Acts 28:30

ὁ Παῦλος omitted with אABE. Not represented in Vulg.

30. ST PAUL’S PREACHING AND NOTICE OF HIS RELEASE

30. ἐνέμεινεν δέ, and he remained. The non-insertion of the proper name by the oldest MSS. here comes about because they had nothing of Acts 28:29. It is only the addition of that verse which rendered Παῦλος here needful to the sense.

διετίαν ὅλην, two whole years. Of these years we have no history, except such as we can gather from the four Epistles which were written from Rome during the time (see above on Acts 28:16). We know that from first to last the chain galled both his body and mind (Ephesians 3:1; Ephesians 4:1; Philippians 1:13; Philippians 1:16; Colossians 4:18; Philem. Acts 28:1; Acts 28:9-10), and that his case was at times an object of much anxiety (Philippians 2:23-24). We also learn from the same letters that beside Luke and Aristarchus (Acts 27:27), he had also the fellowship, for some time at least, of Tychicus, who (Ephesians 6:21) was the bearer of his letter to Ephesus; of Timothy, whom (Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; Philemon 1:1) he joins with himself in the greeting to the Churches of Philippi and Colossæ and also in that to Philemon. In the former of these Churches Timothy had been a fellow-labourer with the Apostle. Epaphroditus came with the Philippian contributions to the need of the imprisoned Apostle (Philippians 4:18). Onesimus found out St Paul when in flight from his master he made his way to Rome (Colossians 4:9; Philemon 1:10). Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, was also there, and another Jewish convert, Jesus, called Justus, of whom we only know that the Apostle considered him worthy to be called a fellow-worker unto the kingdom of God (Colossians 4:10-11). Epaphras, from the churches in Laodicea and Hierapolis, had come to visit Paul, and to bring him the greetings doubtless of the Christians there, and carry back some words of earnest counsel and advice from the Roman prisoner (Colossians 4:12). Last of all Demas was there, soon after to be mentioned as having forsaken the good way through love of this present world (Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:10). More than this and the few words in this verse we do not know of this first imprisonment.

ἐν ἰδίῳ μισθώματι, in his own hired house. This was probably a later arrangement than the ξενία spoken of in Acts 28:23. The means for such hiring were provided by the liberality of the Philippians and others, for the Apostle could no longer with his own hands minister even to his own wants.

πάντας τοὺς εἰσπορευομένους πρὸς αὐτόν, all that went unto him. For the fulness of Gospel freedom had now been reached, and the word of God and the kingdom of God were open to all who sought unto them.