Acts 28:31Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Knowledge of everything can dispose one toward laziness and carelessness. So he also does this and does not speak of what followed. He considers it unnecessary for those who read attentively and learn from what is said to complete the rest.

Certainly, as the former things were, so also were the later. Yet listen to what Paul himself says about what followed in the Epistle to the Romans: “Whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you” (Rom 15:24).

Do you see how this holy and divine head foresaw everything? This man was higher than the heavens, with a soul capable of embracing all things, the chief among the first-ranked apostles, Paul.

For those who know it, his very name is enough to stir the soul to vigilance and drive away every sleep. Rome received him bound, having arrived by sea, saved from shipwreck, and was delivered from the waves of error.

As if he were a king who had fought and conquered in a naval battle, he entered the royal city. Of this he says in the epistle: “I shall come to you in the fullness of blessing.”

And again: “to come to you and be refreshed with you” (Rom 15:29, 32). Again: “Now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints” (Rom 15:25).

This is the same as what he said earlier: “I came to bring alms to my nation” (Acts 24:17). He was already near the crown.

Rome saw him bound, and later saw him crowned and glorified. At one time he said, “to be refreshed with you.” At another, “I am going to Jerusalem to minister.”

The latter was the beginning of a new course. Tireless, he added trophies to trophies. Corinth had him for two years, Asia for three, and this city, Rome, now for two.

Then he came there a second time, when he also died. “At my first defense,” he says, “no one stood with me” (2 Tim 4:16).

Thus he was not put to death at this time. Later, after he had filled the whole world with preaching, he departed from life.

Do you wish to know what followed? It is the same as what came before: bonds, sufferings, struggle, imprisonment, plots, slanders, and daily death. You have seen a small part of his works.

Imagine the rest as being the same. It is like the sky: however much of it you see, it is all exactly the same. Having seen one part of the sky, wherever you go, you will see it the same everywhere.

Or it is like the rays of the sun. Even if you see them only in part, you can infer what the sun is like. So it is also with Paul.

You have seen his works in part. They are all the same, filled with tribulations. This man is a heaven that contained within itself the Sun of righteousness, not this visible sun.

Therefore he himself is higher than heaven. Is this not enough? I do not think so. When you name the Apostle, everyone at once understands Paul.

So also, at the name of the Baptist, everyone at once understands John. To what can his words be compared, to the sea or even to the ocean? Nothing can equal them.

Their streams are far more abundant, purer, and deeper than the sea. Therefore one would not err in calling Paul’s heart both a sea and a heaven, a heaven in purity and a sea in depth.

This is a sea that does not carry those sailing upon it from city to city, but from earth to heaven. Whoever sails on this sea will sail with a favorable wind.

On this sea, there are no winds. Instead of winds, the Holy Spirit of God accompanies the souls that sail. Here there are no waves, no hidden rocks, no beasts.

Here all is quiet. This is a sea more peaceful and safer than any harbor. It has nothing bitter in it, but contains a pure spring pouring forth the sweetest streams.

It is more transparent and brighter than the sun. It contains not precious stones and purple dye, but treasures far better. Whoever wishes to plunge into this sea needs no instruments of navigation and no oil.

He needs philosophy, and he will find in it all the blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven. He can become a king, gain the whole world, and be held in the greatest honor.

Whoever sails on this sea will never suffer shipwreck, but will discern all things well. Yet as the inexperienced drown in the ordinary sea, so also here.

This happens to heretics who attempt what is above their strength. Therefore one must know this depth, or not dare to plunge into it. If we wish to sail this sea, we must be tightly girded.

“And I,” he says, “could not speak to you, brethren, as to spiritual people, but as to carnal” (1 Cor 3:1). Let no one incapable of endurance sail upon this depth.

Let us prepare ships for ourselves, that is, diligence, zeal, and prayers, so that we may safely pass over this depth. For this water is living water.

As one who possesses tempered steel is strong, so one who knows Paul is strong. As one who holds a sharp sword is unapproachable, so is such a man.

But to understand Paul, a pure life is needed. Therefore he also said: “You need milk,” because “you have become dull of hearing” (Heb 5:11-12).

There truly is such a thing as weakness of hearing. Just as the stomach cannot receive healthy and solid food when it is weak, so the soul that is proud and irritable becomes powerless and slack.

It cannot receive the spiritual word. Listen to what the disciples said: “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” (Jn 6:60).

But when the soul is healthy and strong, everything is easy and convenient for it. Becoming elevated and light, it strives ever more upward and reaches the height.

