes the wonderful works of an exalted Saviour, who is with his people alway, even unto the end of the world; III. It is a rich mine, furnishing wholesome doctrine, efficient consolations, and encouraging examples for the church in all ages.
The transition from the history of the Apostles, to the history of the Church: I. It is, undoubtedly, a retrogression from the pentecostal season of the first miracles’ of the Spirit—from the period when faith began to flourish—from the early period of the first love [Rev_2:4]; II. It is, nevertheless, according to the divinely appointed order, an advance from a patriarchal, narrow, sphere, to the length and breadth of the world—from the joy and animation of a festival, to the labor and toil of common life—and, through the struggle of thousands of years, to a final victory, when, in the church triumphant, the primitive pentecostal congregation will re-appear, glorified, enlarged, and perfected.
The silent disappearance of the apostle Paul at the conclusion of THE Acts of the Apostles: it directs our attention, I. To the exalted Lord of the Church, who abides, even when His servants disappear; “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” [Heb_13:8]; II. To that happy rest, into which the faithful servants of God may enter, when they have completed the work assigned to them; III. To that labor of faith and of love [1Th_1:3], which those witnesses who were first chosen, have left behind for us; IV. To that great day of eternity, which will bring to light all that still remains dark in the divine guidance of the children of God, and in the history of His kingdom.
[Paul now ceases to preach the Gospel; nevertheless, that Gospel abides; “the word of the Lord endureth for ever.” (1Pe_1:25; Isa_40:8). The permanence of the Gospel: I. Illustrations of this permanence; (a) the ravages of time; (b) the assaults of its enemies; (c) the corruption of its friends—are alike unable to affect it. II. The causes of this permanence of the Gospel; (a) its truth; (b) its correspondence to the wants of men; (c) the divine protection. III. The effect which it should produce on the minds of men; (a) to awaken a salutary alarm in those who reject it; (b) to convince the minds of those who doubt; (c) to strengthen the faith of the humble believer.Tr.]
Footnotes:
[21]Act_28:30 [The words ὁ ΙΙαῦλος, of text. rec., with G.H., Syr., etc. are omitted in A.B.E. Vulg., and are dropped by Lach., Tisch., and Alf., as a “supplementary insertion.”—Cod.Sin., which omits ὁ ΙΙαῦλ., originally read ενεμιναν; the letter ε, smaller in size, appears above—α—in ναν. Tisch. says; “ε prima manu suprascriptum videtur.”—C corrected the word to εμινεν.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain in his own hired house--(See on Act 28:23), yet…
in his own hired house--(See on Act 28:23), yet still in custody, for he only "received all that came to him"; and it is not said that he went to the synagogue or anywhere else.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain Roman Residence and Ministry, Act_28:30-31.
Roman Residence and Ministry, Act_28:30-31.
30. Two whole years—A whole two-year. It is clear from this that Paul was released from his first Roman imprisonment at the close of two years.
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Own hired house—For the payment for which, as he seems not to have had the means of labouring at his occupation, he was doubtless aided by the Christian Churches. Whether this hired house was the same as the lodging in Act_28:23 is uncertain and very unimportant.
Received all—Was ready to give his attention to every coming inquirer, preaching to the full congregation, and teaching the individual inquirer.
No… forbidding—The Romans not having the wish, and the Jews not having the courage, to interfere. Here then in the imperial city the Jew rejects and is rejected, and Christianity has struck her immovable root in representative Gentile soil.
As Luke’s purpose is not to write a biography of Paul, but a history of this great transition, his task is now complete, and his pen ceases its work. (See page 10.)
If we wish to know the spirit with which Paul was animated during this imprisonment we must study his four Epistles then written, remembering the bonds, fettered as he was to a soldier in his own hired house, or in the prison, in which he wrote:
1. His EPISTLE TO THE Colossians.
2. His fraternal note to Philemon.
3. His EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians.
4. His EPISTLE TO THE Philippians.
Two opinions exist, as we have already noted, as to the date of the martyrdom of St. Paul. One (as Conybeare and Howson and Alford) maintains that after his first imprisonment and trial (62-64) he was acquitted, travelled, preached, wrote his Epistles to TIMOTHY and to TITUS, and was again arrested, tried, and executed in A.D. 66-68. The other (Schaff and Pressense) that he was martyred upon his first trial before the fulness of the Neronian persecution, A.D. 64. It is agreed that he was not crucified, but, as a Roman citizen, executed with the axe. He was led for death to the Aquae Salviae and buried in the road to Ostia. Peter, it is said, was on the same day crucified at Rome and buried in the Vatican. Caius, a Roman presbyter, about A.D. 212 could make the Christian boast, “I am able to point out the Christian trophies of the apostles, for if you go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way you will find the mementoes of those who founded this Church.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 30. And Paul] The proper name is omitted in…
30. And Paul] The proper name is omitted in the oldest MSS., and this omission supports the rejection of Act_28:29. It is only the insertion of that verse which rendered the word “Paul” here needful to the sense.
two whole years] Of these years we have no history, except such as we can gather from the four Epistles which were written from Rome during the time (see above on Act_28:16). We know that from first to last the chain galled both his body and mind (Eph_3:1; Eph_4:1; Php_1:13; Php_1:16; Col_4:18; Philem. Act_28:1; Act_28:9-10), and that his case was at times an object of much anxiety (Php_2:23-24). We also learn from the same letters that beside Luke and Aristarchus (Act_27:27), he had also the fellowship, for some time at least, of Tychicus, who (Eph_6:21) was the bearer of his letter to Ephesus; of Timothy, whom (Php_1:1; Col_1:1; Phm_1:1) he joins with himself in the greeting to the Churches of Philippi and Colossæ and also in that to Philemon. In the former of these Churches Timothy had been a fellow-labourer with the Apostle. Epaphroditus came with the Philippian contributions to the need of the imprisoned Apostle (Php_4:18). Onesimus found out St Paul when in flight from his master he made his way to Rome (Col_4:9; Phm_1:10) Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, was also there, and another Jewish convert, Jesus, called Justus, of whom we only know that the Apostle considered him worthy to be called a fellow-worker unto the kingdom of God (Col_3:12). Epaphras, from the churches in Laodicea and Hierapolis, had come to visit Paul, and to bring him the greetings doubtless of the Christians there, and carry back some words of earnest counsel and advice from the Roman prisoner (Col_3:12). Last of all Demas was there, soon after to be mentioned as having forsaken the good way through love of this present world (Col_3:14; 2Ti_4:10). More than this and the few words in this verse we do not know of this first imprisonment.
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in his own hired house] [R. V. dwelling] The means for such hiring were provided by the liberality of the Philippians and others, for the Apostle could no longer with his own hands minister even to his own wants.
all that came [R. V. went] in unto him] For the fulness of Gospel freedom had now been reached, and the word of God and the kingdom of God were open to all who sought unto them.
with all confidence, no man forbidding him] The word rendered “confidence” [R. V. “boldness”] implies that “freedom of speech” which was looked upon by the Athenians as the great mark of their liberty. For Englishmen there must arise the thought that perhaps from some of those Roman soldiers who heard Paul in his prison the message of the Gospel came first to our island.
