45. The Activity of the Apostle Paul After His Release From His First Captivity. A Visit to the East. The Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus. The Journey to Spain. A New Arrest in Ephesus, a Second Captivity in Rome, and His Martyric Death

After his release from the first imprisonment, the Apostle Paul probably fulfilled his desire to visit the churches he had founded in the East, although in this regard—in the absence of direct historical evidence—there exist only a number of conjectures. According to the most probable conjecture, confirmed by tradition, the apostle visited Jerusalem once more and then set out to visit also those churches which, despite their spiritual bond with him, had nevertheless «not seen his face in the flesh» (Col. 2:1) — namely Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis. Finding a lodging, as he had hoped, in the hospitable house of Philemon, the apostle surveyed the surrounding churches of Asia Minor once more, including the church of Ephesus. Since various disorders in church life had been observed there, and even the germs of the error against which he had prophetically warned the Ephesian elders in his farewell address to them at Miletus, he found it necessary upon leaving Ephesus to leave behind a successor in the management of church affairs, and he entrusted this important office to Timothy, who thereby became the first bishop outside the circle of the apostles. The duties laid upon Timothy were important and complex. He was to govern the presbyters, many of whom were older than he in years; to distribute remuneration among them according to each man’s labours; to adjudicate disputes and complaints; to oversee charitable works and women’s communities; to ordain presbyters and deacons. Beyond this, the young bishop had to pacify the passions of those discontented with his authority—and with the apostle himself, whom some, on account of his advancing years, considered incapable of further apostolic activity and of governing the churches. Taking advantage of the apostle’s prolonged absence, bold impostors had appeared in Ephesus—men like Hymenaeus, Philetus, and Alexander—who came forward with new doctrines contrary to true Christianity and who rejected the apostle’s authority. On the one hand the error of the Judaizers, on the other the fantasies of Alexandrian philosophy were beginning to spread among the Ephesian Christians and to cloud the bright and pure faith they had received from the apostle. In view of so many difficulties the apostle did not leave the young bishop without his authoritative guidance, and soon after his departure from Ephesus wrote to him the first epistle, in which he laid out a series of instructions for acting in trying circumstances. In this epistle the apostle also charged his beloved son and fellow-worker to «wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and made shipwreck of their faith. Among these,» the apostle adds, «are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme» (1Tim. 1:18–20). The whole epistle is filled with truly pastoral instructions such as Timothy would need in fulfilling his high duty as chief shepherd of a church in so large and bustling a city as Ephesus. The apostle concluded his epistle by repeating a warning he had given before. «O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you» (6:20–21).

From Ephesus the apostle appears to have proceeded to Macedonia, visited Corinth, and from there visited the island of Crete, or Candia, together with his other beloved co-worker Titus. The apostle had already had occasion to visit the southern shores of this island during the brief stop of the Alexandrian ship that suffered complete wreck off the island of Malta. One might suppose that the seeds of Christianity were sown by the Apostle to the Nations on that island at that time; but since the brief stop at the Fair Havens had been far too short for this, it is more probable that the first seeds of Christianity were brought here by those Cretan Jews who had heard the wondrous preaching of the Apostle Peter on the feast of Pentecost. The Cretans had not enjoyed a good reputation, and even their compatriot Epimenides composed a sharp epigram about them which ran: «Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons»; it is therefore no wonder that Christianity did not flourish among them as it did elsewhere. It soon became mingled with various local Jewish superstitions, and disorders began in the church itself. In order to set church affairs there in order and uphold the truth of the Christian proclamation, the apostle left Titus in Crete, ordaining him bishop just as he had ordained Timothy. Titus was also one of the most devoted and beloved members of the noble circle of friends and disciples of the Apostle Paul. As he was a Greek by birth, the Apostle Paul—by whom he had been converted—took him with him to Jerusalem on that memorable visit which concluded with the recognition of the freedom of the Gentiles from the yoke of the Mosaic law (Gal. 3; Tit. 1:4). Titus stood in particularly close relations with Corinth, to which the apostle had sent him three times during the disorders in that frivolous community (2Cor. 7–8). The warmth with which the Apostle Paul always speaks of him as his brother, companion, and fellow-worker, as well as the anxious unease that made the apostle positively wretched when he failed to meet him in Troas, show how dear he was to the apostle as a helper in his great apostolic work. In order to support him in the difficult duties of his new office, the apostle soon after leaving Crete wrote to him an epistle filled, like the epistle to Timothy, with various instructions such as he might need in carrying out his episcopal ministry in the church entrusted to his governance. This epistle is known under the title of the «Epistle to Titus.» In it the apostle, among other things, warns Titus against various false teachers and charges him to «rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth» (1:13–14). As the apostle had earlier instructed Timothy, so he now instructed Titus to «avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law; for they are unprofitable and worthless.» In this epistle, moreover, «heretics» are mentioned for the first time in the precise ecclesiastical sense of the word—as persons who have broken not only with the Church but with her sound teaching. The apostle gave instruction on how to relate to such persons. «As for a person who stirs up division,» he says, «after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned» (3:9–11).