Knowing this, let us preserve our soul in health. Let us emulate Paul and imitate this valiant and adamantine soul. Then, walking in the footsteps of his life, we may sail across the sea of this present life.

May we reach the calm harbor and be counted worthy of the good things promised to those who live worthily of Christ. This is by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With Him, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

These had arisen during his two-year imprisonment in Caesarea. Paul had already written to Philemon, the head of the Colossian church, that he would come to them and stay with him (v. 22). Later, after the first examination (Phil 1:7), the future did not appear to him so consoling. The thought of martyrdom was close to his soul. Yet the hope of release prevailed over this thought, and he wrote to the Philippian church that he himself would soon be with them, although he did not yet know what would happen to him (2:23-24). During this imprisonment Paul was greatly occupied with care for the spread of the Church of God and the integrity of the churches he had founded. Since he could freely receive every kind of visitor, he used this right chiefly for preaching the Gospel. Everyone knew that he had been imprisoned not for any crime, but for preaching a new faith. This greatly served the holy cause. The teaching for which the preacher had undergone such great danger involuntarily drew attention to itself. Paul's bonds became known to the praetorium, and there were believers even from Caesar's household (Phil 1:13; 4:22). Moreover, his example stirred up zeal among the Roman Christians themselves to labor with greater effort for the spread of the Gospel (1:14). Among the churches Paul had previously founded, the churches of Asia Minor first drew his attention during his imprisonment. Paul received sufficient information about their condition from an excellent man of the Colossian church, its founder, as well as founder of other neighboring churches. To the end of Paul's imprisonment in Rome also belongs the Epistle to the Hebrews, that is, to Christians from among the Jews. This is the usual meaning of the word in the New Testament, namely, Palestinian Christians.

Finally, around the years 67-68, the Apostle was again imprisoned in Rome, and this ended in his martyrdom. During these bonds the Apostle wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy (2 Tim 1:8; 2 Tim 4:16-18). He lived at his own expense, supplied to him by the zeal of believers, for example the Philippian Christians (Phil 4:10-18). He preached concerning Christ with boldness and without hindrance. The Apostle's very position in Rome as a prisoner contributed to the success of the Gospel preaching. "My circumstances," he says to the Philippians, "have turned out for the greater progress of the Gospel, so that my bonds in Christ have become known throughout the whole praetorium and to all the rest." He adds that "most of the brethren in the Lord. Having become confident through my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear" (Phil 1:12-14). The success of the apostolic preaching was so great that even among Caesar's household there were those whom he converted to Christ (Phil 4:22).

The Epistle to the Philippians was apparently written near the end of the Apostle’s two-year imprisonment. Before it he had written the Epistle to the Colossians, that is, to the inhabitants of the city of Colossae.

This city is not mentioned anywhere in the history of the Apostle’s missionary labors. Therefore it is unknown exactly when the Apostle visited it, or whether he ever visited it during his missionary journeys.

It was an ancient city of Phrygia, already in decline, situated on the great road between Ephesus and the Euphrates. Lying on the bank of the Lycus River, it was near Laodicea and Hierapolis, which in time overshadowed it.

The Church there was probably founded by one of the Apostle’s closest fellow-workers. Yet he himself regarded it with extraordinary attention, and joyfully received every report that testified to the good condition of the Church.

Such news was brought to the Apostle in Rome by Epaphras, a citizen of Colossae. He was apparently a minister of the Church, and “always struggled for its members in prayer, that they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”

Together with this good report, however, the Apostle also heard from Epaphras about dangers threatening the Church from various false teachers. These were Judaizers, who used every opportunity to destroy the Apostle’s work.

They sought to bring those converted by him back under the abolished yoke of servitude to the law. The Judaizers were also preaching to the Colossians some kind of gnostic philosophy.

The Apostle warns against it as “empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col 2:8).

Then the Apostle gives a series of instructions concerning religious, moral, and social life. In conclusion he sends greetings from himself and his closest fellow-workers. Among them are mentioned Epaphras, Luke “the beloved physician,” Aristarchus, Mark, and others.

The epistle was sent with Tychicus and Onesimus. They were to convey orally the details of the Apostle’s life in Rome.

The epistle ends with the Apostle’s usual greeting in his own hand. He says, “The greeting is by my own hand, Paul’s. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you all. Amen.”

To deliver the epistle to its destination, Onesimus was sent together with Tychicus. The Apostle calls him his “faithful and beloved brother,” from among the Colossians themselves.

He was also carrying another letter from the Apostle to a private person, namely to his former master Philemon, and he trembled for his fate.