The historian had now reached the end of his work, and does not even tell the manner of the Apostle’s release, though as he mentions the duration of the imprisonment, he must have known how he came to be liberated. But that concerned not the purpose of his record, and so he has no word more. “Victoria Verbi Dei. Paulus Romæ. Apex Evangelii. Actorum Finis” (Bengel).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (30) And Paul dwelt two whole years . .…
(30) And Paul dwelt two whole years . . .—On the probable incidents of this period, see Excursus on the Later Years of St. Paul’s Life. The word translated “hired house” (the exact equivalent for the Latin meritorium, or conductum) means rather a lodging (as in Act_28:23) or apartment, and does not imply that he occupied a whole house. The words that follow exactly describe his position. He was a prisoner, and therefore was not allowed to go out to preach in the synagogues, or the “churches” in the houses of this or that disciple, or the open places of the city, but his friends were allowed free access to him, and in this way there was probably a wider and more effectual opening for his personal influence than if he had spoken publicly, and so exposed himself to the risk of an organised antagonism. What seemed at first a hindrance to his work was so ordered, as he afterwards acknowledged, that it fell out “rather unto the furtherance of the gospel” (Php_1:12).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own…
Act_28:30-31
And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house.
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Pauls two years ministry in his own hired house
Here his biographer takes leave of Paul. The curtain falls on the great actor. The greatest life has a close. These verses suggest--
I. The essence of Christianity.
1. Those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ--not the things which concern religious speculations or organisations.
2. The reign of God over the human soul, the kingdom of God. The grand aim of Christs mission was to establish this, and nothing lay so near His heart. This was what He urged men to seek and to pray for, and what He illustrated in His parables. For this He works now, and will work until the kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of our God.
II. The trials of its disciples.
1. That the best of us are not to expect exemption from trials. Let us not murmur. Paul felt that his were for his good, and gloried in tribulations.
2. That the most useful minister is not essential to Christ. He who laboured more than all is now under restraint. Let no man overrate his services.
III. The mission of Christs ministers.
1. Pauls preaching was teaching--not declamation, or a repetition of platitudes however logically or rhetorically put. This implies learning on the part of the hearer, and superior intelligence on the part of the minister.
2. His teaching was the indoctrinating of men in Christian essentials.
IV. The force of its influence.
1. Of its soul sustaining influence--With all confidence--in the midst of enemies.
2. Of its aggressive influence (Php_1:12-14; Phm_1:10). (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Christs finished and unfinished work
(with Act_1:1-2):--So begins and so ends this book. I connect the commencement and the close, because I think that the juxtaposition throws great light upon the purpose of the writer, and suggests some very important lessons. The reference to the former treatise (which is, of course, the Gospel according to Luke) implies that this book is to be regarded as its sequel, and the terms of the reference show the writers own conception of what he was going to do in his second volume. The former treatise have I made … of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up. Is not the natural inference that the latter treatise will tell us what Jesus continued to do and teach after He was taken up? So, then, the name the Acts of the Apostles, which is not coeval with the book itself, is somewhat of a misnomer. Most of the apostles are never heard of in it. There are, at the most, only three or four of them concerning whom anything in the book is recorded. But our first text supplies a deeper reason for regarding that title as inadequate, and even misleading. For, if the theme of the story be what Christ did, then the book is, not the Acts of the Apostles, but the acts of Jesus Christ through His servants. That conception of the purpose of the book seems to me to have light cast upon it by, and to explain, the singular abruptness of the conclusion which must strike every reader. The historian lays down his pen, possibly because he had brought his narrative up to date. But a word of conclusion explaining that it was so would have been very natural, and its absence must have had some reason. It is also possible that the arrival of the apostle in the imperial city, and his unhindered liberty of preaching there, in the very centre of power, the focus of intellectual life, and the hot bed of corruption for the known world, may have seemed to the writer an epoch which rounded off his story. But I think that the reason for the abruptness of the records close is to be found in the continuity of the work of which it tells a part. It is the unfinished record of an incomplete work. The theme is the work of Christ through the ages, of which each successive depository of His energies can do but a small portion, and must leave that portion unfinished, the book does not so much end as stop. It is a fragment because the work of which it tells of is not yet a whole.
I. First, then, we have here the suggestion of what Christ began to do and teach on earth. Now, at first sight, the words of our text seem to be in strange and startling contradiction to the solemn cry which rang out of the darkness upon Calvary. Jesus said, It is finished! and gave up the ghost. Luke says He began to do and teach. Is there any contradiction between the two? Certainly not. It is one thing to lay a foundation; it is another thing to build a house. And the work of laying the foundation must be finished before the work of building the structure upon it can be begun. The former is the work of Christ which was finished on earth; the latter is the work which is continuous throughout the ages. He began to do and teach, not in the sense that any should come after Him and do--as the disciples of most great discoverers and thinkers have had to do: systematise, rectify, and complete the first glimpses of truth which the Master had given. He began to do and teach, not in the sense that after He had passed into the heavens any new truth or force can for evermore be imparted to humanity in regard of the subjects which He taught and the energies which He brought. But whilst thus His work is complete His earthly work is also initial. And we must remember that whatever distinction my text may mean to draw between the work of Christ in the past and that in the present and the future, it does not mean to imply that when He ascended up on high He had not completed the task for which He came, or that the world had to wait for anything more, either from Him or from others, to eke out the imperfections of His doctrine or the insufficiencies of His work.
II. But then, secondly, we have to notice what Christ continues to do and to teach after his ascension. I have already suggested that the phraseology of the first of my texts naturally leads to the conclusion that the theme of this book of the Acts is the continuous work of the ascended Saviour, and that the language is not forced by being thus interpreted is very obvious to anyone who will glance even cursorily over the contents of the book itself. For there is nothing in it more obvious and remarkable than the way in which, at every turn in the narrative, all is referred to Jesus Christ Himself. He only is the Actor; men are His implements and instruments. The same point of view is suggested by another of the characteristics of this book, which it shares in common with all Scripture narratives, and that is the stolid indifference with which it picks up and drops men, according to the degree in which, for the moment, they are the instruments of Christs power. As long as God uses a man the man is of interest to the writer of the Scripture. When God uses another one, they drop the first, and have no more care about him, because their theme is not men and their doings, but Gods doings through men. On us, and in us, and by us, and for us, if we are His servants, Jesus Christ is working all through the ages. He is the Lord of providence, He is the King of history, in His hand is the book with the seven seals; He sends His Spirit, and where His Spirit is He is; and what His Spirit does He does. And thus He continues to teach and to work from His throne in the heavens. Now these truths of our Lords continuous activity in teaching and working from heaven may yield us some not unimportant lessons. What a depth and warmth and reality the thoughts give to the Christians relation to Jesus Christ! What a sweetness and sacredness such thoughts impart to all external events, which we may regard as being the operation of His love, and moved by the hands that were nailed to the Cross for us, and now hold the sceptre of the universe for the blessing of mankind. What a fountain of hope they open in estimating future probabilities of victory for truth and goodness!
