Malta

"The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the roots of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever; yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God." (Jonah 2.5 - 6).

That eloquent thanksgiving by the Hebrew prophet Jonah after his deliverance from this same sea may have echoed in Paul's mind upon finding that he and all with him were safe on dry land. It was dry only in a relative sense for apparently the rain was beating down remorselessly, and in the early morning it was bitingly cold. So says Luke who, like the rest, stood there dripping wet after scrambling up from the sea. The wind blew strongly and the great waves came rolling up the beach. Out in the channel the ship from which they had escaped was rapidly breaking up. They were safe, but they needed warmth, shelter and food.

Their plight did not go unobserved. The inhabitants of the island quickly came to their aid. "The barbarous people (natives) showed us no little kindness" continues Luke "for they kindled a fire and received us, every one" (28.2). The term "barbarian" as used by the Greeks did not indicate an uncultured people, as would be denoted by English usage. It was a word describing any people outside their normal circle of contacts in the Roman and Egyptian worlds, without reference to the stage of culture or civilisation achieved. The Maltese of that day were descendants of the Phoenicians and just as cultured as the Greeks and Romans. They were friendly too, and set about doing something practical for these shipwrecked mariners so unceremoniously introduced to their country. Probably some kind of encampment was set up to house the two hundred and seventy - six, and a great fire made around which the shivering men could dry themselves and take stock of the position.

Julius, the centurion, soon turned his official position as a military officer to good account. Not far away was the residence of the Governor of the island, one Publius. Paul and his fellows, Luke and Aristarchus, together no doubt with Julius and his senior men, were entertained at the house of Publius for three days, probably whilst suitable permanent lodgings were being found. This visit heralded a short season notable for the last recorded exercise of miraculous power by Paul and therefore the last to be noted in the New Testament. It is rather remarkable that when, later on in Paul's life, there were two instances of close personal friends and valued fellow - workers, Onesiphorus of Colosse and Trophimus of Ephesus, being seriously ill the Apostle did not use this power to heal them. It is almost as if its exercise was strictly reserved for purposes connected with the witness of the Gospel to unbelievers and not for the converted. At any rate, when Paul found that the father of his host was lying sick of fever and dysentery. The "bloody flux" of the Authorised Version reflects the hazy knowledge of medical matters possessed by our seventeenth century translators. Luke uses the correct medical term ('fever and dysentery' RSV). Paul lost no time in effecting a cure, and in consequence was soon besieged by suppliants from all over the island bringing their sick and diseased for healing.

It is not likely that any question of "faith - healing" in the modern sense of the term is involved here. The subjects of these cures were pagans, worshippers of Roman, Greek and Oriental gods and goddesses. No suggestion is made that they believed in Christ and by faith in the power of His Name were made whole. Paul prayed, and laid his hands on the sufferer, and the healing was effected. Any faith involved in the transaction was that of Paul himself. In this, the proceeding differs from certain similar instances during the lifetime of Christ, when the suppliant was specifically told that if he had faith, then he could be healed. In at least one notable instance the Lord could do no mighty works because of unbelief. When Peter healed the lame man in the Temple porch he said "His Name through faith in his name has made this man strong" (Acts 3.16), but here in Malta there was nothing of that, only the belief that Paul possessed a marvellous power of healing. The account is certainly literally true; Luke is too sober a historian to embellish whatever happened with imaginary details and as a physician he must definitely have known whether these were genuine cures or not. His professional outlook would lead him more likely to tone down the record to a sober note of the facts. One remembers that John Mark wrote of the afflicted woman who had "suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse" (Mark 5. 26). Luke, in his account written a decade or so later, feeling perhaps that Mark had rather overstated the case, merely remarked tersely that she was incurable. The presence of Luke as a witness here is therefore a reliable guarantee that Paul did call upon Divine power and that Divine power was exerted to heal.

To what extent that demonstration advanced the Christian faith in Malta is not recorded and is unknown There is every reason to surmise that at least a number of those concerned, or of the onlookers, were led to become Christians in consequence of what they witnessed, and that when Paul sailed away from the island he left behind him a nucleus which afterwards played their part in furthering the cause of Christ in the world.

Thus passed three months. With the approach of February the seas became safer for sailing and Julius began to look around for a means of getting away. He found another Alexandrian cornship which, more prudent than the ill - fated one that nearly cost them their lives, had laid up for the winter at Malta and was now preparing to resume its voyage to Rome. A passage for the legionaries and their prisoners, and for Paul's companions, was soon arranged. The crew of the wrecked vessel probably remained at Malta until they could find a means of returning to Egypt and home.

