<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2>LESSON XXII</h2>
<h3>PAUL'S JOURNEY TO ROME</h3>
<p>The material of this lesson is so extensive that only the barest
summary can be attempted in the class. The great features of the
narrative should be made to stand out clear—the bitter opposition
of the Jews, the favorable attitude of the Roman authorities, the
journey to Rome. Before the lesson is over the student should have
a deeper impression of the character of Paul—his perfect ease and
tactfulness in the various relations of life, his unswerving boldness
where the gospel was concerned, his inexplicable power. Finally,
the peculiar quality of the narrative should be appreciated. These
chapters contain the two longer "we-sections" of The Acts.</p>
<h4>1. THE JOURNEY TO TROAS</h4>
<p>At first Paul had intended to sail direct from Corinth to Syria, but
a plot of the Jews caused him to change his plan. Acts 20:3. It
has been suggested that the ship upon which he was intending to sail
may have carried non-Christian Jews, going to the approaching
feast in Jerusalem, v. 16, who could have done him harm upon the
voyage. By choosing the route through Macedonia he averted the
immediate danger.</p>
<p>The use of the first person plural begins again at Acts 20:5. It
was broken off at ch. 16:17. Luke had parted from Paul at Philippi
on the second missionary journey; and it is at Philippi that he
now appears again. The following journeys, in which Luke himself
took part, are narrated with the utmost vividness and minuteness.
The narrative amounts practically to a diary—in some
sections every day is accounted for.</p>
<p>The departure from Philippi took place "after the days of unleavened
bread," that is, after the passover week. Acts 20:6.
From the account of the subsequent journey it is not quite
possible to tell whether Paul actually succeeded in carrying out
his plan of being in Jerusalem at Pentecost. Pentecost, it will be
remembered, came fifty days after the beginning of the passover
week.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</SPAN></span></p>
<h4>2. TROAS</h4>
<p>The description of the last evening at Troas, when Paul prolonged
his discourse in the lighted room, is one of the inimitably
vivid scenes of The Acts. Probably we are to understand that
Eutychus, who fell down from a window in the third story, was
really killed and not merely stunned. Verse 10 might seem to
indicate that he was only stunned, but the last words of v. 9 point
rather to actual, and not merely apparent, death. The miracle is
paralleled by the raising of Dorcas by Peter. Acts 9:36-42.</p>
<h4>3. THE ELDERS OF EPHESUS</h4>
<p>When Paul told the elders that they would see his face "no more,"
or perhaps rather "no longer," Acts 20:25,38, he did not necessarily
mean that he would certainly never return to Ephesus. For a period
of years, at any rate, he was intending to transfer his labors to the
west; his return to Ephesus, therefore, was at all events uncertain.
His long activity at Ephesus, which had occupied the better part of
the past three years, was for the present at an end. From the
Pastoral Epistles it appears that as a matter of fact Paul did visit
Ephesus again after his release from the first Roman imprisonment.</p>
<h4>4. ARRIVAL IN PALESTINE</h4>
<p>At Tyre and at Cæsarea, Paul received warnings against visiting
Jerusalem. These warnings came through the Spirit, Acts 21:4,11,
but not in the sense that the Holy Spirit commanded Paul not
to go. The meaning is that the Spirit warned him of the dangers
that were to befall him. In meeting these dangers bravely he was
acting in full accordance with the divine will.</p>
<p>At Acts 21:18 the use of the first person plural ceases, because
Luke had no immediate part in the events that followed. It is
natural to suppose, however, that he remained in Palestine, for he
joined Paul again in Cæsarea, at the beginning of the journey to
Rome. For the events of Paul's imprisonment in Jerusalem and in
Cæsarea he had first-hand information.</p>
<p>The vow in which Paul took part at the request of James was at
least similar to the Nazirite vow described in Num. 6:1-21. Not
all the details of such vows are perfectly clear. Paul himself, on
his own account, had assumed a similar vow on his second missionary
journey, Acts 18:18—unless indeed, as is grammatically possible,
the words in that passage refer to Aquila rather than to Paul.</p>
<p>It was not true, as the Christians of Judea had been led to think,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</SPAN></span>
that Paul taught the Jewish Christians of the dispersion to forsake
the law of Moses, though he was insistent that the Gentile Christians
must not adopt that law. It was not even true that he himself had
altogether given up keeping the law, though the exigencies of his
Gentile work required him to give it up very often, and though he
regarded himself as inwardly free from the law. His willingness to
take part in a Jewish vow in Jerusalem is therefore not surprising.
