trirtl that ensued was a mere tumult, first from the violence of the
A.D. 54-70. ARREST OF ST. PAUL. 343
high-priest Ananias towards Paul, and then from the dissension be-
tween the Pharisees and Sadducees in the council, when Paul cried
out amidst the noise, "I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee : of
the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am called in question."
That, as he afterwards argued before Agrippa, was the one real
charge against him ; for it was still the Sadducees, rather than the
Pharisees, that led the persecution. The scribes of the latter party
plainly said, "We find no fault in this man," and repeated Gama-
liel's warning, "Let us not fight against God" (Acts xxiii. 1-10).
So wild was the dissension, that Lysias had to send down the sol-
diers to carry off the prisoner, before he was torn in pieces by his
judijes ! (Acts xxiii. 1-10).
In the following night, Paul was comforted by another vision of
the Lord Jesus, assuring him that these dangers were leading ta
the end he had himself desired : "As thou hast testified of me in
Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at ROME." The first di-
rect step to this was taken on the discovery of the plot of forty zeal-
ots, who had bound themselves under a curse neither to eat nor
drink till they had killed Paul (see Acts xxiii. 11-22). So Lysias
sent off Paul the following night under a strong escort to Caesarea,
with a letter stating liis case, both as a Roman citizen and as a Jew
"accused of questions of their law," to the procurator Felix, who
postponed the hearing till the accusers should arrive. Paul was
meanwhile kept a prisoner in the government-house, which had been
the palace (Prcetorium) of Herod the Great (Acts xxiii. 23-35).
Five days after Paul's arrival at Caesarea, and just twelve since he
had reached Jerusalem (Acts xxiv. 1,11; probably Tuesday, May
30th), Ananias and the elders came down to Csesarca with a cer-
tain orator named Tertullus. We have not space and indeed we
hardly need to draw the contrast between the fulsome harangue?
of the hired advocate and the simple candor of Paul's answer, point-
ing out the absence of his real accusers, and declaring that no chargo
could be brought against him, except his belief in the resurrection
(Acts xxiv. 1-21).
Felix saw the truth of Paul's case the more clearly, as he had ac-
quired a pretty exact knowledge of Christianity, which had gained
its first Gentile converts among the troops stationed at Caesarea.
ifnwilling, however, to offend the Jews by at once setting the apos
tie free, he made an excuse for postponing the hearing till the ar-
rival of the tribune Lysias, and committed Paul to the custody of a
centurion, with orders to grant him every indulgence and the socie-
ty of his friends. It seems to have been to gratify the curiosity of
his Jewish wife, Drusilln-, the daughter of Herod Agrippa I., that.
Ob his return to Caesarea after an absence, Felix again sent cr Paul,
344 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XXX.
to hear him concerning the faith in Christ. But the apostle used
the opportunity to reprove the vices of both ; and "as he reasoned
of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trem-
bled, and answered, Go thy way for this time ; when I have a con-
venient season, I will call for thee." It is often said that the con-
venient season never came ; but the truth was worse than this.
Felix often sent for Paul, and communed with him during the two
j'ears of his detention, but no longer with any higher object than
the sordid hope of being bribed to free him. Meanwhile the apos-
tle was detained in honorable custody. Felix " commanded a, cen-
turion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should
forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or to come unto him."
St. Luke appears to have remained with him ; and some refer the
composition of his Gospel to this period. The apostle's "car of
all the churches" was probably as constant as ever; but the two
years of seclusion from active work must hnve helped to prepare
him for the testimony he had to bear before Cassar at Rome (Acts
xxiv. 24-26).
In the following year, the city of Csesarea, where Paul was thus
kept a prisoner, was the scene of one of the frequent and frightful
tumults between the Jews and the Syrian Greeks. The conduct of
Felix, in either ordering or conniving at a massacre of the Jews,
was denounced to the Emperor Nero, and he was recalled to aaswer
for his conduct at the same time that Domitius Corbulo succeeded
Ummidius Qundrntus as prefect of Syria. This was two full years
after the beginning of St. Paul's imprisonment in May, A.D. 58, and
PORCIDS FESTCS, the new procurator of Judaea, would reach his
province about July, A.D. 60. This is one of the best ascertained
dates in the history of St. Paul.
The new governor was an honest man, and he proved his dili-
gence by going up from Caesarea to Jerusalem three days after his
arrival. There the chief priests and elders demanded judgment
against Paul, and specially requested that he might be brought up
to Jerusalem ; for they intended to waylay and kill him (Acts xxv.
