The Voyage to Rome

The Voyage to Rome

In the chronological scheme of things Paul has now been a prisoner for some two and one-half years; it is the fall of 59 or 60 A.D. The hour is fast arriving when his long-deferred ambition to seeRome and preach the Gospel there is to be realized. Shortly, now, the Lord’s promise that he should also “bear His testimony into” that world capital is to be fulfilled, but how entirely differently from the manner in which he may have dreamed it was to come to pass. Yet, because he himself so often admitted that he was “the prisoner of the Lord”, he seems perfectly content to be literally “the Lord’s prisoner” and, secondarily, the prisoner of Rome as well.

One of the chief points to notice concerning the voyage of Paul to Rome is that the voyage is dominated completely by the superintending presence and intervention of God. When Paul actually embarked upon the voyage to Rome he was permitted the presence of Luke and Aristarchus of Thessalonica as attending friends. Some time later, when he wrote the book of Colossians, Paul states that in Rome Aristarchus had become his “fellow-prisoner”, having undoubtedly been arrested shortly after his arrival in Rome (Colossians 4:10)

As the ship makes ready to sail Paul is turned over into the hands of a “centurion named Julius, of the Augustan band” and is subsequently placed with “certain other prisoners”. The powers that be had decided to send these prisoners on an Adramyttian ship seeing that none were at the moment sailing directly to Rome. The first stop on the journey was made at Sidon and the courteous Julius was inclined to “treat Paul kindly”, permitting him the liberty of going ashore and refreshing himself with a visit to friends.

Resuming the journey, avoiding the already “contrary” winds, the ship sailed “under the lee of Cyprus”, which had been the first mission field of Barnabas and Paul, and then made its way slowly along the coast of Cilicia where the homeland hills of Paul’s boyhood looked down upon him, arousing a thousand-and-one memories, and thence on by Pamphylia, behind whose mountains lay the cities of Antioch, Lystra, Iconium and Derbe; cities whose streets had been eternally marked with the footprints of the greatest of all missionaries. It takes little imagination to conjecture that Paul must have been fervently praying for his converts here as he passed almost within sight of them.

Luke records that it was not the best time of the year to embark on a sailing venture to Rome; the journey was antagonizing and slow. When they had “barely” made it along the island of Knidus, still hugging the coastline for safety from the terrible storms that often times marked the season of the year, they were “not suffered” by the wind to reach it, so they turned south to Crete, fortunately getting under the protection of its East coast by Salmone, and, then with extreme difficulty. Making it past its promontory finally came to a place called “Fair Havens Harbor”. Here the captain of the ship determined to delay the journey until such time as there should be better weather for sailing.

Both the crew and the passengers were fully aware that it was now dangerous and unsafe at sea; the Equinox was now on and Paul made the sensible suggestion that they winter at Fair Havens. To back up his argument Paul states the he visions the present voyage, if continued at this time, to be attended with violent injury and great loss of cargo; both lives and ship. But the centurion thought it better to abide by the decision of the captain of the ship; so it was determined to attempt to make their journey to the more commodious harbor at a place called Phoenix which was a further distance west, intending to winter there. About this same time a gentle but steady south wind arose and, thinking that the time had now come to realize their plan to winter at Phoenix, the ship weighed anchor and, hugging the shoreline, moved towards its objective (Acts 27:1-13)

Within a very short time after the ship had moved out of the Fair Havens harbor “a typhoon wind”, called Euroclydon (Euraquilo), came rushing down upon the hapless ship from the island, “snatched a hold of the ship” and the ship was driven helplessly before the roaring wind. Immediately all the precautionary steps were taken for the safety of the ship, which were known to the mariners of that day, even to the throwing overboard of the heavy load of cargo. As the storm rose in its fury and the danger to the ship increased measurably, even the “tackling” (literally “furniture”) of the ship was cast overboard.

Eventually, as Acts 27:20 narrates, because “no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was now taken away”. In this state of affairs the ship, with its fearful and frightened passengers, was driven before the wind for fourteen consecutive days. On the end of the fourteenth day Paul stands forth in the midst of the weary and bedraggled crew and passengers with the report that he had received the visit of an angel, as the result of his long abstinence and prayer, who had given him the assurance that he was to stand before Caesar and the his God was pleased to give into his hands the deliverance of all the lives of all those who were on board the ship. The angel had reported that only the ship was to be lost.

Soon after Paul had delivered his welcome message land is sighted and all on board, having been strengthened by their first proper meal in many days, prepared to abandon ship. A few of the cowardly sailors made the attempt to leave the boat and leave the passengers to the mercy of the sea, but Paul thwarted their plan by warning the centurion that unless all stayed on board until the proper moment to abandon the ship they would be lost. At the command of the centurion, who had his soldiers cut off the ropes, the ship’s sailors were unable to carry out their plan.

The striking significance of this whole story is that Paul, whose knowledge of the ways of the sea and of sailing ships could not have been too great, became the real commander of the entire party of soldiers, crew, passengers, captain and owner, and the centurion. Indeed Paul, under the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit always had a way of grasping command of every group of which he became a party. This was God’s way with him, making his character and calmness count for victory and prestige.

