Week Seven - Day 3
Today's Reading
Acts 26:1 to Acts 28:31
It is around the year 60 A.D., and Paul has been held in prison in Caesarea Maritima for two years because of the charges brought against him by the Jewish religious authorities. However, the Roman authorities holding Paul can't seem to decide if he is guilty of any crime. Now, however, Festus, the newly installed Roman governor, is determined to get to the bottom of this matter with the help of King Herod Agrippa who is versed in Jewish customs and religious law. Paul is brought in, and he is glad for the opportunity to make his case to Agrippa. After hearing Paul speak, and engaging is a little back and forth dialogue, Agrippa tells Festus that as far as he is concerned Paul has done "nothing to deserve death or imprisonment" (26:31). At every level of authority Paul has been seen as innocent, but even now he cannot be set free due to his earlier appeal to have his case hear before the Emperor in Rome.
The voyage to Italy is not an easy one as they fight against the winds, the weather, and the onset of winter. It takes from the late summer of 60 A.D. to the spring of 61 A.D. to make it all the way to Rome. At this point, the Acts of the Apostles tells us Paul spent two years under house arrest. He is able to receive visitors and spend his time proclaiming the gospel of Jesus. It is during this time that he also wrote letter (which we will read over the next three days) to the churches in Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae. What we don't know from Acts or any other biblical record is what happened to Paul after the two years mentioned in Acts.
Piecing together clues from several letters said to have been written by Paul, some scholars surmise that Paul was eventually freed, perhaps after having stood trial in Rome. There is also speculation that he made further journeys, perhaps finally getting to Spain as he had planned, as well as revisiting some of the places he had already been such as Corinth and Philippi. Now of this can be known with any certainty, and the writer of Acts leaves us in the dark. As to Paul's ultimate destiny, tradition holds that he was beheaded near Rome sometime around 67 A.D., a kinder fate than the one met by the apostle Peter, who as a non-Roman citizen, suffered the more gruesome death of being crucified upside down. As tragic as their deaths were, they bear witness to the irrepressibility of the gospel message, which continues to be preached nearly two thousand years later.
The voyage to Italy is not an easy one as they fight against the winds, the weather, and the onset of winter. It takes from the late summer of 60 A.D. to the spring of 61 A.D. to make it all the way to Rome. At this point, the Acts of the Apostles tells us Paul spent two years under house arrest. He is able to receive visitors and spend his time proclaiming the gospel of Jesus. It is during this time that he also wrote letter (which we will read over the next three days) to the churches in Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae. What we don't know from Acts or any other biblical record is what happened to Paul after the two years mentioned in Acts.
Piecing together clues from several letters said to have been written by Paul, some scholars surmise that Paul was eventually freed, perhaps after having stood trial in Rome. There is also speculation that he made further journeys, perhaps finally getting to Spain as he had planned, as well as revisiting some of the places he had already been such as Corinth and Philippi. Now of this can be known with any certainty, and the writer of Acts leaves us in the dark. As to Paul's ultimate destiny, tradition holds that he was beheaded near Rome sometime around 67 A.D., a kinder fate than the one met by the apostle Peter, who as a non-Roman citizen, suffered the more gruesome death of being crucified upside down. As tragic as their deaths were, they bear witness to the irrepressibility of the gospel message, which continues to be preached nearly two thousand years later.
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