Paul in Rome

Acts closes with Paul's arrival in the capital of the empire he had once invoked by his Roman citizenship. Late in AD 59 the centurion Julius of the Augustan Cohort placed Paul, Luke (the "we" of Acts 27 returns), and Aristarchus aboard a coastal grain ship at Caesarea, bound for Italy. After delays at Sidon and Myra, they put to sea in an Alexandrian grain freighter and were driven by a northeasterly gale, the Euraquilo, for fourteen days across the Adriatic Sea. Paul, who had warned the centurion not to sail, stood among the terrified crew in the middle of the storm and announced that an angel of God had stood beside him in the night, saying, "Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you" (Acts 27:23–24). All 276 souls reached the shore alive when the ship was driven onto a sandbar off Malta. There Paul was bitten by a viper without harm and healed the father of the chief official, Publius, and many other sick on the island. After three months they sailed in another Alexandrian ship that had wintered on Malta, the Twin Brothers, by way of Syracuse and Rhegium to Puteoli on the Bay of Naples, where Italian believers received them. Brothers from Rome came as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet Paul; on seeing them he thanked God and took courage. Reaching Rome in the spring of AD 60, he was allowed to live by himself, under guard of a single Roman soldier, in his own rented quarters. He immediately called together the leaders of the Jews and explained why he had come; some were persuaded by his exposition of the kingdom of God from the Law and the Prophets, some disbelieved, and he turned with the warning of Isaiah 6 to the Gentiles. "He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance" (Acts 28:30–31). From this Roman captivity Paul wrote the letters known as the Prison Epistles — Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon — and the gospel reached the household of Caesar (Phil 4:22). Tradition records that he was released for a final period of ministry, rearrested under Nero, and beheaded outside Rome on the Ostian Way; 2 Timothy is his final letter.