III. Lastly, we note the incompleteness of each mans share in the great work. As I said, the book which is to tell the story of Christs continuous work from heaven must stop abruptly. There is no help for it. If it was a history of Paul it would need to be wound up to an end and a selvage put to it, but as it is the history of Christs working, the web is not half finished, and the shuttle stops in the middle of a cast. The book must be incomplete because the work of which it is the record does not end until He shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father, and God shall be all in all. So the work of each man is but a fragment of that great work. Every man inherits unfinished tasks from his predecessors, and leaves unfinished tasks to his successors. It is, as it used to be in the middle ages, when the men that dug the foundations, or laid the first courses of some great cathedral, were dead long generations before the gilded cross was set on the apex of the needle spire, and the glowing glass filled in to the painted windows. Enough for us if we lay a stone, though it be but one stone in one of the courses of the great building. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Pauls two years in Rome
By this time we ought to be independent of the historian and to be able to write Pauls diary with our own hand. There are some friends we need not consult because we know exactly how they would address themselves to every embarrassment. The historian pays us a compliment in condensing into two little verses the industry of two years in Rome, as if he should say, You know how the years would be occupied. A prisoner who has a case on appeal, how will he occupy himself during that period of waiting? If you inquire about a stranger, you will say, He will spend his time in setting up his case. Is Paul occupied in getting up his case? Read verse 31. At the last as at the first--just the same. In other cities Paul went about finding opportunities, opening doors and boldly entering in. Is he doing that now during those two years in Rome? Observe the construction of the sentence and make your own inference. Paul dwelt--Paul received all that came in unto him. But Paul occupied his two years in doing something more than preaching. He would have been but a name today had he not occupied his time in writing his immortal epistles. Only a few can ever hear the living voice; but the writing lives. What should we have known of Paul but for the Epistles?
I. Let us look into Philippians. What an insight that gives us into his life at Rome.
1. In Act_1:12 we read: I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me--he makes nothing of them where we should have made a great moan--have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. In prison or out of prison Paul was occupied with one theme. Read verse 28, in nothing terrified by your adversaries, etc. The encouragement comes from the man with whom we were about to sympathise. Read Act_4:4. When we opened the letter we said: Where is there a man amongst us with voice plaintive enough to read the minor music? Read, again, Act_1:21, and you will find the basis line upon which the whole is built. There is not a word about the appeal; the only reference is to Christ and to the Church. Was there not great basis of doctrine under all this high sentiment? Read Act_2:5-11. But was Paul speaking after the manner of a man who had counted the cost of this? Did he really know what he was doing? Read Act_3:7-11. But was he one who had nothing to lose? Hear him in the same chapter: If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more, etc. Reading this letter, I have no hesitation in saying that men with such views cannot be in prison. The views themselves are like a great firmament. Such men cannot want (Act_4:11, etc.). Nero is a poor man compared with his prisoner, and such men cannot die (Act_3:20-21). Do you admire Paul in these circumstances? Paul was only Paul because Christ was Christ. When Paul receives our homage he points us in one direction, and says, God forbid that I should glory, etc.
II. Let us now look into Ephesians. In Act_3:1 he describes himself as the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, in Act_4:1 as the prisoner of the Lord, in chap. viz 20 as an ambassador in bonds. This is the way in which to use a chain, an infirmity of any kind. Paul does not whine about himself being a prisoner; but says, It is the Lords chain. He is not a prisoner of Caesar, but a prisoner of Christ. Look at his care of souls (Eph_1:16-23). He asked no mean gifts for the Christian soul, but all heavens riches. Then his care for the Church as a whole (Eph_4:32). He lays an infinite line even upon social relations, differences, and controversies, and rules them into order by the very grandeur of his appeal. People have admired the apostles logic; my own feeling is that none could love like Paul. Next we have his care for the family. Not one member of the household is omitted (Eph_5:25, etc.).
III. Let us now look into Colossians. In the last line he says, Remember my bonds. A word is enough to those whose hearts are in right tune. How did the great apostle regard his fellow labourers? Did he so tower above them as to be unconscious of their existence? (Read Act_4:10; Act_4:12; Act_4:14.) Paul did not forget anybody. No touch of a gentle hand ever escaped his notice, who stands next to Christ in the wisdom and penetration of his love. And if the servant does not forget, can He forget who is Master? The Lord is not unrighteous to forget your work of faith and labour of love.
IV. Let us look into Philemon. Paul entreats Philemon as Paul the aged. Cunning writer! He was not Paul the aged when labour was to be done, when suffering was to be undergone, when tyrants were to be faced; but when a slave was to be reinstated, Paul thought that if he represented himself as an old man, it would have a happy effect upon the sensibilities of Philemon. I do not know that Paul would have cared to have been called Paul the aged, yet he is willing to describe himself as such, because that might count for something and moisten the eyes of Philemon. Talk about the equality of men, and the over getting of social difficulties; read verse 17. This is said about a runaway, penitent slave! Why, he could not have given a nobler introduction to Caesar. This is what Christianity would do today: bring back every man that had wronged you, bring back every wanderer and reconstruct the household circle. Christianity harmonises the classes, not by dragging any class down, but by lifting all classes up. Paul said, with the audacity of an invincible faith, If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account--a man who had not where to lay his head! But he knew he could pay all such obligations as that: Albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. Yes, these are the great debts that exist between man and man--not a debt of gold, but the debt of self. This is the debt which people owe to the great authors, thinkers, and preachers of the day. Conclusion: These are the letters; is the writer a fanatic? I will believe it when fanatics reason as he does. Is he a self-seeker? I will believe it when self-seekers suffer as he did. When you want to know what Christians are, do not look at us, but look at Paul. We ought to follow him as he followed Christ. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Pauls two years residence at Rome
I. The time which the apostle spent at Rome. Two years complete.
1. The emperor was too much occupied with his guilty pleasures to be in haste to attend to this serious business, and the officers of state were not authorised to dismiss untried an appellant to Caesar; while the chiefs of the Jewish nation durst not appear as prosecutors.
2. So long an abode at Rome, with liberty of action, whatever indignity was put upon his person, was a high privilege. There were at Rome so many men of inquisitive minds, and abundant leisure, that his house must have been thronged. He received all that came, with open arms and heart.
