After despatching the Epistle to the Romans, Paul made his way to Jerusalem, where he was attacked in the Temple area, dragged outside by a Jewish mob, and would have been killed if Roman troops had not rescued him. Had the Jews succeeded in their attempt, the Epistle to the Romans would have been his last. Fortunately he was spared to write a number of other letters, seven of which have been preserved.
Paul reached Jerusalem in the first half of the year; soon afterwards he was taken as a prisoner to Caesarea where he remained for two years, until he appealed to be tried before Caesar. At the end of that time he was sent to Rome on the memorable journey described in the twenty-seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Two years more were spent in Rome, awaiting his trial, but it was a somewhat easy captivity, as he was permitted to dwell in his own hired house, chained to a Roman soldier, and was allowed to receive his friends and other visitors. Thus he was in communication with the outside world, and could keep in touch with the developments that were taking place in the various churches in which he was interested.
In ordinary circumstances the loss of four years (two in Caesarea and two in Rome) would be a matter of regret; in the case of Paul, regret is modified, in a way, by other considerations. Since his departure from Antioch, ten years before his arrest, Paul had passed his life in incessant activity travelling, preaching, founding and ordering churches, and writing a number of letters—certainly more than have been preserved. During that period he had little time for thought, excepting such thinking as had been involved by the various troubles with which he was called upon to deal; his life had been too hectic. Now in the comparative solitude of imprisonment he had time to think, to review his work, to see whether he had been led by his ideas and his experiences. He heard from those who visited him something of what was happening in the growing Christian world. The effect of his thoughts upon him are to be found in the letters he wrote from Rome, four of which are included in our Bibles, Consequently though all must sympathise with him in his enforced inactivity, we may well be glad of those quiet years when he was able to think deeply of the present and future.
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Author: W. H. Boulton
Keywords: Paul in prison, Paul's epistles, Paul's letters, Paul in chains, prisoner in chains, prisoner, prisoner of the Lord, Imprisonment, inprisonment epistles, imprisonment letters, bonds, Paul in bonds, Paul arrested, prison epistles, prison letters
Bible reference(s): Act 28:16, Act 28:20, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3:1, Ephesians 4:1, Philippians 1, Colossians 1:1-2, Philemon 1, Ephesians 6:20, Colossians 4:3, Colossians 4:18, 2 Timothy 2:9
Source: “The Call,” The Testimony, Vol. 20 No. 235, July 1950, pp. 283-6.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.