The last lap

Before long the travellers were on the last stage of their journey. Rome was now only four hundred miles away and the weather was propitious. The vessel called first at Syracuse in Sicily, across the Straits to Rhegium (modern Reggio) and a day later to Puteoli (modern Puzzuoli) near Naples. Here Julius landed his party with the intention of completing the remaining hundred and forty miles to Rome by road. Perhaps the ship itself was going no further. In this seaside town, says Luke "we found brethren and were desired to stay with them seven days, and so we went toward Rome". Christianity was already well established in Italy if this little place, so far from Rome, possessed a company of believers. The centurion Julius must have been a very accommodating man to wait here a week with his other prisoners purely for Paul's benefit. It is quite likely that he held the Apostle in some esteem, realising that he and his men owed their lives to him. It is evident that Paul was not regarded by the authorities as an ordinary prisoner and Julius probably had orders to treat him with consideration. So for seven days the little party of missionaries enjoyed a brief season of fellowship with their fellow - Christians at Puteoli amid the scenic loveliness of the most beautiful part of Italy. Much of that loveliness was to be destroyed eighteen years later when the sleeping volcano Vesuvius, just across the bay, awoke in fury and blotted out the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, less than twenty miles distant. In both these towns, since their excavation in modern times, there has been found evidence of Christian worship, so that Paul might well have met believers from these places also during that short stay.

The week passed all too quickly; the travellers took their leave of the brethren and set out on the road with their escort. Twenty miles farther on, the party reached the Appian Way, the main highway traversing the length of Italy and ending at the capital. It is not likely that they walked; they were probably provided with horses or asses on which to ride. The legionaries marched on foot, but they were accustomed to that. The journey must have occupied at least a week or ten days. Forty - three miles from the city, at the village of Appii Forum, they were met by a party of Christians from Rome who had heard of the Apostle's approach and had come this distance to welcome him. Ten miles farther, at another village called Tres Tabernae (the "Three Taverns" of Acts 28.15) they were met by another contingent "whom when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage".

Rome

It must have been with quickening interest that the Apostle strained his eyes for his first sight of the city about which he had heard so much. This was Rome, the capital of the world and the mistress of all nations. This was the city whose iron rule had imposed a Roman peace upon all the earth and made it possible for Christianity to spread in the way it did. Paul had a certain admiration for Roman rule and administration. His words in Romans 13 and 1 Tim. 2 illustrate the importance he placed upon the position of the "powers that be" in the Divine scheme of things. These "powers that be", he insists, are ordained by God and those who resist them are resisting the ordinance of God. He counselled that in the Christian services prayer should be offered for kings and all who are in authority, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all goodness and honesty". It must be realised that Paul wrote these words at a time when Christianity was not subject to persecution

Later on the position was decidedly different, and by the time the Book of Revelation was written, ten years or so later, Rome had become synonymous with Babylon, the persecutor of the saints and an object of Divine judgment soon to come.

Rome in Paul's day was a city of four million inhabitants, covering an area about two and a half miles square. It was therefore just about the size of a modern English city such as Leicester. Although adorned with many magnificent public buildings and monuments, temples and palaces, and a greater proportion of parks and open spaces than most English cities, it nevertheless consisted, to a great degree, of tall multi - storey tenement buildings. In these the working classes and the poor lived in crowded and unsanitary conditions. At first Paul passed through the outer suburbs, containing the better class houses and villas of the wealthy. Then he came to the poorer quarters, blocks of flats, five and six stories high, teeming with occupants. Finally he entered the centre of the city where were concentrated government buildings and the palaces of the Caesars.

Here the journey ended. Somewhere near the Forum, the centre of Rome and the centre of the world, the little party entered the barracks of the Praetorian Guard, and the centurion Julius handed over his prisoners. Before entering, Paul might have set eyes on the Miliarium Aureum, a tall column marking the centre of the city and having engraved on its sides the names and distances of the distant cities to which roads radiated from Rome. Jerusalem appeared there as the capital of Judea; Paul might also have noticed another name which was also there, one not so familiar to him. Londinium, the capital of a far distant province called Britain. He may have noticed it; he could not have known that many centuries later that same city of Londinium was to possess a great cathedral of the Christian faith bearing his own name ‑ St. Paul's Cathedral!