3. The Church, however, I conclude, continued to meet in its former place; its own pastor or bishop, and other officers. Of Pauls being bishop there is not the most distant hint. The apostles are never called bishops; for they held a higher office, incompatible with that of bishop or pastor, and to call an apostle a bishop, was as left-handed a compliment as it would be to call a king a mayor. Had any apostle been bishop of Rome, unquestionably it was Paul; but, strange to tell, Peter has been paraded as such. Had he been there, he would have been out of his diocese, for he was the apostle--not of the Gentiles, which was Pauls office--but of the Jews. Accordingly, the last time Peter is seen he is pursuing his vocation to the twelve tribes, scattered abroad through Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Nor is it recorded in Scripture that he ever was at Rome. Numerous circumstances make it incredible that he had been there up to this. Paul had, a few years before, written to the Romans, but no mention is made of Peter. Paul gave this reason for longing to see them, that he might impart to them some spiritual gift, which Peter, had he been there, must have imparted. Paul arrives at Rome, and the Christians come out to meet him; but not a word is said then, or during the two years he spent there, of Peter. Letters were written from Rome by Paul, but not one of them contains a salutation from Peter. What! was he such a nonentity that his coming to Rome was so unimportant that of this the Divine oracles are dumb, while Pauls voyage and journey thither form the most conspicuous portion of the inspired history? The world is filled with Pauls letters from Rome; but it never hears a word from Peter, except from the Church at Babylon! Verily, Peter may say to the Romans, Save me from my friends. I have, however, asserted nothing concerning Peters suffering martyrdom at Rome, which is just barely possible. But that he did not found the Apostolic See is certain, for he was engaged in Syria till near the time when Aquila and Priscilla, members of that Church, were driven from Rome by Claudius. The strangers from Rome, who were at Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost, seem to have carried the first tidings of the gospel to Rome; and, therefore, it was no apostolic see, even if Peter and Paul, on a visit, presided there; for this apostles did at many places which are never called apostolic sees.
II. The employment of the apostle.
1. It was that of a herald proclaiming, as the original signifies, the kingdom of God. For the Sovereign of that kingdom sent forth His apostles to proclaim His ascension to the throne, and to call upon all nations to bow to His sceptre. A dangerous theme at Rome, under the eye of Nero! But it should be recollected that the apostle had already taught the Roman Church obedience to civil government. The Romans had learned from the Stoics, and especially Nero, from Seneca, that a good man is a king. Pilate, having received Christs good confession, I am a King, showed no jealous alarm, but said, I find no fault in Him. Such a kingdom as Paul preached could create no fear of its being hurtful to governors and kings. Civil government will be rendered more easy and more safe, as it certainly will be more equitable and more beneficial, by the universal prevalence of the kingdom of God. But had Pauls proclamation of the kingdom included such a domination as popes afterwards set up at Rome, he would never have been permitted to act as its herald, where Nero reigned.
2. But he was teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. While he was on this theme, a prison was to him a paradise.
3. That he spake with all boldness, or freedom, we are assured. A chain on his arm, and a soldier by his side, would have intimidated some men. It is a shame to us to speak of the Lord Jesus as if we were ashamed of Him. (J. Bennett, D. D.)
Paul at Rome: the preacher in chains, or the Word of God not bound
It is bound--
I. To no place. Thrust out of Jerusalem, the old city of God, the apostle erects his pulpit in the Gentile capital of the world.
II. By no power. The might of Rome was as little able as the hatred of the Jews to close the mouth of the apostle.
III. To no man. After Paul had finished his course, and sealed his testimony with his blood, the preaching of the Cross proceeded victoriously over the earth. (K. Gerok.)
Paul a prisoner at Rome today as he was eighteen hundred years ago
1. Paul the herald of evangelical liberty, bound by the fetters of human ordinances.
2. Paul the preacher of justification by faith, bound under the law of external righteousness of works.
3. Paul the man of apostolic poverty and humility, bound beside the splendour and pomp of the Popish dominion. (K. Gerok.)
Pattis situation
It is obvious that he would not have been allowed to seek a lodging in the Jewish quarter beyond the Tiber, since he would be obliged to consult the convenience of the successions of soldiers who kept guard over him; and it is most likely therefore that his hired apartment was within close range of the Praetorian camp. Amongst the prisoners there he might have seen the Jewish priests who had been sent to Rome by Felix, and who won from their nation so much approval by their sufferings through abstinence from unclean meats. Here, too, he may have seen Caradoc, the British prince whose heroic resistance and simple dignity extorted praise even from Roman enemies. Considering that he was a prisoner his life was not dull. He had to put up with the laws delays, perhaps through the loss, during shipwreck, of the eulogium of Festus, the non-appearance of his accusers, or the inhuman carelessness of Nero. But he was safe from the perils and tumults of the past twenty years, and exempt from the hard necessity of earning his daily bread. And if he was neglected by Jews he was acceptable to many Gentiles; if his gospel was mutilated by unworthy preachers, still Christ was preached; if his bonds were irksome they inspired others with zeal and courage; if one form of activity had been restrained, others were still open to him, and while he was strengthening distant Churches by his letters and emissaries, he was making Gods message known more and more widely in imperial Rome. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
The quiet disappearance of Paul at the close of the apostolic history
It points to--
1. The exalted Lord of the Church who abides, although His servants disappear.
2. The blessed rest into which Gods faithful servants are permitted to enter after the well-concluded day of work.
3. The work of faith and labour of love left behind to us from these first chosen witnesses.
4. The great day which will bring to light all that is now dark in the history of the kingdom of God. (K. Gerok.)
The Acts no fragment
The conclusion indeed comes to us too early; there are many things we would wish to know, yet we have enough. We have--
1. The laying of the foundation stone of the Church against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.
2. The mighty acts of the Saviour, who is with His people always, even unto the end of the world.
3. A mine of wholesome doctrine, secure comfort, and impressive example for the Church of all ages. (K. Gerok.)
The close of the Acts
Note--
I. The eras of a wonderful history.
1. The close of one chapter in Church history. The book began with Peters sermon at Jerusalem, and now closes with Pauls ministry in Rome. What a marvellous history it is. The course of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome, says Lange, is--
(1) A painful course, full of shame and persecution.
(2) A heroic course, full of the power of faith and love.
(3) A victorious course, full of mighty acts and Divine wonders.
(4) A blessed course, full of salvation and grace for the present and the future.
2. The beginning of a new chapter in Church history. From Rome the gospel starts on a new course, and fulfils the promise at the commencement of the book. Ye shall be My witness both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
II. The mightiness of a Christ-inspired man. Who can read this account of Paul without feeling that he was animated by a spirit, not of earth, nor of any human school of religion or morals, but by the Spirit of Him who gave His life a ransom to save the lost? He acknowledged this. The love of Christ constraineth me. I live, yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me. By sin we have lost our manhood; we are mean and cowardly. The Spirit of Christ can alone restore the true heart of humanity.
III. The mysterious method of Divine working. It was Gods purpose that the gospel should be preached in Rome. But how was this purpose fulfilled?
1. By one man. One might have expected an army of messengers. Numbers, however, in moral campaigns are secondary considerations. The one true man does the work.