1-3, 15). But Festns was firm to the fairness of the Roman law,
and ordered the accusers to come to Cassarea (Acts xxv. 5, 16).
From the desire, however, to gratify the Jews, he asked Paul whe^th-
er he chose to go up to Jerusalem to be judged. The apostle at
once frustrated the plot of the Jews, and secured his being sent to
Rome, by uttering the words, which were the last safeguard of the
Roman citizen, "I appeal unto CJESAR ;" and Festus replied, "Unto
Caesar shall thou go" (Acts xxv. 6-12, 17-21).
It now only remained to send the prisoner to Rome. While
waiting for an opportunity, Festus had to draw up an account of
A.D. 54-70. HEROD AGRIPPA II. 345
the charge on which Paul was sent for trial ; and it was no easy
matter to place a mere question of Jewish "superstition" before
Nero in a satisfactory form. He was in this difficulty, when
Agrippa and his sister Berenice arrived at Caesarea to congratulate
the new governor. Several days were spent in ceremony and
festivity before Festus mentioned the case of Paul to Agrippa, who,
being informed by the governor of all that had passed, expressed a
desire to hear the man. On the following dny Agrippa and Bere-
nice took their seats on the tribunal beside Festns ; but the famous
" Defense of Paul before Agrippa" (Acts xxvi.) will be better un-
derstood by some reference to the king's history.
HEROD AGRIPPA II., the son of Herod Agrippa I., was at Rome
when his father died. He was only seventeen years old, and Clau-
dius made his youth a reason for not giving him his father's king-
dom, as he had intended. The emperor afterwards gave him the
kingdom of Chalcis (A.D. 50), which was vacant by the death of his
uncle Herod (A.D. 48) ; and this was soon exchanged for the tetrar-
cliies of Ituraja and Abilene, to which Nero added certain cities of
the Decapolis about the Lake of Galilee (A.D. 52). But beyond
the limits of his own dominions, Agrippa was permitted to exercise
throughout Judaea that influence which even Paul recognized as
welcome to a Jew, who saw in him the last scion of the Asmonaean
house. In particular, he succeeded to those ecclesiastical functions
which the tolerant policy of Rome had permitted his uncle Herod
to exercise the government of the temple and the nomination of
the high-priest. He was "expert in all customs and questions
which are among the Jews." He gratified his hereditary taste for
magnificence by adorning Jerusalem and Bcrytus with costly build-
ings ; but in such a manner as mortally to offend the Jews ; and
his leading principle was to preserve fidelity to Rome, and he took
her part in the last great rebellion of Judaea. With the destruction
of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) an end was put to this last Jewish principali-
ty. Retaining, however, his empty title as king, Agrippa survived
the fate of his country in the enjoyment of splendid luxury, retired
to Rome with Berenice, and died there in the third year of Trajan
(A.D. 100). Such was the prince whose real witness to the force of
Paul's pleadings from the history of his conversion and from the
Jewish prophets was given in the memorable confession, " Almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Of the charges made
against Paul by the Jews, Agrippa, as a Jewish prince, agreed with
the governor in declaring him innocent, and in saying that he
might have been set at liberty at once but for his appeal to Cassar
(Acts xxvi.). But that appeal had been dictated by the Spirit,
which had guided the apostle's whole course, and " to Caesar ha
346 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XXX.
went " under that divine care, the object of which was again reveal-
ed to him in the most dangerous crisis of the voyage, "Fear not,
Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar " (Acts xxvii. 24).
We would even venture to stake the doctrine of a special Provi-
dence on the events, and the fidelity of the sncred historian on his
narrative, of the Voyage of Paul from Cwsarea to Italy. Every
detail has been subjected to the keenest criticism of nautical skill,
as well as of scholarship, with the result of confirming its truth all
the more for the very errors detected in our version, and proving
that the story must iiave been written by an eye-witness, both lion,
est and intelligent, not himself a professional seaman, but sufficient-
ly acquainted with nautical matters to record in plain words what
he saw and heard ; just such an observer as ST. LUKE. The nu-
merous details thus brought out must be reserved for future study;
only the outline can be traced here. It must be observed that the
voyage consists of three parts, in three different ships ; and its
great incidents, ending with the shipwreck at Malta, belong to the
middle part.
