Acts 28:16

Paul at RomeHis work in the Capital, 16-31.

Acts 28:16. Delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard. This officer (στρατοπεδαρχηής , prefect of the prætorian guard) is named in the singular; and this circumstance has been used by Wieseler and others, in conjunction with additional evidence, to prove that St. Paul came to Rome in the early part of 62 A.D. At that time Burrhus was sole commander of the praetorian guard (see Norris, Key to the Acts, p. 155). This argument, however, must not be pressed too confidently; for the language used by St. Luke need only imply a reference to the officer in command at the time.

But Paul was suffered to dwell by himself. In the case of state prisoners sent to Rome from the provinces for trial, it was usual to confine them in a prison adjoining the Praetorian Camp, which was north-east of the city, outside the Porta Viminalis; but sometimes the prisoners were suffered to choose their own residence, under the custody of a soldier. This indulgence was granted to Paul by Burrhus, then Prætorian Præfect, the friend and colleague of Seneca, probably owing to the kindly report sent from Cæsarea by Festus and King Agrippa. Already we have read of the centurion Julius, who brought Paul from the East to Rome, courteously entreating his prisoner (chap, Acts 27:3). It seems as though the Roman officials pitied the brave missionary apostle, although they were unable to resist the strong pressure put on them by the influential Jews of Jerusalem to bring him to trial for his alleged seditious preaching. ‘Tradition points to the vestibule of the Church of Santa Maria, at the junction of the Via Lata and the Corso, as the site of his dwelling; but it has been urged by Dr. Philip, at present working as a missionary in the Ghetto at Rome, in a pamphlet On the Ghetto (Rome, 1874), that this site, forming part of the old Flaminian Way, was then occupied by arches and public buildings, and that it was far more probable that he would fix his quarters near those of his own countrymen. He adds that a local tradition points to No. 2 in the Via Stringhari, just outside the modern Ghetto, as having been St. Paul's dwelling-place' (Plumptre).

With a soldier that kept him. To this gaoler Paul was fastened by a chain, to which the apostle refers in Acts 28:20, and again in his epistles, written during this imprisonment, to foreign churches (see Ephesians 6:20; Philippians 1:7; Philippians 1:13; Philippians 1:18; Colossians 4:18).

The soldier thus chained to him was relieved at stated intervals, and so by means of these stern military guardians each of whom doubtless in turn was won by the sweet patience and glowing earnestness of the captive Paul's bonds in Christ were manifested in the Praetorian Camp, and in all other places (see Philippians 1:13).