2. One man, who is a prisoner. One might have thought that the Almighty Master would have guarded His messenger, and made his path straight and illustrious. But Gods ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts.
IV. The fragmentary character of sacred history. Here the curtain drops upon the unfinished life of Paul. Curiosity craves for minute information concerning the closing scenes in the life of this wonderful man, but Scripture offers no gratification. Fuller details are--
1. Unnecessary. Luke has given sufficient memoranda of this mans life to enable us to judge how sublimely he passed through the last scenes. The acts of a mans daily life, and not the details of his death bed, are the best criteria of his soul life.
2. Would, perhaps, have been inexpedient. God is as kind in concealing as He is in revealing. Were the Bible to give us a full account of all the men it refers to, it would be a volume of unreadable dimensions, and would rather pander to the curiosity than advance the culture of humanity. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The prison literature of the Christian Church
To Pauls prison life in Rome we owe some of the most important and consolatory Epistles. And he is not the only Christian prisoner who has been busy for God and man. Savonarola wrote his commentaries on Psa_31:1-24; Psa_51:1-19 during his month of imprisonment before his execution, which show that though he had much spiritual conflict, neither his faith nor his comfort yielded. The gentle Anne Askew, who was burnt at Smithfield , wrote the night before she suffered--
Like as an armed knight appointed to the field
With this world will I fight, and faith shall be my shield.
Faith is that weapon strong which will not fail at need,
My foes therefore among therewith will I proceed.
I now rejoice in heart, and hope bids me do so,
That Christ will take my part, and ease me of my woe.
Tyndale, to whom more than any other we owe our English Bible, wrote, during his imprisonment at Vilvorde, to the governor of the castle, asking for some articles of dress in a style that reminds us of Pauls request that Timothy should bring his cloak from Troas; and then goes on to say: But above all I entreat and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the procureur that he may kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Grammar, and Dictionary, that I may spend my time with my study. Ridley wrote in the interval between his condemnation and execution, a long farewell to all his true and noble friends in God, which contains these sentences: I warn you all, my well-beloved kinsfolk and countrymen, that ye be not amazed or astonished at the kind of my departure and dissolution, for I assure you I think it is the greatest honour that ever I was called unto in my life. For you know I no more doubt but that the causes whereof I am put to death are Gods causes and the causes of truth, than I doubt that Johns Gospel is the gospel of Christ, or that Pauls Epistles are the very Word of God. And only a short time before Lady Jane Grey, in sending, on the eve of her execution, her Greek Testament to her sister, wrote: I am assured that I shall for the losing of a mortal life find an immortal felicity, the which I pray God grant you and enable you of His grace to live in His fear and die in the true Christian faith, from the which, in Gods name, I exhort you that you never swerve, neither for hope of life nor fear of death. The hymn Jerusalem, my happy home, was, in one of its versions, composed by Francis Baker while a prisoner in the Tower, and in the same fortress Sir Walter Raleigh composed his History of the World, and wrote poems, of which the following is a specimen:--
Rise my soul, with thy desires, to heaven,
And with divinest contemplation use
Thy time, where times eternity is given.
And let vain thoughts no more thy thoughts abuse,
But down in midnight darkness let them lie;
So live thy better, let thy worse thoughts die
And thou, my soul, inspired with sacred flame,
View and review, with most regardful eye,
Thy holy Cross, whence thy salvation came;
On which thy Saviour and thy sin did die;
For in that sacred object is much pleasure,
And in that Saviour is thy life, thy treasure.
Everybody knows that Bunyans Pilgrims Progress was the fruit of his labours in Bedford Gaol; and as the joy bells of the new Jerusalem kept ringing in his ears he forgot the vileness of the cage wherein he was confined. Not so well known are the letters of Samuel Rutherford, so unique for their unction and holy rapture, yet many of them were written from Aberdeen, to which city he had been confined by the Court of High Commission. George Wither, the Puritan poet, whose quaint motto was, I grow and wither, both together, had a chequered career, and many of his best pieces were composed in prison. His Prison Meditation has preserved his experiences for us:--
While here I bide, though I unworthy be,
Do Thou provide all needful things for me,
And though friends grow unkind in my distress,
Yet leave not Thou Thy servant comfortless.
So, though in thrall my body must remain,
In mind I shall some freedom still retain;
And wiser made by this restraint shall be
Than if I had, until my death, been free.
Who, having read, can ever forget the lines of Madam Guyon under similar circumstances?--
My cage confines me round, abroad I cannot fly,
But though my wing is closely bound, my hearts at liberty.
My prison walls cannot control the flight, the freedom of the soul.
James Montgomery, wrote a whole volume of Prison Amusements while he was confined in York Castle, the victim of political injustice; and the hymn beginning Spirit, leave thy house of clay was composed in the same place on the occasion of the death of one of his fellow prisoners, who with seven others had suffered the loss of all worldly goods for conscience sake. And to mention no more, what an interesting record is that of the imprisonment in Burma of the sainted Judson for two years, during which he composed the beautiful paraphrase of the Lords Prayer, commencing, Our Father God, who art in heaven. Now compare all this with the melancholy lines of Ovid and the letters of Cicero during their exile. The latter discover a pusillanimity humiliating to contemplate, and it would have been better for the orators reputation if they had been destroyed. The same thing has come out in the prison experiences of many others who, being without God, were also without hope in the world, Now how shall we account for the difference? Simply by the sustaining grace of the Lord Jesus. One of the greatest triumphs of modern horology is the construction of a chronometer with a compensation balance which keeps it moving at the same rate in every temperature. What that balance is to the timepiece, the grace of God is to the believers heart. It gives him equanimity in all experiences. It makes prosperity safe and adversity salutary. It puts for him a rainbow in every cloud, opens a fountain in every wilderness, and gives a song for every night. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 30, 31. Paul dwelt two whole years in his…
30, 31. Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house. His expense was met during this period by the church in Rome and elsewhere. See Phil. 4:18, where the Philippian contributions are acknowledged. Here he was permitted to see and preach freely to all who came unto him. Here he wrote four of his epistles; the letters to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and the short letter to Philemon. Here, from notices in these epistles, we know that Luke, Timothy, Epaphros, Mark, Aristarchus and Tychius were with him at least part of the time. Nor is there doubt but these two years produced great results in Rome. It was at a later period, when Nero fell under the influence of the cruel Tigellinus, that he became a persecutor, and Paul had at this time full liberty. A few years after, at the time of the Neronian persecutor, the church embraced vast numbers in the city of Rome. The Roman historian, Tacitus says: “An immense multitude” were converted and put to death.
