AD 61-63 – Paul’s first Roman imprisonment continued for “two full years”

60 openness and unhindered (Acts 28:31).

This story about Paul’s encounter with the Jewish leadership in Rome is interesting for several reasons. They said that they had not received any letters from Judea, nor had anyone come from Judea to tell them about Paul. What does that imply? Could it be that the emissaries and couriers that were sent from Judea got caught in the same storm that shipwrecked Paul, and were lost at sea? That is certainly possible. And if the Judean officials sent any letters by ship, those letters were also lost at sea, or otherwise intercepted and never made it to their destination. Very providential.

This becomes all the more interesting when we find out that Josephus went to Rome two years after Paul did, and arrived just about the time Paul’s case was finally going to trial before Nero. We will say more about that below at the date of Nov 62.

We have to wonder what happened to all the mail and other documents that the passengers had on the boat with them? Were they destroyed by the sea water and lost at sea when the ship sank? Probably. And that includes any documents that the Jews in Jerusalem may have sent to the Jews in Rome to request them to use their influence with Nero to get Paul condemned.

If Luke and Paul had any documents with them, they would have suffered the same fate, unless they were sealed in wax and placed in something that would serve as a flotation device. They most likely made copies of any important documents in Judea before they left, and then had those copies sent to them by land courier to Rome. Maybe the Roman church already had copies of them, sent to them by some of the other churches in Macedonia or Achaia that had copies. We do not know. But it was customary to make copies of important documents before leaving on a trip by boat. And the church in Jerusalem would have wanted copies of Paul’s books anyway, regardless of his travel to Rome. Did Paul and Luke send copies by land to Rome before they left, or did they request them from their Winter quarters on Malta to be sent to Rome so that they would be there waiting when they arrived in Rome in the Spring? Any of these scenarios are possible.

If you are interested in the probable location of Paul’s shipwreck on the island of Malta, you will want to go to the CBN news website. They did a special story on it. The name of the archaeologist who did the work on this project was Robert Cornuke (former Los Angeles crime scene investigator). The story can be found on the CBN news website at the following URL (viewed on 6/2/2012):

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/February/Searching-for-Pauls-Shipwreck-onMalta/

Before the voyage to Rome, Luke would have had plenty of time to go back and forth from Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and elders there, and gather all the information he needed to write his two books. The delay would also have given Paul plenty of time to start preparing his defense for the trial in Rome. When they reached Rome, Luke and Paul began writing the two volume work now known as Luke and Acts. which must have been finished within the first year after reaching Rome.

AD 61-63 – Paul’s first Roman imprisonment continued for “two full years”

According to Luke (Acts 28:30). Paul’s prison epistles were written during this time (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and Hebrews). There is no filler in the Bible. Every detail is there for a reason. A good example is the story about Paul’s arrival in Rome, where it says that the Jews in Rome had neither received letters from Judea concerning Paul, nor had any of the brethren from Judea come to Rome and said anything bad about Paul (Acts 28:21). That is peculiar. It was customary for such accusations to be sent to Rome, and to have Judean visitors come to Rome and tell about what was happening in Judea. So we have to wonder how it happened that the charges against Paul never arrived, and no one ever showed up to say anything bad about him. One good possibility is that the accusations were in the mail carried on the same ship with Paul that was shipwrecked, or on some other ship that was likewise wrecked. Perhaps the documents were lost