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From: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31

Arrival in Rome (Continuation)

[16] And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with
the soldier that guarded him.

Paul and the Roman Jews

[17] After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews; and when
they had gathered, he said to them, “Brethren, though I had done nothing against
the people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered prisoner from Jeru-
salem into the hands of the Romans. [18] When they had examined me, they
wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty
in my case. [19] But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Cae-
sar though I had no charge to bring against my nation. [20] For this reason there-
fore I have asked to see you and speak with you since it is because of the hope
of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

Paul’s Ministry in Rome

[30] And he lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all
who came to him, [31] preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the
Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and unhindered.

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Commentary:

16. Paul must have arrived in Rome around the year 61. He was allowed to stay
in a private house; in other words he was under “custodia militaris”, which meant
that the only restriction was that he was guarded by a soldier at all times.

This is the last verse where St Luke uses the first person plural.

17. In keeping with his missionary custom, Paul immediately addresses the
Jews of Rome; in fact there is no further mention of his contact with the Christians
in the city. The Apostle wants to give his fellow Jews a kind of last opportunity to
hear and understand the Gospel. He presents himself as a member of the Jewish
community who wants to take a normal part in the life of that community and
feels he has to explain his own position.

19. The use of Roman privileges by a Jew might have been regarded by Jews as
a sign of disrespect towards their own beliefs and customs. Therefore, Paul tries
to explain why he took the exceptional step of invoking his Roman citizenship
and appealing to Caesar.

30-31. “Not only was he not forbidden to preach in Rome”, St Bede writes, “but
despite the enormous power of Nero and all his crimes which history reports, he
remained free to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to the furthest parts of the West,
as he himself writes to the Romans: ‘At present, however, I am going to Jerusa-
lem with aid for the saints’ (Rom 15:25); and a little later: ‘When therefore I have
completed this, and have delivered to them what has been raised, I shall go on
by way of you to Spain’ (v. 28). Finally he was crowned with martyrdom in the
last years of Nero” (”Super Act Expositio, ad loc.”).

We do not know exactly what happened at the end of the two years. It may be
that Paul’s Jewish accusers did not appear, or they may have argued their case
before the imperial tribunal and Paul was found not guilty. At any event, he was
set free and Luke considers his task done—the work God gave him to do when
he inspired him to write his book.

“If you ask me”, St John Chrysostom observes, “why St Luke, who stayed with
the Apostle up to his martyrdom, did not bring his narrative up to that point, I will
reply that the Book of the Acts, in the form that has come down to us, perfectly
fulfills its author’s purpose. For the evangelists’ only aim was to write down the
most essential things” (”Hom. on Acts”, 1).

The kind of conventional way the book concludes has led many commentators
(from early times up to the present day) to think that it had already been finished
before Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome came to an end. Christian tradition has
nothing very concrete to say about exactly when the Acts of the Apostles was
written.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.