Having set church affairs in order in the East, the apostle set out once more toward the West, and on this occasion, according to tradition, penetrated even into Spain—the land toward which the apostle’s thoughts had long been directed (Rom. 15:24). That distant Iberian peninsula was at the time regarded as a land of wonders, just as the newly discovered America would later be regarded by the Old World. The fabulous riches of the land attracted numerous settlers and traders to its shores, and the wild country with its wretched native hovels was soon covered with flourishing cities and traversed by magnificent Roman roads. The Iberians quickly assimilated Roman culture, adopted the Roman language and Roman customs, and from their midst came forth noted thinkers and writers—among others the famous philosopher Seneca, a native of the Spanish city of Corduba. Such a land offered rich scope for Christian preaching as well, and according to tradition it was the great Apostle to the Nations who brought it here, wishing to fulfil in all exactness the commandment of his Divine Master, who had enjoined him to go and make disciples of all nations—to the ends of the earth.

The Apostle Paul’s sojourn in Spain was not only a new advance of the kingdom of God in the world, but also served in the hands of God’s Providence as a means of preserving the apostle’s life from a great danger to which it would undoubtedly have been exposed had he remained in Rome. At about this very time a terrible storm broke over Christianity in Rome, raised by the pagan world. The madness of Nero, who year by year was being ever more thoroughly transformed into a dreadful monster of vice and every depravity, culminated in the tenth year of his reign in a terrible fire that on the anniversary of the burning of Rome by the Gauls once again reduced the capital of the world to a heap of ashes and rubble. The people were driven beyond endurance by this terrible disaster and thirsted for vengeance. An ominous rumour was circulating among the people that the author of the dreadful calamity was Nero himself—who had not only taken no measures to check the destructive element, but had from the height of his palace tower, in full theatrical costume, watched the awesome spectacle and sung of the sack of Troy. More than that: after the conflagration he not only failed to take any steps to relieve the wretched condition of the inhabitants, but seized the opportunity afforded by the fire to appropriate as much vacant land as possible, on which he began with insane extravagance to erect for himself the so-called «Golden House,» declaring that now at last he would have accommodation somewhat appropriate to his human dignity. All of this inevitably contributed to the birth and spread of the suspicion that Nero was guilty of this terrible disaster. The danger was clearly of a dreadful nature, from which no force of the praetorian guard surrounding him could have saved the emperor. It was necessary to avert this danger, and Nero with satanic heartlessness laid all the blame on the most innocent and meek of people—the Roman Christians, with whom he was already partly acquainted from the trial of the Apostle Paul. The people thirsted for vengeance, and no sooner were these supposed enemies pointed out to them than they fell upon them with truly bestial ferocity and bloodthirstiness. Nero himself stood at the head of this vile atrocity, and the streets, so recently laid waste by fire, were drenched with the blood of thousands of innocent people. And to the shame of humanity, not only the mob but also—at least morally—the most enlightened people of the time took part in this terrible slaughter of innocent persons. Recounting this massacre of Christians, the enlightened Roman historian Tacitus did not fail to utter in passing some of the vilest slanders against the Christians, about whom he evidently had only the most vague notions. «Nero,» in the words of Tacitus, «charged and punished with the most exquisite tortures a class of persons hated for their vices, whom the populace called Christians. Christ, the founder of this sect, had been put to death by the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius, and the pernicious superstition, checked for a time, broke out again not only in Judaea, where this evil first took root, but even in the city, to which everything atrocious and shameful flows together from all quarters and finds supporters.» The haughty contempt of Tacitus prevented him from acquainting himself properly with the faith and life of the Christians, and in speaking of them he confines himself to the most groundless accusations. He speaks of their teaching as wild and shameful, though it breathed peace and purity; he accuses them of being animated by an ineradicable hatred, whereas the fundamental truth of their teaching was universal love of mankind. The people, he says, called them «Christians»; though they are, in his view, innocent of the charge brought against them of being seditious incendiaries—for which they were put to death by torment—they represented in his eyes nevertheless such a class of criminal and depraved sectarians that they could be classed together with the worst dregs of Roman society. Tacitus then says that first «those were arrested who confessed, and then on the information of these a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of arson as for their hatred of the human race.» Here the famous Roman historian is evidently repeating entirely the rumours of the street mob and, in accusing the Christians of hating mankind, clearly confuses them with the Jews, whom he elsewhere accuses of being «hostile to all except themselves.» But he also gives a terrible picture of the persecution itself. «For their punishment,» he says, «every sort of mockery was employed. Covered with the skins of wild beasts, they were torn by dogs, or fastened to crosses and set on fire, to serve as torches after dark when daylight failed. Nero offered his own gardens for this spectacle and gave a chariot race, mingling with the crowd in the costume of a charioteer, or standing amid them in his chariot. Hence, even for criminals who deserved the most exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of pity, because they seemed to be suffering not for the public good but to satisfy the cruelty of one man.» Where the vast basilica of the Apostle Peter now rises, the gardens of Nero once stood. In those terrible days they were thronged by exulting crowds, through whom the emperor careered in frivolous humiliation, while on every side innocent people died a slow death on shameful crosses. Along the alleys of those gardens in the dark autumn nights blazed terrible torches, beneath which the ground blackened and reddened with streams of smoking blood—and each of those living torches was a martyr Christian in his garment of fire. At the same time in a nearby amphitheatre, before twenty-two thousand spectators, hungry dogs tore to pieces some of the best and purest men and women, wrapped with vile inventiveness in the skins of bears or wolves! Thus Nero baptised in the blood of martyrs the city that for centuries was to be the capital of an entire half of the world!

