中文LESSON 14 The Last Years of the Apostle Paul
OPENING PRAYER
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT REVIEW
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER ACTS ENDS? The book of Acts seems to end strangely. According to the last verses of Acts, Paul lived under house arrest in a rented house somewhere in Rome for two years (Acts 28:30). Then what happened? Was Paul released? Was he brought to trial before the emperor, convicted and martyred? We are not told. It seems like a strange way for Luke to end his historical record.
AD 62 – IMPRISONED IN ROME • two-year house arrest in Rome • “bound with a chain” (Acts 28:20). • wrote the four “imprisonment letters” of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon
AD 62 – IN SPAIN? • “I plan to do so when I go to Spain. (Romans 15:24). • “I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.” (Romans 15:28). • “Paul by his example pointed out the prize of patient endurance. After that he had been seven times in bonds, had been driven into exile, had been stoned, had preached in the East and in the West, he won the noble renown which was the reward of his faith, having taught righteousness unto the whole world and having reached the farthest bounds of the West; and when he had borne his testimony before the rulers, so he departed from the world and went unto the holy place.” (1 Clement 5:5-6) • “Luke compiled the individual events that took place in his presence as he plainly shows by omitting the martyrdom of Peter as well as the departure of Paul from the city [of Rome] when he journeyed to Spain.” (Muratorian Canon, lines 37-39, translation by Dr. Bruce Metzger) • “For after he had been in Rome, he returned to Spain, but whether he came thence again into these parts, we know not” (Chrysostom, Homily on 2nd Timothy, part 10) • “ … one, who from Jerusalem, and even unto Illyricum, fully preached the Gospel, and instructed even imperial Rome, and carried the earnestness of his preaching as far as Spain, undergoing conflicts innumerable, and performing signs and wonders” (Cyril of Jerusalem, Jerusalem Catecheses, Lecture 17.26).
AD 63 – CRETE • Titus 1:5 “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.”
AD 63 - MILETUS • 2 Timothy 4:20 - “I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.”
AD 63 – COLOSSAE • “Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers.” (Philemon 22)
AD 63 – TROAS • 2 Timothy 4:13 “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.”
AD 64 – MACEDONIA • “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer” (1 Timothy 1:3). • “I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon” (Philippians 2:24).
AD 64 – CORINTH • “Erastus stayed in Corinth…” (2 Timothy 4:20) • Titus 3:12 “As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there.”
AD 65-66 – IMPRISONMENT AND DEATH IN ROME • see 2 Timothy 1:8, 16-17; 2:9 and 4:16 . “FOR ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST AND TO DIE IS GAIN” St. Paul (Philippians 1:21)