It was towards the end of the summeij of A.D. GO that Paul 2 and
a large number of other prisoners, under the charge of a centurion
named Julius, were put on board a coasting vessel belonging to
Adramyttium, in order to reach Italy before the winter. Launch-
ing from Caesarea, they touched next day at Sidon, where the
courtesy of Julius gave Paul leave to visit his friends. Amidst
delays from contrary winds, they reached Myra, in Lycia, where
they found a corn-ship of Alexandria bound for Italy ; and to this
vessel Julius transferred his prisoners. The voyage was slow to
Cnidus, at the south-west angle of Asia Minor ; and thence the
contrary winds forced them to run down southward under the lee
of Crete, to the fine harbor on its south coast, which still bears the
name of Fair Havens. Here, from the form of the coast, they were
completely wind-bound; and it was past the time of the Great
Fast (the Day of Atonement ; Acts xxvii. 9), which fell this year
exactly at the Equinox (Sept. 23d), the limit fixed by anciont
writers to sea-voyages. Heedless, however, of Paul's warning, the
mariners seized the chance of a fair south wind, in the hope of
reaching a better anchorage at port Phoenix (thirty-five miles
west) ; and they had safely doubled C. Matala, when the typhoon-
like wind well known in those seas by the name of the North-easter' 1
1 The " WE " of Acts xxvii. 1, etc., proves that Paul was accompanied by
St. Luke.
1 "Avenot Ti/0a)vi(co5- (Ventns Ti/p)lonicuti) 6 KaAoi'viei/or Ei/f>oK\u&iav (Eurocly-
don). This name is not from eu'pur, " broad," and <e\i;<W, " billow," but lli
Greek form of the Latiu Euroaquilo (as in the Vuljjate).
A.D. 54-70. THE VOYAGE OF ST. PAUL.
347
came sweeping down from the gullies of Mount Ida, and caught
the ship with such fury that she could only scud before the wind.
The shelter of a little island, Clauda, enabled the sailors to get the
boat on board, and to undergird the ship, that is, to pass chains or
cables round the hull, so that she might hold together longer if she
should fall on the quicksands of the Great Syrtis. To avoid this
langer, they lowered the great square sail, with its heavy yard and
" top-hamper," and drifted with the head kept up by a storm-sail
Ancient ship.
on the starboard tack, which brought them direct on Malta, where
the very spot of the shipwreck still preserves the name of St. Paul's
Bay. The interesting details which preceded and accompanied
the wreck must be read in Acts xxvii. and xxviii. 1-6.
This " accidental " detention of three months gave St. Paul the
opportunity of working many miracles, and gaining attached con-
verts among the semi-barbarous Maltese a population originally
Phoenician, and much mixed witli pirates besides the Roman gov-
ernor, or Primus, Publius (Acts xxviii. 7). 4 When navigation re-
opened (about the beginning of February, A.D. 61), Julius placed
his prisoners on board of another Alexandrian ship, the "Castor
and Pollux," 6 which had wintered in the island They sailed first
to Syracuse, where they staid three days ; and, passing through
* This very title of " First Man " (Acts xxviii. 7) is found on inscriptions,
rifwuToc MeXcruiwc one of the many examples of St. Luke's minute accuracy
in Roman matters.
The twin Dioscuri were the tutelar deities of sailors. They were proba-
hi y painted (as was the Alexandrian custom) on each side of ihe poop : comp
Uor. Carm. i. 14, 14 :
" Nil pictii Uuildui uv.'itu /
Fldit."
848, SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XXXL
the struts and touching at Rhegium, they landed at PUTEOLI,
which then gave name to the Bay of Naples (Sinus Puteolanus),
and was a great port for the corn trade of Rome. As might have
been expected at a port in such constant communication with the
East, they found here Christian brethren, at whose desire Paul
spent a week with them, the centurion being evidently eager to
show him unbounded courtesy "And so went on to ROME." The
stay at Puteoli had given time for the news of his arrival to reach
Rome ; and the Christians of that city sent to meet him as far as
the stations of Appii Forum and the Three Taverns, on the Appian
Road. The prefect of the praetorian guard (at that time the fa-
mous Burrus) to whom the prisoners were delivered (Acts xxviii.
16) is likely to have received such a report from Julius as procured
special favor for St. Paul. Though still, like state prisoners even
of the highest rank (as in the case of Agrippa under Tiberius), hav-
ing one arm bound to the soldier who kept him night and day,
with that chain to which he makes touching allusions, 6 he was
suffered to dwell by himself in his own hired house, of course with-
in the precincts of the Praetorian Camp,' 1 and what he valued far
more to receive visitors and discourse freely with them of the
Gospel (Acts xxviii. 11-16, 30, 31).