Acts comes to an end with these two years, and was almost certainly completed during this time. Why it paused here is unknown. We cannot repress a regret that it was not continued to the end of the career of its great missionary hero. His subsequent life and work can only be learned from incidental allusions in his later epistles and from tradition. The testimony of the primitive church affirms that he was acquitted when his appeal, after long delay, came to trial, probably in a.d. 63; that for several years he labored earnestly in other lands, visiting the old scene of his labors in Asia Minor once more. Prior to this visit he is supposed to have gone west to Spain, and crossed from thence into North Africa, then one of the most flourishing parts of the empire. Somewhere about a.d. 65–67 he visited once more the Greek and Asiatic churches he had founded, and from Macedonia wrote the First Epistle to Timothy, then at Ephesus, and also to Titus at Crete. The incidental allusions in these epistles confirm the view that he had been acquitted, and was at work for Christ. At Nicopolis, in Epirus, he was again arrested and taken to Rome. See Tit. 3:12. While in prison awaiting trial, he wrote Second Timothy, his last words, solemn with the shadow of death. From hence he was sent to the scaffold by Nero in a.d. 67 or 68, and entered his eternal rest. While we cannot be certain of the facts of this Post-Actian outline, they are so probable that they may be reasonably accepted as the outline of the last years of the greatest hero of the faith that ever fought the good fight and won the crown.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 30, 31. So during Paul’s ministry of two years…
30, 31. So during Paul’s ministry of two years in his hired house, he was constantly “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus,” with all authority, no one hindering him. During this gospel dispensation, the church, i. e., the ecclesia, is to prevail throughout all nations, this word meaning “the called out.” Hence the great work of the gospel age is to call the people out of this wicked, ruined world and separate them unto God, thus getting them ready for the return of our glorious King who now sits upon the mediatorial throne at the right hand of the Father. “The age to come” (Heb 6:5) will not be the church period, but the Kingdom, Satan having been cast out (Revelation 20), and the world redeemed and dominated by the King of Glory, so the people will no longer have to come out of the world to be in harmony with God, as the world will have been gloriously delivered from Satan’s kingdom and
“King Jesus shall have dominion over river, sea and shore; Far as the eagle’s pinion or dove’s light wing can soar.”
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain
Acts
THE THEME OF ACTS
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THE LAST GLIMPSE OF PAUL
PAUL IN ROME
Act 28:30 - Act 28:31.
So ends this book. It stops rather than ends. Many reasons might be suggested for closing here. Probably the simplest is the best, that nothing more is said for nothing more had yet been done. Probably the book was written during these two years. This abrupt close suggests several noteworthy thoughts.
I. The true theme of the book.
How convenient if Luke had told us a little more! But Paul’s history is unfinished, like Peter’s and John’s. This book’s treatment of all the Apostles teaches, as we have often had to remark, that Christ and His acts are its true subject.
We are wise if we learn the lesson of keeping all human teachers, even a Paul, in their inferior place, and if we say of each of them: ‘He was not the Light, but came that he might bear witness of the Light.’
II. God’s unexpected and unwelcome ways of fulfilling our desires, and His purposes.
It had long been Paul’s dream to ‘see Rome.’ How little he knew the steps by which his dream was to be fulfilled! He told the Ephesian elders that he was going up to Jerusalem under compulsion of the Spirit, and ‘not knowing the things that should befall him there,’ except that he was certain of ‘bonds and imprisonment.’ He did not know that these were God’s way of bringing him to Rome. Jewish fury, Roman statecraft and law-abidingness, two years of a prison, a stormy voyage, a shipwreck, led him to his long-wished-for goal. God uses even man’s malice and opposition to the Gospel to advance the progress of the Gospel. Men, like coral insects, build their little bit, all unaware of the whole of which it is a part, but the reef rises above the waves and ocean breaks against it in vain.
So we may gather lessons of submission, of patient acceptance of apparently adverse circumstances, and of quiet faith that He who ‘makes stormy winds to fulfil His word and flaming fires His ministers,’ will bend to the carrying out of His designs all things, be they seemingly friendly or hostile, and will realise our dreams, if in accordance with His will, even through events which seem to shatter them. Let us trust and be patient till we see the issues of events.
III. The world’s mistaken estimate of greatness.
Who was the greatest man in Rome at that hour? Not the Caesar but the poor Jewish prisoner. How astonished both would have been if they had been told the truth! The two kingdoms were, so to speak, set face to face in these two, their representatives, and neither of them knew his own relative importance. The Caesar was all unaware that, for all his legions and his power, he was but ‘a noise’; Paul was as unconscious that he was incomparably the most powerful of the influences that were then at work in the world. The haughty and stolid eyes of Romans saw in him nothing but a prisoner, sent up from a turbulent subject land on some obscure charge, a mere nobody. The crowds in forum and amphitheatre would have laughed at any one who had pointed to that humble ‘hired house,’ and said, ‘There lodges a man who bears a word that will shatter and remould the city, the Empire, the world.’
Let us have confidence in the greatness of the word, though the world may be deaf to its music and blind to its power, and let us never fear to ally ourselves with a cause which we know to be God’s, however it may be unpopular and made light of by the ‘leaders of opinion.’
IV. The true relation between the Church and the State.
‘None forbidding him’ marks a great step forward. Paul’s unhindered freedom of speech in Rome itself marks ‘the victory of the word, the apex of the Gospel.’ The neutral attitude of the imperial power was, indeed, broken by subsequent persecutions, but we may say that on the whole Rome let Christianity alone. That is the best service that the State can render to the Church. Anything more is help which encumbers and is harmful to the true spiritual power of the Gospel. The real requirement which it makes on the civil power is simply what the Greek philosopher asked of the king who was proffering his good offices, ‘Stand out of the sunshine!’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain 30, 31. The narrative is now brought abruptly to…
30, 31. The narrative is now brought abruptly to a close, by the following statement: (30) " Now Paul remained in his own hired house two whole years, and received all who came in to him, (31) preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all freedom of speech, no one forbidding. " Here, again, Luke observes the distinction between preaching and teaching. Originating in the apostolic commission, which was the starting point of Acts, it has been preserved throughout the narrative, and now appears at its close.
The liberty granted Paul, of living in a rented house with the soldier who guarded him, enabled him to pursue these labors to the utmost advantage possible for one in military confinement. The brethren needed no invitation to visit him and hear his teaching; while their influence, actively exerted, was sufficient to bring in a large number of persons to hear his preaching.
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The results of these efforts Luke does not see fit to enumerate; nor does he gratify the natural curiosity of the reader by continuing to its final close the biography of Paul. He leaves him at the end of two years' imprisonment, without even informing us whether he was then released. True, the remark that he "remained in his own hired house two whole years, and received those who came to him," seems to imply a change after that time; but it might have been a change to closer confinement, so far as is indicated by this remark.
It is probable that the narrative was brought to a close here, partly because the composition of it was concluded just at this time. The two years of comparative inactivity which Luke enjoyed while a companion of the prisoner Paul afforded a good opportunity for writing it, and it is quite certain that the last paragraph was not written till the close of this period.