Although the Apostle Paul had escaped the main storm of persecution against Christians and could continue his work of spreading the Gospel and strengthening the churches for a little while longer, his own end was visibly drawing near. The persecution raised against Christians in Rome found a sympathetic echo in many provincial cities as well, where various representatives of Roman authority, slavishly attuned to the pulse of public life in Rome itself, servilely imitated it in the cities entrusted to their governance, so as to demonstrate their zeal in the service of Caesar. It is no wonder that the position of Christians everywhere became heavier and more dangerous after this, for they began everywhere to arouse suspicion and hostility against themselves, and this hostility grew all the bolder because it could always count on the support of the authorities. The bitterest enemies of the Apostle Paul naturally made use of this, and upon his return from the far west to the east they took every measure to satisfy their hatred of him. When he visited Ephesus again, a certain coppersmith named Alexander—probably one of those craftsmen and artisans who had once thirsted for the apostle’s blood and caused a terrible uproar in the city—denounced him to the authorities as a dangerous enemy of public order (2&Tim. 4:14–15). As a result the apostle was arrested again and sent once more in chains to Rome. There he no longer enjoyed the same comparative freedom as during his first imprisonment, because Christians were now regarded as dangerous enemies of the state. Yet even in this difficult situation the apostle continued his preaching to all who came into contact with him and gained several more converts (2&Tim. 4:21).

Meanwhile, through the streets of Rome the furious cry of the mob demanding the persecution of Christians continued to ring out loudly. “Christians to the lions!” — this cry had become a kind of motto of the street rabble ever since the great fire. Therefore the trial of the apostle could not be put off much longer. Yet it must be borne in mind that, despite the inflamed passions, the Roman court maintained that strict impartiality for which it had become famous throughout the world and which the Apostle Paul himself had experienced more than once. The examination of his case was to proceed according to all the rules of Roman judicial procedure. As a Roman citizen the apostle was entitled to defend his innocence in person, and since there was insufficient evidence to decide the matter, the trial was postponed for a time and the apostle had to go back to the gloomy prison to await his fate. From this prison he wrote his last epistle—his second letter to his beloved Timothy. After reminding Timothy to “stir up the gift of God” that had been given him through the laying on of hands, the apostle repeated his warning against the corrupt empty talk of such false teachers as Hymenaeus and Philetus, and likewise foretold what dreadful days still awaited the Church. Then, speaking of his own situation, the apostle openly declares that he is already being poured out as an offering, and the time of his departure has come. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved His appearing.” Having pointed to his oppressive loneliness—for all his co-workers, except Luke, had gone off to various countries—he asked Timothy to come to him as soon as possible and to bring Mark with him, who had proved useful to him in ministry. At the same time the apostle charged Timothy, when he came, to bring also the cloak he had left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments. Then, warning Timothy against Alexander the coppersmith who had done the apostle so much harm, he closes with the transmission of greetings from brothers newly converted by him—Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, and Claudia. “The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.”

It is not known whether Timothy managed to reach the Apostle Paul while he was still alive. His case came before a new hearing, and this time the majority of judges, perhaps under pressure from the mob, inclined toward a guilty verdict, and the Apostle Paul was sentenced to beheading. His martyrdom took place in the thirteenth year of Nero’s reign, specifically on the 29th of June, which day is honored by the Church as the feast of the greatest of the apostles together with his fellow apostle Peter, who suffered martyrdom on the same day.

Such was the end of the life of the great Apostle to the Nations, who served the Gospel more than all the other apostles. He was truly a chosen vessel of God, in whom the greatest and most varied gifts were placed. “God gave great gifts to many other saints,” says one recent biographer of the Apostle Paul, “but no other man of God has ever attained such heights in so many gifts, has never received the gifts of the Holy Spirit in so generous an outpouring, has never borne in his mortal body so evident a seal of the Lord. In his lifetime he was in no way behind the chiefest of the apostles, and he undoubtedly towers grandly above the greatest of all the saints who have since that time sought to follow his example in service and devotion to the Lord.” The epistles he left behind became one of the inexhaustible sources of true knowledge of God and spiritual edification, and the Christian world rightly honors in him its greatest teacher, before whom all other subsequent laborers in God’s field pale.

The benches and general appearance of the Areopagus meeting place have been preserved to this day.