The voyage to Italy was begun in the fall of 54, being marked by disastrous experiences which resulted in shipwreek on the island of Malta (q.v.). There the company remained through the winter. continuing their voyage in the spring and reaching at last their journey's end at the Imperial capital some time in the early half of the year 59 (Acts xxcii. 1-xxviii. 14). Here Paul was cordially welcomed by the Christian brethren of the city and kindly received by the authorities, being allowed to reside under guard in his own hired house, with freedom of inter course among his friends and liberty of preaching his gospel (Acts xxviii. 15-31). It was during this period of imprisonment that he wrote his let ters to the Philippians. the Colossians, Philemon, and the Ephesians. Of these, Philippians and Philemon, especially Philemon, dwell upon the _Apostle's personal relation to the readers, though the practical problems of Christian brotherhood and moral living emerge quite clearly in Philip pians. On the other hand, Colossians and Ephesi ans were intended to counteract doctrinal errors of a subtle nature involving a large element of nascent Gnosticism. This is especially true of Colossians, Ephesians, as an encyclical letter, emphasizing rather the principles of Christian solidarity in the membership of the churches. See the articles on the above letters.
It is a matter of considerable debate as to what was the outcome of this imprisonment at Rome, though the better critical opinion of the present day tends in the direction of holding that after some two years Paul was brought to trial before Nero, and on the absence of any real evidence against him was released. After this release he returned to the region of his former missionary labors in the East, engaging again in active work, in the course of which he was rearrested and transported again as a captive to Rome. At his second trial he was sentenced to death, which was accomplished not later than the year 65. During this return lie wrote the letter to Titus, and the first letter to Timothy, both of which have to do almost wholly with the practical mat ters of Church organization and discipline. His second letter to Timothy was written after his reimprisonment at Rome, shortly before his death, and is practically his last word of per sonal counsel and encouragement to his trusted helper and friend. See the articles on these let ters.
'flue picture of Paul stands clearly before us in the records which the New Testament gives— a man of education, if not of culture, for his time—a Roman citizen and yet a Jew, a student of the Scriptures, a zealot in the law, and withal a conscientious seeker for the way of life within the circle of its preeepts—consequently an earn est persecutor of the disciples of Jesus until di vinely convinced of his error, when all his energy and enthusiasm and loyal devotion were transferred to his new life and infused into his new work. In this new life and work, however, Paul manifestly remained a .Jew. He did not con ceive of his Christianity as having severed him from the Israel of God, but rather as having en abled him to realize the ideal of Israel's Godw•ard relations. Ilk doctrinal thinking consequently found its historical and logical background in the Old Testament, rising through its anthro pology and its soteriology to its climax in its Christology. His doctrine of Christ controlled all the rest of his theology. It was the begin ning point of his preaching and formed the main theme of his last letters to his churches. In all his thinking be was intense and characteristically logical, though he often clothed his thought in the old Rabbinic forms which he had brought with him from the Jerusalem schools, and fre quently yielded to the rhetorical impulses more or less belonging to his intensity of nature. He
was not metaphysical. even in treating the pro foundest themes, but practical in the extreme and sympathetic on hroad and comprehensive lines. Though his position in the matter of relationship to ceremonial -Judaism was not that of the Jerusalem leaders, his views came to dominate the Church, and he himself became the Church's leader in its world work. On the theology of the Church since his day his influence has not been even. During the centuries immediately suc ceeding the Apostolic age it largely if not com pletely disappeared. being revived in its doctrine of man and of salvation in the theology of Au gustine and receiving again at these points its conspicuous restoration in the essential position of the Protestant Reformation. Since then these Pauline doctrines have come and gone with the rise and fall of that trend of thinking which may be termed Calvinistic. To-day they are not prominent, being dominated by a mode of thought which is characterized by a spiritualism of the feelings that has come to us from the Schleier macher school, though Paul's supreme doctrine of Christ, which really controls his thought, con tributes more to the present-day exaltation of Jesus than is popularly supposed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. For consideration of the sources Bibliography. For consideration of the sources (a) from the point of criticism: consult the New Testament introdugtions and the critical discus sions referred to in articles on the Epistles and the Book of Acts; (b) from the point of exegesis: consult the commentaries referred to in these articles. For study of the times: Scharer. Ge schiehte des jiidischen Follies inn Zeitalter Jesu Christi (Eng. trans.. New York, 1896) : Weber, Jiidische Theologic (Leipzig, 1897) ; Ramsay, The Church, in the Roman Empire (New York, 1894). For study of the chronology: Burton, Records and Letters of tile Apostolic dye (New York, 1895) : Clemen, Die f'hrortoloqie der pauli nischen Briefe (Halle, 1893) : Harnack. 110100e der altehristlieben Litteratur, Band i. (Leipzig. 1897). For study of the man: Baur, Paulus(Eng. trans., Edinburgh, 1873-75) ; Renan, Les apdtres (Eng. trans.. London, 1869) ; Saint Paul (Eng. trans., ib., 1887) ; Conybea re and Howson. Life and Epistles of Saint Paul (ib.. 1850-52) ; Lewin, Life and Epistles of Saint Paul (ib., 1851): Farrar, Life and Work of Saint Paul (London, 1879) : Stalker, Life of Saint Paul (New York. 1884) : Matheson. The Spiritual De r(lopment of Saint Paul (Edinburgh, 1892) ; Ramsay, Saint Paul the Traveller and Roman Citizen (New York, 1896) ; Cone, Paul the Man, the Missionary, and the Teacher (New York, 1898) Gilbert, The Student's Life of Saint Paul (New York. 1899). Consult also McGiffert, His tory of Christianity in the Apostolic Aye (New York. 1897). For study of Paul's teaching: Ritsehl, Entstehimg der altkatholischen Kirehe (Bonn, 1857) ; Sahatier, L'apotre Paul (Eng. trans., New York, 1891) Pfleiderer, The Influ ence of the A postle Paul on the Deuelopment of Christianity (Hibbert Lectures for 1885; New York, 1885) : Knowling, The Witty ss of the Epistles (London. 1892) Holsten, Das Erange Num des Paulus (Berlin, 1880-98) : Bruce, Saint Paul's Conception of Christianity (New York. 1894) : Stevens. The Pauline Theology (New York, 1892). Consult also the accepted works on New Testament theology.