But, independent of this consideration, the leading purpose of the narrative itself rendered this a most fitting point at which to bring it to a close. Having started out to show the manner in which the apostles and evangelism executed their commission, he had now led his readers from Jerusalem through Judea, Samaria, the provinces of Asia Minor, the islands of the Mediterranean, Macedonia, and Achaia, to the imperial city of Rome; and leaving the principal laborer here, still engaged in "preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ," his purpose is accomplished, and the narrative closes.
A commentary on Acts, strictly confined to the subject-matter of the text, would here be brought to a close. But as it has been a part of our purpose to give somewhat more fullness to the biography of Paul, by introducing information derived from other inspired sources, we have yet a few paragraphs to pen. Fortunately, the intense curiosity awakened by the closing chapters in reference to the further career of the apostle may, in some degree, be gratified. This curiosity directs itself chiefly to two questions suggested by the later portion of the history: first, what were the results to the cause of his long-wished-for visit to Rome? second, what was the result of his appeal to Cæsar?
In reference to the first question, we have already remarked, that his entrance into Rome was far different from what he had fondly hoped, and he could not reasonably expect to accomplish much while confined with a chain, and resting under the suspicion of being deservedly in confinement. But we have already seen that he continued to preach and teach for two years, and we learn something of the extent and success of his labors from epistles which he wrote during this period. Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon were the earliest of these epistles, being written at one time, and forwarded, the former two by Tychicus, and the last by Onesimus, the two messengers traveling together. In the two former there are indications of great anxiety in reference to the success of his efforts, and intimations of serious obstacles in the way. He exhorts the brethren to pray for him, that a door of utterance might be opened to him, and that he might have boldness to speak the gospel as it ought to be spoken. This request shows that there were some obstructions to the proclamation of the truth, and that they were such as were calculated to check the boldness of his utterance.
Notwithstanding these obstructions, the last of the three letters above named reveals some success which had already rewarded his labors. Out of the very dregs of the dissolute and corrupt society of the metropolis, a Greek slave, who had run away from his master, a convert of Paul's in Asia Minor, had, by some means, been induced to visit the apostle and hear the gospel. It proved the power of God to free him from a bondage far worse than that from which he had fled. After he became a disciple, Paul found him profitable to him for the ministry; being of service, no doubt, in bringing within the sound of the gospel many of his former companions. For this reason he had a strong desire to retain him as an assistant; but having no right to do so without the consent of Philemon, his master, and being unwilling to enjoin by authority upon the latter the obvious duty of liberating a slave capable of so great usefulness, he sent him home to his master, with an epistle, in which he delicately intimates his wishes in the premises, but leaves the whole subject to his own sense of propriety. Sending him home without the means to recompense his master for any thing of which he had defrauded him, Paul promises to pay the sum, if any, out of his own purse. Thus his preaching had begun to take effect upon the most hopeless class of the city population, at a time when he was urging distant congregations to pray that God would open to him a door of utterance.
But, eventually, in answer to these prayers, a door of utterance was thrown open far wider than he had reason to expect. In the Epistle to the Philippians, written at a later period, when he was expecting his trial and release, he says: "I wish you to understand, brethren, that the things which have happened to me have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are made manifest in all the palace, and in all other places, and many brethren in the Lord, growing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." From his prison, the Lord had opened a door of utterance into the imperial palace itself; so that Paul the prisoner had an audience whose ears would have been wholly inaccessible to Paul the unfettered apostle. His discourse before the emperor, if we may judge by that before Agrippa, must have awakened new thoughts and emotions in the Roman court; and what awakened new interest there could not be long in spreading to "all other places." The Lord had led him by a strange method to Rome, and surrounded him with many discouragements; but his purpose was now unfolded, and Paul saw in the result, as it affected both the disciples and the community at large, a wisdom which before had been inscrutable. He had now demonstrated what he had once written to the Romans, that he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and was ready to preach it even in Rome; for he had preached it to both the proudest and the poorest of the population, and that with a chain upon his arm.
No two years of Paul's life were better filled with earnest labor than these two spent in his Roman prison. Besides the oral efforts just referred to, and the epistles to Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians, he is supposed, also, near the close of this period, to have written Hebrews, the most profound, next to Romans, of all his productions. He was not alone in his toil and danger, but was constantly surrounded by some of those noble brethren who were so ardently attached to his person. Timothy joins with him in the opening salutations of Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians. Aristarchus and Epaphras were his fellow-prisoners; Mark, who once forsook him and Barnabas, and went not with them to the work, was now with him; Demas, who afterward forsook him, "having loved the present world," was as yet by his side; and Luke, the beloved physician, who shared the perils of his voyage from Cæsarea, continued to relieve the dreariness of his imprisonment, and indited the last paragraph of Acts, as we conjecture, just as the two years expired.
The question as to the result of Paul's appeal to Cæsar is not settled by direct scriptural evidence, yet it is determined, to the satisfaction of nearly all the commentators, that he was released at the end of the two years mentioned by Luke. The evidence on which this conclusion is based consists partly in the unanimous testimony of the earliest Christian writers after the apostles, and partly in the difficulty of fixing a date for the epistles to Timothy and Titus without this supposition. There are events mentioned in these epistles, for which no place can be found in the preceding history; such as his leaving Timothy in Ephesus, to counteract the influence of false teachers, while he went into Macedonia; his leaving Titus in Crete, to set in order the things that were wanting there, and to ordain elders; his visit to Miletus, when he left Trophimus there sick; and to Nicopolis, where he spent the winter. The argument drawn from both these sources is very fully and satisfactorily stated by Mr. Howson, to whom the more inquisitive reader is referred.
On the supposition of his release, the subsequent known facts are best arranged as follows: He first fulfilled the purpose so confidently expressed of the Philippians of visiting them again; and next took advantage of the lodging which he had directed Philemon to prepare for him at Colosse. While in Asia, he would scarcely pass by the city of Ephesus; but it is after a short visit to Spain, that we locate that visit, at the conclusion of which he left Timothy there and went into Macedonia. It was contrary to the expectation once entertained by Paul, that he was once more greeted by the brethren in Ephesus; for he had bidden them farewell four years ago with the conviction that they would see his face no more. Leaving Timothy in Ephesus, and going to Macedonia, he wrote back to him the First Epistle to Timothy, in which he expressed a hope of rejoining him soon at Ephesus. This he most likely did, as he soon after visited Crete, in company with Titus; and the most usual route from Macedonia to this island was by way of Ephesus. Having made a short visit in Crete, he left Titus there, to "set in order the things which were wanting, and ordain elders in every city." Shortly after leaving the island, he wrote the Epistle to Titus. He was then on his way to Nicopolis, a city of Epirus, where he expected to spend the winter. On the way he had passed through Miletus, where he left Trophimus sick; and Corinth, where he left Erastus. Whether he spent the whole winter in Nicopolis, or was imprisoned again before spring, is not certainly known; but the next that we know of him, he was a prisoner in Rome the second time, as is indicated in his Second Epistle to Timothy. From this epistle we learn several interesting particulars of his imprisonment, and of the beginning of his final trial. His situation was more alarming, and he was attended by fewer friends than before. Demas forsook him, through the love of this world, and went to Thessalonica; Crescens, for some reason unexplained, went to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Tychicus he had sent to Ephesus. Luke, alone, of all his former fellow-laborers, was with him, though he was expecting Timothy to soon rejoin him, and bring Mark with him.
