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From: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31

Arrival in Rome (Continuation)

[16] And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier that guarded him.

Paul and the Roman Jews

[17] After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews; and when they had gathered, he said to them, “Brethren, though I had done nothing against the people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. [18] When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. [19] But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar though I had no charge to bring against my nation. [20] For this reason therefore I have asked to see you and speak with you since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

Paul’s Ministry in Rome

[30] And he lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, [31] preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and unhindered.

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Commentary:

16. Paul must have arrived in Rome around the year 61. He was allowed to stay in a private house; in other words he was under “custodia militaris”, which meant that the only restriction was that he was guarded by a soldier at all times.

This is the last verse where St Luke uses the first person plural.

17. In keeping with his missionary custom, Paul immediately addresses the Jews of Rome; in fact there is no further mention of his contact with the Christians in the city. The Apostle wants to give his fellow Jews a kind of last opportunity to hear and understand the Gospel. He presents himself as a member of the Jewish community who wants to take a normal part in the life of that community and feels he has to explain his own position.

19. The use of Roman privileges by a Jew might have been regarded by Jews as a sign of disrespect towards their own beliefs and customs. Therefore, Paul tries to explain why he took the exceptional step of invoking his Roman citizenship and appealing to Caesar.

30-31. “Not only was he not forbidden to preach in Rome”, St Bede writes, “but despite the enormous power of Nero and all his crimes which history reports, he remained free to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to the furthest parts of the West, as he himself writes to the Romans: ‘At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem with aid for the saints’ (Rom 15:25); and a little later: ‘When therefore I have completed this, and have delivered to them what has been raised, I shall go on by way of you to Spain’ (v. 28). Finally he was crowned with martyrdom in the last years of Nero” (”Super Act Expositio, ad loc.”).

We do not know exactly what happened at the end of the two years. It may be that Paul’s Jewish accusers did not appear, or they may have argued their case before the imperial tribunal and Paul was found not guilty. At any event, he was set free and Luke considers his task done—the work God gave him to do when he inspired him to write his book.

“If you ask me”, St John Chrysostom observes, “why St Luke, who stayed with the Apostle up to his martyrdom, did not bring his narrative up to that point, I will reply that the Book of the Acts, in the form that has come down to us, perfectly fulfills its author’s purpose. For the evangelists’ only aim was to write down the most essential things” (”Hom. on Acts”, 1).

The kind of conventional way the book concludes has led many commentators (from early times up to the present day) to think that it
had already been finished before Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome came to an end. Christian tradition has nothing very concrete to say about exactly when the Acts of the Apostles was written.