Pauls Life

With the churches in Crete Paul may have come into touch while sheltering, on his voyage to Rome, at "Fair Havens (Acts xxvii. 8 seq.), nigh to a city, Lasea"; and he may well have left Titus (whose presence is never alluded to in Acts, even when proved by Paul's letters) to set things more in order (Tit. i. 5). Not long after reaching Rome he would be likely to send him further written instructions. To judge from Paul's plan to winter at Nicopolis (iii. 12), he expects his case to come on and be settled before winter. His reference in iii. 13 to Apollos and Zenas "the lawyer" (bearers of the letter), as on a journey of urgency, suggests that meantime he was sending to the East to collect counter-evidence to that of the Jews of Asia.

The Appeal Case.

Paul's appeal case was not a safe topic for correspondence, and he says little of it. The long delay in its hearing seems to have been unexpected by Paul, and to have led him to mistaken forecasts during his first year or so in Rome, in I Tim. (iii. 14, iv. 13), Titus and Philem. Somewhat later he expressed himself more guardedly (Phil. ii. 23 seq.; cf. i. 25). As to the charges on which all came to turn, we are left to conjec ture. They were no doubt those serious from the Roman rather than Jewish standpoint, viz., endangering public law and order by exciting the Jews throughout the world on religious matters, and fostering treason against the imperial cult generally (cf. the charge at Thessalonica). In defence Paul would urge the privileged posi tion of a Jewish monotheist ; and the Jews would be at pains to differentiate Christianity from Judaism, and so deprive it of the status of a legally recognized religion (religio licita). If they suc ceeded here, Paul's condemnation was only a matter of time. This is the most probable issue of the case (pace Ramsay and others), both a priori and in the light of later phenomena, e.g., I Pet.

The vaguer and perhaps rather earlier situation implied in I Tim. seems as follows : At the moment of Paul's appeal from Caesarea to Rome Timothy was perhaps on duty in Ephesus. There he would receive a message from Paul, possibly through Aristarchus (Acts xxvii. 2, 5 seq.), in terms of good hope as to his appeal. Timothy would in turn send word as to the situation in Ephesus, and at the same time express his desire to hasten to Paul's side. This would lead Paul, in sending him a letter of encouragement and specific instructions, to open with a sentence (characteristically wanting a grammatical conclusion) in which he recalls a parallel case, where he had exhorted Timothy to "stay on" in Ephesus (i.e., in A.D. 56). Nor was the need less urgent

now, owing to Judaic "fables" touching the primitive period of biblical history ("genealogies"), meant to confirm certain parts of the Law (i. 4-7) as of universal religious validity. At Ephesus (as also in Crete) much the same type of Judaism as was re emerging at Colossae was reacting on local Christianity; while here and there were traces of dualistic antinomian theory.

When the curtain rises for the last time, in 2 Tim. iv. 6-19, 21 (which most allow to be Paul's own, on any theory), it is on the morrow of the long-expected hearing of Paul's appeal. The case stands adjourned, but he is no longer under any illusion as to its final issue. His great comfort is that by the Lord's support he had been delivered from craven fear, as he stood solitary before Caesar, and that the Lord would yet rescue him from every "evil deed." Yet his earthly work is done. So he writes to Timothy, his "beloved child," whom now he would fain see once more. But lest this should not be granted him, he prefixes to the summons a last will and testament, which may help Timothy to rise above the dismay which his death at the hands of Roman law would be bound to cause. Let Timothy take up the Gospel torch as it falls from his own dying hand, and "do the work of an Evangelist," heeding not the hardship. Then after providing for the Gospel, he turns to more personal inter ests. "Hasten to me with all speed," he says in effect, "for I am all alone, save for Luke. My other trusty friends are away on various missions, and Demas has deserted the sinking ship. Tychicus I had already sent to Ephesus ; he will replace you.

Pick up Mark and bring him with you—he may be practically helpful. Bring my heavy cloak, papers and books (copies of the Scriptures), lying in Carpus's hands at Troas"—perhaps since Acts xx. 6 sqq. "Alexander the bronze-worker (an old Jewish foe at Ephesus, Acts xix. 33) did me many a bad turn in my case (his case is in the Lord's hands) ; be on thy guard against him." Then follows allusion to Paul's "first defence," unsupported by such as might have appeared on his behalf. Finally salutations especially to Prisca and Aquila, and to the house of Onesiphorus, an Ephesian who had sought Paul out in Rome.