02/20/2023 – Day 358 / Acts concludes – Chapters 27 & 28 // Links attached (2) – Martyrdom of Paul
Paul had a critical mission up until the very end, For God was surely with him and his fellow souls on their sailing voyage to Rome. The centurion is not to be faulted early on for not knowing who Paul was and the Truth for what he represented and declared. But he was well on board at the point of their shipwreck, thwarting the soldier’s plan to kill the prisoners, including Paul.
I would like to share with you two key footnotes in my Apologetics Study Bible :
28: 21-22 “The Jews in Rom had clearly heard of the ‘sect’ of Christians, but they had not received word regarding Paul. This may have been because communication from Jerusalem to Rom had been delayed, or it may indicate that the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem had lost interest in Paul’s case, since he was now out their sight.”
28: 30-31 “Acts ends with Paul still a prisoner after two years of captivity, during which time he lived at his own expense and was allowed to have visitors, to whom he proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. The book of Acts ends at this point, and it may be that he was convicted and dies in Rome at this time. There is testimony from other early church writers, however, that Paul release, presumably because his case was either dismissed or found to be without merit, and that he engaged in active ministry for another several years before he was re-arrested and sent to Rome, where he died under the persecution of Nero.”
Here is a Paul timeline:
It is not about the messenger, but I enjoyed this article as well:
https://earlychurchhistory.org/beliefs-2/st-paul-went-to-spain/_
Soli Deo Gloria!