A momentary difficulty arose when, just before abandoning ship, the soldiers feeling their responsibility for the prisoners aboard, suggest to the centurion that they kill the prisoners, but because the centurion was anxious “to be sure to save Paul” he refused to yield to the inhuman suggestion and forthwith gave the command that all should seek to save themselves. It was agreed that all those who could swim were to leave the ship first; then those who could not swim were to get ashore on planks or whatever other type of floating debris they could locate and cling to. Luke recorded that “and thus it came to pass that all were completely saved on land (Acts 27:14-44)

When the safety of all on board had been accomplished they began to explore the sea coast area upon which they had been cast and discovered that they had reached the island of Malta; beyond question the modern Malta. Luke, in accordance with the Greek custom of speaking of all other nationals as barbarians, not in contempt especially, but as the result of their use of the unintelligible sound of an unknown tongue uses the term “barbarian” to describe these islanders who were apparently of Phoenician origin. Notwithstanding, he pays them the high compliment, testifying “they furnished not the usual philanthropy to us”. In other words, they gave special and careful attention to the wants of the stranded voyagers. Immediately that they discovered the plight of the victims of the wrecked ship they lit a fire as part of their reception, remembering that it was still raining and cold and all the stranded crew and passengers were soaking wet from their passage through the surf.

Paul, despite his age and weariness, also had a hand in the work of building a warming fire; and so “got together some multitude of sticks”. Unfortunately, however, when he placed them on the fire a poisonous viper of some type, possibly having hibernated there for the winter; in some warm, snug hole, became warmed up by the fire and came out and fastened onto the hand of Paul. The “superstitious barbarians”, reports Luke, having already noticed that Paul was one of the prisoners, quickly concluded that there would be “no doubt” that he was a murderer whom “justice”, or an avenging goddess, had pursued in spite of his momentary escape from the sea and, therefore, had been smitten with this serpent. But, to their utter surprise, Paul shook the offending serpent off, showing no apparent injury or concern. When Paul did not drop dead in a matter of a few minutes the islanders suddenly decided him to be the opposite of a murderer; a divine being of some sort.

After the temporary arrangements for the comfort of the shipwreck victims, Luke states that one of the islanders by the name of Publius “received us”; however many is represented in this statement is not known. This group sojourned in his house for the period of three days and Paul repaid his courtesy by healing his father of fever and dysentery, being sure to give God the credit for the miracle. This miracle of healing brought on a series of healings in the island community, other sick folk of the island coming to Paul for this special purpose. It gave Paul an exceptional opportunity to preach his Gospel; and, in turn, the people expressed gratitude by bestowing upon him “many honors” and especially by providing “such things as they had need of” when the hour approached for again launching out on the journey to Rome (Acts 28:1-10)

After three months had passed; the most severs part of the winter, three months of ministry on the island of Malta, passage was again secured on another grain ship, this time of Alexandria, which had taken refuge in Malta for the winter. As an aside Luke tells us that the ship had the sign on the prow, in painted figures, of “the twin brothers” Castor and Pollus; the well-known constellation personalized in the Latin list of gods, and especially the gods of sailors.

Taking up their journey, the missionary party and the others stopped for three days at Syracuse, Sicily; one day at Rhegium, on the toe of Italy; then they came to Puteoli, on the bay of Naples, where they landed to make the remainder of the journey by land. While at Puteoli Paul and his companions were fortunate in finding Christians brethren and the kindness of Julius allowed them to yield to the entreaty of these brethren to remain seven days. It has been concluded that Julius probably left a soldier with Paul while he went on with the other prisoners in his charge.

Finally, Luke writes, “and thus we came to Rome”. As they entered into the city limits of the capital of the Roman Empire, it marked the consummation of a long and arduous journey and, in a sense, the disappointing fulfillment of a long-cherished hope and plan for Paul. Nonetheless God had been with him and blessed him all along the way, the Lord from time to time reminding him to “fear not, Myplan is fulfilling”. Therefore, even though the entrance into Rome might have been far different then Paul had envisioned, it was best to have come with God and not, as so many others have done, gone before Him.

By some means the brethren at Rome had heard the report of Paul’s coming with his company and something of his plans. Some suggest that Julius may have carried Paul’s message to these brethren. The distance from Puteoli to Rome is approximately one hundred and twenty-five miles. While Paul and his company made their weary way on this journey one company of the Roman Christians met the party at the “Apian Forum”, which is forty miles out from Rome; another met the group at a place called “Three Taverns”, which was thirty miles out. This demonstration of love, confidence, and generous sympathy stirred Paul deeply, causing him to thank God and take courage (Acts 28:11-15)

Arriving at Rome, Paul discovered that the arrangements were about as favorable as any could be for a prisoner. Acts 28:16 especially designates that Paul was permitted to abide “to himself”, and not with the other prisoners in the common prison, guarded by a soldier who lived with him. Since Paul, as is later revealed in Acts 28:30, was permitted the privilege of “private hired” lodgings, with entire freedom to receive all those who cared to visit with him, it may well be that he was even trusted to the extent that he was not continually chained to his guard; the ordinary circumstances would have demanded this.