His action on this occasion was fully justified by the principles of
his conduct as described in I Cor. 9:20,21. The keeping of the
law was not for Paul a means of obtaining salvation. Salvation was
a free gift of God, through the death of Christ. But for the present
the general relinquishment of the law and abandonment of the distinctive
customs of Judaism on the part of Jewish Christians was not
required. Paul was willing to leave that question to the future
guidance of God.</p>
<p>It is somewhat surprising that the Book of The Acts mentions the
great collection for the Jerusalem church only incidentally, in the
report of a speech of Paul. Acts 24:17. The interest of Luke in
this part of the narrative is absorbed in the relations between Paul
and the non-Christian Jews and the Roman authorities. The
internal affairs of the Church are left for the most part out of
account. The Acts and the Pauline Epistles, here as so often, must
be allowed to supplement each other. Luke gives a vivid picture
of the external events, and a clear view of the relations of Christianity
to the outside world; while Paul affords us a deeper insight,
in some respects at least, into the inward development of the
Church's life.</p>
<h4>5. PAUL BEFORE AGRIPPA</h4>
<p>The famous reply of Agrippa to Paul, Acts 26:28, is exceedingly
difficult to translate and to interpret. The translation in the
Revised Version is by no means certainly correct. The words may
mean, "A little more of this persuasion will make me a Christian!"
or else, "You seem to think that the little persuasion you have used
is sufficient to make me a Christian." In any case, the sentence
displays a certain perplexity on the part of the king. He certainly
does not mean that he is on the point of accepting Christianity—his
words have a half-ironical tone—but on the other hand his interest
is aroused. The same thing is probably to be said for Festus.
He said, "Paul, thou art mad; thy much learning is turning thee
mad," but he said it with a loud voice as though he were agitated.
There was something uncanny about this prisoner!</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</SPAN></span></p>
<h4>6. THE ACCESSION OF FESTUS</h4>
<p>The dates of many events in the apostolic age have usually been
fixed by counting from the accession of Festus. Unfortunately,
however, that event itself cannot be dated with certainty. Some
put it as late as A. D. 61, others as early as A. D. 55. If the date
A. D. 60 be provisionally adopted, then Paul's arrest in Jerusalem
occurred in A. D. 58, and his arrival in Rome in A. D. 61. The
conclusion of the narrative in The Acts would then fall in the year
A. D. 63. It will be remembered that the proconsulship of Gallio now
affords an additional starting point for a chronology of the apostolic
age.</p>
<h4>7. LATER HISTORY OF THE JERUSALEM CHURCH</h4>
<p>After the meeting between Paul and James, which is narrated in
Acts 21:17-26, the Jerusalem church, at least so far as any direct
narrative is concerned, disappears from the pages of the New
Testament. It will be observed that in the account of Paul's last
visit, only James, the brother of the Lord, and "the elders" are mentioned
as representatives of the church. Possibly some of the
twelve apostles may be included under the term "elders," but it is
also perfectly possible that the apostles were all out of the city.</p>
<p>James, the brother of the Lord, continued to be the head of the
Jerusalem church until he was martyred—in A. D. 62, or, as others
suppose, in A. D. 66. Before the war which culminated in the capture
of Jerusalem in A. D. 70, the Christians of the city fled to Pella
beyond the Jordan. From that time, on, though the Christians
returned after the war, Jewish Christianity was quite uninfluential.
The supremacy of the Jerusalem church was gone. But that church
had already rendered a priceless service. It had laid the foundations
of Christendom. It had sent forth the first missionaries. And it
had preserved the record of Jesus' life. The Synoptic Gospels, in
substance at least, are a product of the Jerusalem church.</p>
<hr class="tb" />
<p><span class="smcap">In the Library.</span>—Purves, "Christianity in the Apostolic Age,"
pp. 160-166, 231-239. Davis, "Dictionary of the Bible": articles on the
many persons and places mentioned in the narrative, especially "Felix,"
"Festus," and "Herod" (4). Ramsay, "St. Paul the Traveller and the
Roman Citizen," pp. 283-362; "Pictures of the Apostolic Church," pp.
270-285, 310-364. Lewin, "The Life and Epistles of St. Paul," vol. ii,
chs. ii, iii, iv, v, and vi. Conybeare and Howson, "The Life and
Epistles of St. Paul," chs. xx, xxi, xxii, xxiii, xxiv and xxv. Stalker,
"The Life of St. Paul," pp. 121-133. Lumby, pp. 266-380. Cook, pp.
485-534. Plumptre, pp. 136-184. Rackham, pp. 370-513.</p>
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