He had been Philemon’s slave. Having offended him in some way and fearing punishment, he fled from him. As a runaway slave, he sought refuge in the filthy slums of Rome.

There he wandered for some time, and soon, of course, spent whatever he had been able to steal from his master. Inevitable ruin awaited him, from hunger and universal rejection.

In this extreme distress he turned to the great Apostle. With truly fatherly love the Apostle received and comforted him, and thus saved not only his body, but also his soul.

The worthless Phrygian slave, who under Roman law deserved only perpetual penal servitude, or even crucifixion, was received into the fellowship of Christians and became a “beloved brother.”

To restore him fully to his human rights, the Apostle sent him to Colossae with a letter to his former master Philemon. Philemon was a noble and wealthy man who held a prominent position in the Colossian Church.

In this epistle the Apostle movingly urges him to forgive Onesimus, whom the Apostle calls his son, “begotten in his bonds.”

“He was,” writes the Apostle, “unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me; I am sending him back.” Then the Apostle urges Philemon to receive Onesimus again, “no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother.”

The extent of the loving Apostle’s care for Onesimus is shown by his promise in the epistle to pay personally whatever Onesimus owed Philemon.

The Apostle concludes his epistle by expressing confidence that Philemon will fulfill the request addressed to him, and even do more than was asked. At the same time he asks him to prepare lodging, since he hopes for a speedy release.

Despite its brevity, the Epistle to Philemon had immense social significance. It clarified the relation of Christianity to the greatest evil of the pagan world, slavery.

Until then, the laws of almost all peoples of the civilized world divided men into two classes: free men and slaves, those with rights and those without rights. Human dignity was acknowledged only in the former.

This view had become so rooted in the consciousness of ancient humanity that it could not imagine society without slaves. They were regarded as a special class of working beings, obliged to fulfill their masters’ will without contradiction.

Even the greatest thinkers, such as Plato and Aristotle, considered this division of men necessary. They looked upon slaves as soulless instruments.

Rome realized this view in all its force and developed slavery to terrifying proportions. The houses and estates of the wealthy and noble were filled with slaves.

The law treated them with such inhumanity that it allowed cruel and capricious masters to mock them in every way. At personal whim, or for the slightest offense, they could execute them, crucify them, or give them as food to dogs in the kennels and fish in the ponds.

There were cases when, for the slightest offense of some slave against his master, the slave’s whole family was beaten to death. This was done even if no other member had the least connection with the offense.

Such cruelty was directly confirmed by a special law.

This state of affairs deprived slaves, who were twice as numerous as the free, of every human dignity. It reduced them to the level of mute working cattle.

On the other hand, it corrupted the masters. It developed in them a false consciousness of immeasurable superiority over men like themselves.

Thus slavery became the greatest social evil. It dissolved the very foundations of the civic, political, and moral life of ancient humanity. From it came terrible upheavals and bloodshed, especially in the final period of the Roman Republic.

And now the Apostle proclaimed a truth to which the greatest minds of antiquity could not rise. A slave is a man just like his master. The same soul lives in him as in others.

Under beneficent moral influence, even the most worthless slave can become a beloved brother, as happened with Onesimus. By this, a decisive blow was struck against slavery at its very foundation.

Christianity did not proclaim the abolition of slavery. That would have led to fruitless slave rebellions and bloodshed. On the contrary, this same Apostle who wrote the Epistle to Philemon often exhorted slaves in his other epistles to obey their masters.

Yet the very idea of spiritual equality and brotherhood between slave and master destroyed the foundations of slavery. From then on this evil had inevitably to diminish and disappear, like ice diminishing and vanishing beneath the ever-brighter rays of the spring sun.

Those sent to Colossae had to travel through Ephesus. The Apostle used this circumstance to write an epistle also to his beloved Ephesians, with whose presbyters he had so movingly spoken and taken leave while passing through Miletus.

Since it was written almost at the same time as the Epistle to the Colossians, the Epistle to the Ephesians has much in common with it in content.

Besides clarifying the chief truth that Christ is the Head of the Church and of all that exists, the author of our salvation and the pledge of our future inheritance, it explains in detail the essence of the New Testament Church.

It also explains her hierarchical order and the relation within her between pastors and those entrusted to them. In the final chapters various moral instructions are given to husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves, and in general to all members of the Christian Church.

All these epistles were evidently written shortly before the Apostle’s release from his two-year imprisonment.

In some of them, as in the Epistle to the Philippians and especially in the Epistle to Philemon, the Apostle expresses a clear hope for a speedy decision in his case, and specifically in his favor. He even asked Philemon to prepare lodging for him.