One of the first things that Paul did on arriving at Rome was to call for a conference with the Roman Jews. This program was initiated “after three days”; he called the most prominent Jews; “those being first” for this conference. The purpose of this conference was for him to explain to them the why and wherefores of his arrest and imprisonment; that there was actually nothing done by him that was worthy of death or imprisonment. The unexpected reply of the Roman Jews, in the light of the temperament of the Jerusalem Jews, was a significant “we neither received letters from Judea concerning thee, nor did any of the brethren come hither and report or speak any harm of thee; but we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest for as concerning this sect, it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against”.

There is little reason to doubt that the Roman Jews were not truthful when they reported that no written message concerning Paul had come up from Judea, or that any of the Jews who had come officially had announced publicly or privately anything concerning him that was bad. It must be remembered that it had not been a good winter for traveling; the Sanhedrin could hardly have expected to find it worth the trouble and expense to accuse Paul at Rome when every effort had been exhausted in their own province where all the advantage admittedly lay with them and where they had heard a military officer, two Roman governors, and a Jewish-Roman king pronounce Paul guiltless. The truth is that they most likely never bothered to prosecute the case at Rome. Paul’s two long years of imprisonment were, therefore, probably partly due to waiting for the Jews to be represented and partly due to the rising Roman antagonism to the growing Christianity.

In any event, these Roman Jews “thought it worthwhile” to hear what Paul had to say about this sect that was so much spoken against. So these Jewish leaders set a day upon which to hear Paul; and. When the day arrived, the Roman Jews came in great numbers, listening to him for a full day; “from early morning till Vespers”. As a result Paul had sufficient time “to set out for them with full testimony the kingdom of their God”. In doing so he drew upon the rich fields of the Law of Moses and the Prophets; whom he used in his endeavor to persuade them that Jesus was the hope of Israel and the Savior of all mankind (Acts 28:23)

As the meeting drew to a close some of these Jews were convinced of Paul’s teaching but others refused to believe. Just as this group of Roman Jews was preparing to leave the meeting Paul issued one last warning, quoting from the sixth chapter of Isaiah. Paraphrasing this warning into more modern language, his warning appears to have taken this vein that a time came when God’s message, often rejected, became a hardening judgment against unbelievers rather than a calling invitation to redemption. Eyes that refuse to see His glory are at last blinded by the flashing brightness of that glory; ears that have been dulled because of continued refusal to hear His pleading voice are at last destroyed by the thunder of the bursting judgment of that voice; hearts that have grown gross in its denial of the entrance of God’s love are at last burned everlastingly in the consuming fire of that rejected love.

Then, as a sort of thundering crescendo, Paul adds the warning “be it known therefore unto you, that this salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles they will also hear” (Acts 28:25-29)

On the note of this warning the book of Acts, and the New Testament story of the life and work of the Apostle Paul, draws to a close, making only the additional note that Paul “dwelt two whole years in his own hired dwelling and received all that went in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, none forbidding him” (Acts 28:30-31)

Unfortunately, after this statement, there are no positive and certain particulars about the remainder of Paul’s life. It is generally conceded that it does not appear that he was tried during this imprisonment which is recorded in Acts 28; that he was released about 65 A.D. from this imprisonment. If so, it is likely that he made another missionary tour through Greece and Asia Minor; even there is the possibility of a tour through Spain. Some have even gone so far as to attempt to prove that he got as far as the island of Great Britain, but though this is not to be considered impossible, the evidence is extremely unsatisfactory and, at best, manifestly fragmentary.

At the outside the post-prison missionary tour could not have been for a great length of time, for it is based on fairly reliable information that he was carried another time as a prisoner to Rome shortly after his release in 65 A.D., this time not being accorded the kind of treatment and consideration given in the first imprisonment. On the occasion of this second imprisonment he was treated as an ordinary felon (First Timothy 2:9) The outcome of this second imprisonment, tradition assures us, was his being beheaded in A.D. 67 or 68, during the terrible persecutions which were instigated by Nero. Paul would have been, at that time, somewhere between the ages of sixty-three and sixty-seven.

In closing it might be stated that an event transpired immediately following Paul’s release from his first imprisonment which could do nothing less than eventually influence his fate. This tragic incident was the heinous burning of Rome, now known to have been deliberately set by the wicked Nero. It was an appalling disaster, the glare of which has not even died down at the distance of twenty centuries, making even modern hears, saturated in the ways of modern warfare, to shudder. As stated, it was a mad freak of the malicious monster who then wore the imperial purple. But the crafty Nero appropriated the opportunity to attribute the awful deed to the Christians, with the result that instantly there broke out against the Christians a most atrocious persecution.

It is natural that the “fame” of this event, which was attributed to the Christians, would have soon spread over the entire Roman world; it was not to be expected that the foremost Apostle of Christianity could long escape the tentacles of such a persecution; what with every Roman governor knowing that he could not do the malicious emperor a more pleasing service than by sending to him Paul in chains.