Temporarily, he was parted from Luke and Aristarchus, and those two faithful friends went off to find lodgings in the city. It is almost certain that the Christians who had come out to meet them would accompany them back to this point so that the two were not likely to have any difficulty in finding an abiding - place. And it was not long before Paul was reunited with them. The nature of the charge against him did not demand confinement in prison and he was allowed a measure of freedom. He was not to leave Rome but he could make his own arrangements for a place to live and conduct himself as he pleased, the only stipulation being that he must be constantly under the surveillance of a legionary who would remain with him day and night. His occasional references to his chains at this time have given rise to the assumption that he was chained to this soldier. This is possible but it might well be that the reference is metaphorical, and that he was merely not at liberty to be out of his guard's sight.

It must have been the first time for many long years that Paul had a house in which to live. He had been more or less constantly on the move from place to place; now he was perforce compelled to rest. He had "his own hired house" in Rome (Acts 28.30) perhaps sharing it with Luke and Aristarchus, the three of them working at their respective trades in order to support themselves. There was no knowing how long a time would elapse before his case would come up for trial; in the meantime he could realise his long cherished dream of preaching Christ in Rome.

Three days after thus settling in, Paul called a conference of the leading Jews. This does not imply that he ignored the Christian community in the city nor that they were not already well known to the Jewish colony. The fact that Paul was a Pharisee made him unique among the Christians; it gave him a standing in the eyes of orthodox Jews which no other Christian in Rome possessed. The Jews were prepared to come to him and enter into discussion. Perhaps Paul felt that in the liberal atmosphere of Rome he could expect a more tolerant and dispassionate examination of his claims for the Gospel than could be had in fiercely nationalistic Jerusalem. He certainly had a good hearing. They came to him without prejudice or antagonism and were anxious to know what he had to say, remarking only that there was a general prejudice against the Christians among Jews everywhere. It is apparent that they welcomed this opportunity of hearing an authoritative exposition from the most famous Christian apologist of the day. From morning until evening Paul talked to them, "persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the Law of Moses, and out of the prophets . . . and some, believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not".

So far as can be discerned, this was the last time Paul tried to convert his own people. With the close of the Book of Acts at this point we are dependent on stray allusions in the Epistles for information as to his future activities, but it does seem as if from now onward he devoted himself entirely to the Gentiles. That is in keeping with his pronouncement as the disagreeing Jews departed from his house. "Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it". Christianity was now spreading like wildfire throughout the Roman empire and eastward into Asia. Christian communities existed in countries so far apart as Britain in the west and the north - west of India in the east. No one really knows how the Gospel spread so quickly; there is not much doubt that many Roman soldiers became Christians and carried the faith with them as they were moved from place to place. The activities of the twelve Apostles, apart from those of Peter and Paul, are only vaguely known. It it is fairly certain that several of them were as active in the lands east of Judea as Peter and Paul are known to have been in the west, but there was no Luke with them to act as chronicler and historian. By one means and another during the years between the Crucifixion in AD 33 and Paul's arrival at Rome in AD 60 the Gospel had penetrated every part of the Empire and quite a few places outside. The bigoted refusal of orthodox Jewry to recognise this universal appeal of the Gospel, that God is the God of Gentile as well as Jew, was still reflected in the thinking of most Jewish Christians and in consequence the purely native churches in Judea and Galilee were either stationary or retrogressing. The Jewish rebellion of A.D. 67-70 which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and the depopulation of all Judea virtually extinguished hope of further missionary work from that centre and although the Jerusalem church reformed after the catastrophe the flaming torch had left them for ever. As the years went by those native Jewish churches dwindled until there was nothing left. Words spoken by Jesus half a century previously had become burningly true, "the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof".

This is where Luke concludes his narrative. Paul, dwelling two years in Rome in his own rented house, under constant guard but free to preach and teach as he saw fit, received all who came in to him. Most of those who came were Gentiles ‑ Romans, Greeks and men and women of all nations who for one reason or another had business in Rome. The Christian assemblies in the city were growing in numbers and must have owed much to Paul's continued fellowship and ministry. During this period he wrote what are called the Pastoral Epistles, to the Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians and that to Philemon. He received visits from some of his old friends from Asia ‑ Epaphroditus, Tychicus, Demas, Timothy, John Mark ‑ and confident of release when he was called to trial, laid plans for the future. The indomitable spirit of the Apostle refused to consider any relaxation from service while any remained in the world to whom the Gospel had not been preached. The Book of Acts concludes with this remarkable man still at work "preaching the Kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him"

(To be continued)

AOH