|
by
Doug Ward |
A television series will often end a season with one or more
of the main characters in serious trouble. Then viewers are forced to wait a few
months, until the beginning of the following season, to find out how the
difficult circumstances will be resolved.
Stories
with "cliffhanger" endings are nothing new. The New Testament book of
Acts, written in the 60s AD, is a well known example. The book ends with the
main character, the apostle Paul, under house arrest in Rome, awaiting a trial
before the Emperor Nero.
It
is not known why Paul's companion Luke, the author of Acts, chose to end the
book without revealing the results of the trial.1
We also do not possess a sequel to the book.2
However, there is strong biblical and historical evidence that Paul was
acquitted at his trial and had an additional "season" of adventures
before his martyrdom. The purpose of the present article is to consider this
evidence.
|
Evidence
from Acts |
Several lines of reasoning support the conclusion that Paul was
acquitted at his trial in Rome. First of all, the case against Paul, as
described in Acts, was not very strong. When Paul was initially tried before
the procurator Felix in Caesarea a few years earlier, three charges had been
made (Acts 24:5-6):
· Paul had been the cause of
riots all over the (Greco-Roman) world.
· Paul was the ringleader of a
dangerous Jewish sect.
· Paul had brought Gentiles
closer to the Jerusalem Temple than was permitted, thereby desecrating the
Temple (Acts 21:28).
Roman courts tended to show little interest in charges like the second one,
figuring that the Jews could best sort out their own sectarian arguments. In
Corinth, the proconsul Gallio had dismissed similar charges against Paul (see
Acts 18:12-16).
The
third charge had been made by some Jews from Asia Minor, who did not bother to
come to Caesarea to make their case (Acts 24:19). There were also no witnesses
in Caesarea to support the first charge. Paul was only kept in custody after
this trial because Felix hoped to receive a bribe from him (Acts 24:26). When
Paul presented his case before Agrippa II two years later, Agrippa observed,
"This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar"
(Acts 26:32, NIV).
After
Paul arrived in Rome, he found that Jewish leaders there were unfamiliar with
this case (Acts 28:17-21). This suggests that no one, as yet, had come from
Jerusalem to present the accusations against Paul. If the case was not
seriously prosecuted, then chances are it would have been dismissed.
|
Evidence
from Epistles and History |
Paul probably wrote his epistles to Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae,
and Philemon while awaiting his trial before Nero. Some of these epistles
contain hints about the eventual outcome of the trial.
In
his letter to Christians in Philippi, Paul indicated that he was prepared for
whatever happened and had come to terms with the possibility that he would be
put to death (Phil 1:19-24; 2:17). At the same time, he was optimistic that he
would be released. In Phil 1:25-26, he wrote, "I know that I will remain,
and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so
that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on
account of me." In Phil 2:24 he added, "And I am confident in the
Lord that I myself will come soon."
In
his letter to Philemon, Paul was confident that he would be able to return to
Asia Minor to see Philemon. "Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope
to be restored to you in answer to your prayers," he wrote in v. 22.
We
can contrast Paul's optimism in Philippians and Philemon with his certainty of
being near death in his second epistle to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 4:6, he wrote
"For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has
come for my departure." These words were probably written during a different,
later imprisonment. One indication of this is given in vv. 16-17:
"At my first defense, no one came to my support, but
everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my
side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully
proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the
lion's mouth."
One
traditional way to interpret these verses is to see the "first
defense" as Paul's 62 AD trial before Nero, and his deliverance from the
"lion's mouth" as his release after that trial. (Scholars today
believe it is more likely that the “first defense”' was a preliminary hearing
before a later second trial. Under
either interpretation, Paul was acquitted at his first trial.)
The
timing of Paul's trial, in about 62 AD, may have worked in his favor. At that
point, the twenty-five year old Nero was still influenced to some extent by his
childhood tutor Seneca. Seneca was the brother of Gallio, who as proconsul in
Corinth had dismissed charges against Paul (Acts 18). If Seneca saw the case as
similar to the one brought before his brother, then he may have advised Nero to
make a similar ruling.
Some
later Christian sources support the case that Paul was acquitted. Clement of
Rome, in his epistle to the Corinthians written in the 90s AD, made the
following statement about Paul in the fifth chapter:
"After preaching both in the east and west, he gained
the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the
whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom
under the prefects."
For
a first century Roman, "the extreme limit of the west" was Spain. Paul
expressed a desire to travel to Spain (Rom 15:24), but he does not seem to have
had the opportunity to do so before 62 AD. Clement's statement supports a
scenario in which Paul was released at a first trial in Rome and then made a
trip to Spain before a second imprisonment.
This
scenario was favored by Eusebius of Caesarea, the fourth century bishop and
historian whose Ecclesiastical History is an invaluable compilation of
early Christian history. In Book 2, chapter 22 of this work, Eusebius wrote:
"Festus was sent by Nero to be Felix's successor. Under
him Paul, having made his defense, was sent bound to Rome. Aristarchus was with
him, whom he also somewhere in his epistles quite naturally calls his
fellow-prisoner. And Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, brought his
history to a close at this point, after stating that Paul spent two whole years
at Rome as a prisoner at large, and preached the word of God without restraint.
Thus after he had made his defense it is said that the apostle was sent again
upon the ministry of preaching, and that upon coming to the same city a second
time he suffered martyrdom."
In
support of his conclusions, Eusebius cites some of the same evidence we have
been considering, including 2 Tim 4:16-17 and the fact that Paul's trial
occurred before the time when Nero became a persecutor of Christians. On this
second point, Eusebius commented, "It is probable indeed that as Nero was
more disposed to mildness in the beginning, Paul's defense of his doctrine was
more easily received; but that when he had advanced to the commission of
lawless deeds of daring, he made the apostles as well as others the subjects of
his attacks."
|
The
Final Episode |
As we have seen, there is strong support for the conclusion that
Paul was released after his initial appearance before Nero. In the language of
television, we might say that the series Adventures of Paul was picked
up for a final season.
Our
sources also indicate that some of the episodes from that final season include
a trip to Spain as well as visits to Philippi in Macedonia and Ephesus and
Colossae in Asia Minor. According to Christian tradition, the final episodes
chronicle another arrest in Rome, this one leading to martyrdom. Eusebius (Ecclesiastical
History 2.25) states: "It is, therefore, recorded that Paul was
beheaded in Rome itself, and that Peter likewise was crucified under Nero. This
account of Peter and Paul is substantiated by the fact that their names are
preserved in the cemeteries of that place even to the present day."
So
ended the Adventures of Paul. However, the message and movement begun by
Paul and the other apostles continue today, reaching to "the ends of the
earth" (Acts 1:8). We can be thankful that God has included us in these
adventures, part of the never-ending story of his great plan of salvation.
1According to one
interesting theory, Luke wrote Acts to present Paul's case for the trial. See,
for example, the book Paul
on Trial: The Book of Acts as a Defense
of Christianity by John W. Mauck (Thomas Nelson, 2001).
2In
the entertaining novel The
Constantine Codex by Paul L. Maier (Tyndale House, 2011), a book of
Second Acts is found in the archives of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Istanbul,
but this of course is fictional.
File
translated from TEX by TTH,
version 3.66.
On 24 May 2012, 19:27.