Beginning here also with his own nation, the apostle, three days
after his arrival, invited the chief men among the Jews to come to
him, and, addressing them as brethren, he freely explained to them
his present position. Though innocent of any crime against the
Jewish law or customs, he had been given at Jerusalem into the
hands of the Romans; and, when they were ready to acquit him,
the opposition of the Jews had constrained him to appeal to Caesar.
He was now at Rome, not to accuse his nation, but a prisoner to
answer for his faith in "the hope of Israel." They replied that
they had received no letters from Judaea about him, nor had any
of the brethren coming thence spoken any harm of him ; and they
expressed their desire to hear his own views, adding, however, "as
for this sect (or heresy) we know that it is everywhere spoken
against " a phrase which seems to betray the germs of that ill-will
.vhich so soon broke out, but which may have been at first suppress-
jd by their own curiosity as well as by St. Paul's courteous bearing.
They named a day to give him a full hearing, and came in large
numbers to his lodging (Acts xxviii. 17-22).
Acts xxviii. 20 ; Eph. iii. 1 ; iv. 1 ; vi. 20 ; Philem. 10, 13 : and so in his sec-
ond imprisonment (2 Tim. i. 16 ; ii. 9). This was called the custodia militaris.
1 Acts xxviii. 30. This explains Phil. i. 13 : " My bouds in Christ are
manifest in the whole F*rcetorium (not palace, as iu the authorized version),
and iii all. other places."
A.D. 54-70. ST. PAUL AT ROME. 349
At this second interview Paul spent the day, from morning to
evening, in "testifying the kingdom of God, and persuading them
concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the
prophets." Some believed, and others believed not, and these were
clearly the most. They went away disputing with one another,
after Paul had uttered the words of Isaiah which Christ himself
had applied to the unbelieving nation (Isa. vi. 9), and repeated the
announcement he had so often made before: "Be it known, there-
fore, unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles,
and that they will hear it." The Jews departed, and "had much
reasoning among themselves" words which show that this last of
the proclamations of Christianity to them recorded in the New
Testament was not altogether in vain. And here we seem to see
the reason why the "Acts of the Apostles" ends with such appar-
ent abruptness. As the narrative which illustrates the command
of Jesus to his apostles, to "preach the Gospel to the whole world,
beginning at Jerusalem," it commences with the opening of that
commission at the religious centre of the world ; it traces the suc-
cessive offers to the Jews of Judtea, Samaria, and the dispersion,
to proselytes and Hellenists, in all the provinces that they fre-
quented ; and it shows how their general disbelief caused the Gen-
tiles to be received, step by step, into their place of privilege ; till
the apostle, bringing back the offerings of those Gentile converts to
bless his countrymen at Jerusalem, was finally rejected by them,
and sent in chains to Rome. There, in the capital of the world,
the unbelief of the last section of the Jewish family to whom he
revealed their Messiah, completed the first stage in the history of
the diffusion of Christianity, at which the mass of the Jewish race
are, for the time, cut off from the kingdom of God. Their re-
jection, for the time, was completed, as our Lord had predicted, by
the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70.
As to the apostle himself, the concluding words of the "Acts"
hint at the issue of his imprisonment, by telling us that it lasted two
whole years. What followed may be partly learned from his Epis-
tles, with some uncertain help from ecclesiastical tradition. In
brief, it appears that at the end of these two years his case was
heard by Nero, who acquitted him (A.D. G3) ; that he then spent a
period, which some reckon at five years, others at two or three, in
journeys of uncertain extent, but which brought him again tc
Ephesus. Here he is supposed to have been again arrested anti
carried to Rome ; but, at all events, it is certain that he was im-
prisoned there a second time, condemned by Nero, and put to
death, in the great persecution of the Christians by that emperor.