At the time of writing, he had passed through the first stages of his trial, and was awaiting the second. The want of human sympathy which he had felt in his prison was realized still more intensely during his trial. He says: "At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge." Even Luke, who dared to visit him in his prison, and remain with him when others fled, shrunk from the fearful position of standing by his side in the presence of Nero. But the venerable man of God, though deserted in his most trying hour by human friends, was able to say, "Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." Thus again had he fearlessly and fully vindicated his preaching in the presence of the imperial court, and passed, a second time, through the fiery ordeal, without personal injury. The declaration that he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion is an allusion to the case of Daniel, of which his own reminded him.
But there was another stage of his trial yet before him, and from this he had reason to anticipate the most fatal results. From all the indications in view, he was induced to write to Timothy, "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." He had some years before declared, "I hold not my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the favor of God." Now, he was about to yield up his life, and upon looking back over the course he had run, and the ministry with which he had been entrusted, the conditions specified were completely fulfilled. With all confidence he is able to say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." All who have followed his course with us in these pages can bear testimony to this declaration, and, after glancing back with him over the long series of stripes, imprisonment, and exhausting toil through which he had passed, can enter into the feeling of relief and joy with which he looked forward and exclaimed, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me at that day; and not to me only, but to all them also who love his appearing." Like a mariner on a long voyage, whose bark had been tossed by many waves, and shrouded in the gloom of many a storm, his soul was cheered, at last, by a view of the desired haven close at hand. He is still, however, beaten by the storm, and one more dark billow is yet to roll over him, ere he rests upon the calm waters within the haven. Here the curtain of inspired history closes over him, and the last sound we hear is his own shout of triumph as he braces himself for the last struggle. It only remains for the earliest uninspired history of the Church to confirm his own anticipations, by testifying that his trial finally resulted in a sentence of death, and that he was beheaded outside the gates of Rome, in the last year of the reign of Nero, a.d. 68. We bid him adieu till the resurrection morning, well pleased that the course of the narrative on which we have commented has been so directed as to keep us for so long a time in his company. [297]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain his own hired house
his own hired house
It has been much disputed whether Paul endured two Roman imprisonments, from A.D. 62 to 68 or one. The tradition from Clement to Eusebius favours two imprisonments with a year of liberty between. Erdman (W.J.) has pointed out the leaving of Trophimus sick at Miletus, mentioned in 2Ti 4:20 could not have been an occurrence of Paul’s last journey to Jerusalem, for then Trophimus was not left; Act 20:4; Act 21:29 nor of the journey to Rome to appear before Caesar, for then he did not touch at Miletus. To make this incident possible there must have been a release from the first imprisonment, and an interval of ministry and travel.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Two years at Rome:
Two years at Rome:
v. 30. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,
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v. 31. preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him.
Paul may, at this time, have been able to purchase many conveniences for himself, or the liberality of the various congregations made it possible; at any rate, he was able to rent and live in his own lodgings for two whole years, this probably being the length of time required for his case to come up to trial and be disposed of. And he certainly was not hard to find or difficult to get to, for he received all that came to him; no matter from what congregation the brethren came, they were always welcome. He was still in custody, Php 1:13-17, but it certainly was of the very lightest kind. And just at this time God opened a door for His Word. For Paul spent his entire time in proclaiming the kingdom of God, not only by spoken words, but also in letters, for we have from this time of his life the epistles to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, to the Philippians, and to Philemon. In inviting men to become members of the kingdom of God, of the wonderful communion of saints, Paul always taught and repeated without rest or weariness the message concerning the Lord Jesus. With all confidence, with all open cheerfulness he preached; his sermons and private discussions were all redolent with the oil of the same bold joy with which the Lord had anointed him. And by the mercy of God he could do this unmolested, without hindrance. This must have been a great comfort to him and greatly increased his willingness and the enjoyment of his work for the Lord. The entire story shows how the Gospel of Christ gains its victories. For the same Gospel which Paul proclaimed in the capital of the world has since taken its course through the countries and is preached among the Gentiles to this day. The Church, which is established upon Jesus, the Rock of Ages, is standing today, and will stand to the end of time, and the portals of hell will not prevail against it.
Summary.The journey from Melita to Rome is completed without mishap, and Paul takes the opportunity in the capital to speak to the Jews and afterward, to many others, preaching to them the kingdom of God and their Savior Jesus Christ.
A Summary of the Latter Part of Paul’s Life
Giving a fairly exact chronological summary of the last part of Paul’s life is attended with some difficulties, as the many varying lists, especially those given by Meyer, indicate. Even the most careful study cannot claim absolute exactness, mainly because the Biblical account permits of so wide a latitude. The list here offered is therefore intended merely as an aid in orientation and may, in this respect, claim as much historical accuracy as any other list.
Conversion of Paul. 32 or 33 A. D.
First visit to Jerusalem after conversion. 35 or 36 A. D. Gal 1:18.
Beginning of first missionary journey. 46 A. D.
"Return to Antioch. About August, 48 A. D.
Second trip to Jerusalem and resolutions concerning Judaistic teaching. 49 A. D. Gal 2:1.
Beginning of second missionary journey;
Syria and Cilicia. Autumn, 49 A. D.
Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch. Winter, 49-50 A. D.
Troas, Philippi. Spring, 50 A. D.
Thessalonica and Berea. Summer, 50 A. D.
Athens and Corinth. Early autumn, 50 A. D.
Rising of Jews. —Gallic. Late summer, 51 A. D.
Jerusalem and Antioch. Spring and early summer, 52 A. D.
Beginning of third journey. Syria, Cilicia, Galatia. 52-53 A. D.
In Ephesus. Summer, 53 A. D. to June, 56 A. D.
Macedonia and Illyricum. Summer and autumn, 56 A. D.
In Corinth. End of 57 A. D. and beginning of 58 A. D.
Jerusalem. Pentecost, 58 A. D.
Prisoner at Caesarea. June, 58 A. D. to June, 60 A. D.
Voyage to Rome. August, 60 A. D. to February or March, 61 A. D.
Prisoner in Rome. Spring, 61 A. D. to spring, 63 A. D.
Later journeys. 63-66 A. D. Second arrest. 66 A. D. or 67 A. D. Execution. 67 A. D. or 68 A. D
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Luke ends the story of Paul in the book of Acts. (See: End of Story)
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He was proclaiming the kingdom of God
Here "kingdom of God" refers to God's rule as king. AT: "He was preaching about God's rule as king" or "He was preaching about how God will show himself as king" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Paul
preach
kingdom of God
lord
Jesus
bold
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.