Yet the case was not decided quickly. There was even reason to fear the worst, because the state of affairs in Rome was deteriorating more and more.

With each year Nero became a more cruel and dissolute despot. He removed from himself all more or less honest servants of the throne, such as the famous philosopher Seneca.

He entrusted power to favorite courtiers, who encouraged the emperor’s vile inclinations in every possible way.

In such a state of affairs it was difficult to hope for justice. This was all the more so because Nero, after killing his wife Octavia, married his concubine Poppaea.

As a proselyte to Judaism and under Jewish influence, she could have disposed her imperial husband with hostility toward the Apostle whom they hated.

Fortunately, in the Apostle’s case Nero’s better feelings prevailed. For all his madness, Nero had been raised under the strict discipline of Seneca. He retained in part a sense of justice and Roman conscientiousness.

Therefore, when the Apostle’s case was presented to him, he probably regarded him as merely a kinsman by race and a fellow-believer of Poppaea. Without further investigation, he acquitted him.

As a prisoner, the Apostle was unable to procure his support by his own labor as before (Acts 20:34). In Rome he was probably supported by the zeal of the faithful, not only local Christians, but also other Christian communities founded by him and devoted to him (cf. Phil 4:10 and following; Phil 4:18). "Preaching unhindered": all the more so because his defense before Caesar's tribunal (2 Tim 4:16) and subsequent circumstances served the greater progress of the Gospel. Thus his bonds in Christ became known throughout the whole praetorium and to all the rest (Phil 1:12-13). "Let us therefore," St. Chrysostom exhorts, "imitate Paul, that noble and adamantine soul. Walking in the footsteps of his life, may we sail across the sea of this present life, reach the calm harbor, and be counted worthy of the blessings promised to those who live worthily of Christ. This is by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen."

This was certainly not prevented by the fact that he himself had to procure food and pay for shelter. In the Epistle to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul reports that his circumstances served the greater progress of the Gospel. His bonds in Christ became known throughout the whole praetorium and to all the rest (see Phil 1:12-13). According to St. John Chrysostom's explanation, the Apostle spoke here as if saying: "God so arranged it that my bonds in Christ and for Christ did not remain unknown in the whole judgment hall. This is what they formerly called the royal palaces. And not only in the judgment hall, but also in the whole city." "The evangelical word spread both through him personally and through his fellow workers. Going farther and farther, it reached Caesar's household." Besides the Epistle to the Philippians, the Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Hebrews were also written from Rome at this time. Thus the Apostle's activity there was fervent. "Rome received Paul bound," says St. John Chrysostom, "and was freed from the bonds of error. Like a king who had been in a naval battle and had conquered, he entered the royal city. He had spoken of this beforehand in the Epistle: I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel (see Rom 15:29, 32). Rome saw him bound, and later saw him crowned and glorified. Untiring, he added trophies to trophies. Now he was not put to death. Later, when he had filled the whole world with preaching, he departed this life. With this the writer ends his narrative and leaves the thirsty reader to complete the rest by his own reasoning." "Would you like to know what followed? It was the same as what came before: bonds, sufferings, struggle, imprisonment, plots, slander, and daily death. Have you seen a small part of his deeds? Imagine the rest as being the same. This man is a heaven containing within itself the Sun of righteousness, and therefore he himself is higher than heaven." "To understand Paul, one needs a pure life. Knowing this, let us preserve the health of our soul and imitate Paul. Walking in the footsteps of his life, may we sail across the sea of this present life, reach the calm harbor, and be counted worthy of the blessings promised to those who live worthily of Christ. With Him, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen."

And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion" (2 Tim 4:16-17). By these words he clearly establishes that the first time he was delivered from the mouth of the lion. The Apostle apparently calls Nero this because of his cruelty, so that his preaching might be fully accomplished. For afterward he did not add anything like, "He will deliver me from the mouth of the lion." He saw in the Spirit that his end was near. Therefore, after the words, "I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion," he adds: "The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and save me for His heavenly Kingdom" (2 Tim 4:18), indicating his approaching martyrdom. He foretells it still more clearly in the same Epistle, saying: "I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come" (2 Tim 4:6). He says that when he wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy, only Luke was with him (see 2 Tim 4:11). But at his first defense not even Luke was present (see 2 Tim 4:16). It is likely that Luke ended Acts at the time when he was together with Paul. Let us note that Paul's martyrdom did not occur during the stay in Rome about which Luke writes. Probably, at the beginning of his reign, Nero was more mild in disposition and calmly heard Paul's defense of the faith. But when Nero progressed to brazen and lawless deeds, he laid his hand on the Apostles as well as on others.