According to the uniform tradition, the apostle was beheaded, with-
360 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XXX.
out scourging (as the privilege of his citizenship), outside the gate
leading to the port of Ostia. The date of his death appears to
have been about midsummer A.D. 66 or 67. Tradition fixes it to
June 29th, the ancient joint feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. 8
The light thrown by Scripture upon this period is to be sought
in the later Epistles of St. Paul. Those to the Ephesians, to
Philemon, to the Colossians, and to the Philippians belong to his
First Imprisonment the first three being written about the same
time and sent to Asia by the same messengers (about the autumn of
A.D. 62) ; and the last somewhat later (in the spring of A.D. 63), when
the apostle was looking for a speedy issue of his cause. The Epis-
tle to the Hebrews, though its date and even its authorship are dis-
puted, was probably written when his liberation was pretty certain,
or even, as some think, actually accomplished. It contemplates a
speedy visit to the Churches of Judaea, which were about this time
subjected to the persecution, to which the writer clearly alludes, and
in which the Apostle ST. JAMES THE JUST and other leaders of the
Church were put to death by the high-priest Annas, in the absence
of the procurator Albinus (A.D. 62). 9 We must not here discuss
the questions involved in the first two (in order of time) of the three
Pastoral Epistles (1 Timothy and Titus'), which imply visits to
Crete and Ephesus in the interval between Paul's first and second
imprisonments, and a severe conflict with those new forms of East-
ern heresy which are reproved by St. John in the Apocalypse. Fi-
nally, the Second Epistle to Timothy clearly shows the apostle once
more a prisoner at Rome, with a certain and immediate prospect of
martyrdom. And now his work is done ; the last tie of service)
that bound him to the world is severed ; the goal to which he had
pressed forward is within his reach : "/ am now ready to be ojferecf,,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight
I HAVE FINISHED MY COURSE, I have kept the faith. For the rest/
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me only,
but unto all them also that love his appearing" (2 Tim. iv. 68).
The last words put the finishing-stroke to the apostle's course : he
ends, as he began, " a pattern for them that should hereafter believe
on Christ." We may well be content, though our curiosity about
the precise time and manner of his departure remain unsatisfied,
when we have this last view of him in his own writings : " The Lord
shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his
heavenly kingdom : to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen "
(2 Tim. iv. 18).
8 St. Paul's share in this feast has been transferred to the day kept in
celebration of his conversion, namely, Jan. 25th.
Their martyrdom is thought to be referred to in Heb. xiii. 7,
A.D. 54-70. MARTYRDOM OF ST. PAUL. 351
Whether tradition be right or not in associating the martyrdom
of ST. PETER with that of St. Paul, the relations between these two
chief apostles naturally lead us to inquire what is known of the
later history of Peter. The consecutive story of his part in the
foundation of the Church ceases with his miraculous deliverance
from prison, after which he left Jerusalem (Acts xii. 17). We are
not told whither he went ; certainly not to Rome. His last appear-
ance in the "Acts of the Apostles" is at the "Council of Jerusa-
lem," where we find him giving his opinion without exercising any
" primacy," or even acting as president (Acts xv.). It was prob-
ably about this time, as we have seen, that Peter, with James and
John, came to the cordial agreement with Paul and Barnabas,
that these latter should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circum-
cision (Gal. ii. 9). 10 The reproof of Peter by Paul for Judaizing at
Antioch probably occurred soon after (Gal. ii. 11). That it had no
evil effect on the union of the two apostles is proved by that striking
passage, in which Peter speaks of the Epistles of "our beloved
brother Paul," which also bears the most decisive of testimonies to
those Epistles as being a part of the Scriptures. From the address
of Peter's First Epistle we gather that he labored among the Jews
of the "Dispersion" in the north and west of Asia Minor (1 Pet.
i. 1) ; not, however, to the exclusion of the Gentiles (1 Pet. i. 14-
81; ii.9, 10); and the salutation fixes the apostle's abode at this
time at BAHYLON (1 Pet. v. 13). From it we also learn that he was
assisted by MARK, and by SILVANUS, the former companion of St.
Paul. The whole tone of the Epistle is that of a man advanced in
life, and approaching the end of his course. Scripture tells us
nothing more of Peter, save the Lord's prophecy of his martyrdom,
which has always been understood to imply crucifixion (John xxi.
18, 19); and there is a well-attested tradition that he suffered that
death at Rome in the Neronian persecution, about the same time
that Paul was beheaded (from A.D. 65 to 68). The beautiful fancy
which makes them fellow-prisoners seems to be excluded by the ab-
sence of any allusion to Peter in Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy.
Peter was not the only apostle to whose future course our Lord
alluded. The prophecy of his own end excited that curiosity re-
specting the fate of JOHN which Christ rebuked with a saying
which was misunderstood at the time, and was afterwards made the
foundation of wild legends. But as John himself warns us, "Jesus