Acts 28 (ESV)✞: Paul on Malta, Paul Arrives at Rome, Paul in Rome
Passage
We get to the end of the book of Acts and it almost feels anticlimactic. The last few passages have been leading up to Paul’s arrival in Rome where he’ll stand before Caesar, and now he finally arrives but the passage—the book—ends before he actually does so. Perhaps Luke didn’t have to explain anything about Paul’s meeting with Caesar (which I assume he eventually had), maybe everyone in that day already knew what happened so it was good form to end the backstory at the point of the story that everyone knew. Maybe, as some speculate, the book of Acts was written during the interim period before Paul even got his chance – he was, after all, under house arrest in Rome for two years. (I happened to have just started a biography of Paul as I wrote this post but hadn’t even gotten through the introduction. If it explains what happens next, I won’t read it in time for this post to be published.)
Perhaps it’s bad form to start a blog post about a passage of the Bible calling it “anticlimactic,” but Acts has always seemed to have a “non-ending” to me, it’s not like this is the first time I’m noticing it.
In the last passage Paul and his fellow prisoners and the Roman soldiers had been in a shipwreck, and here we’re told the island they ended up on is called Malta. The people there welcome everyone from the boat and start a fire to warm them, and once again God shows His providential care to ensure that Paul gets to Rome:
3 When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. 4 When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” 5 He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.
They stay on the island for a few days. During the course of that time Paul heals the father of the island’s chief of dysentery, after which everyone on the island who is sick comes to Paul for healing.
After a few days they leave the island and eventually make their way to Rome. When they get there Paul is once again “under guard” but essentially living a normal life. He’s under house arrest with a guard stationed with him to ensure he doesn’t escape.
He calls the local Jewish leaders to his house so that he can start a dialogue with them and it actually starts out pretty well:
17 After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem 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 because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar—though I had no charge to bring against my nation. 20 For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.” 21 And they said to him, “We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you. 22 But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”
I think this is a reasonable start to a dialogue: “We’ve heard about this sect, and that a lot of people are speaking against it, but don’t actually know much about it, so tell us more.”
They make an appointment to have a fulsome chat about it, and quite a few of them return to hear Paul speak. He spends a whole day at it, trying to convince them from the Scriptures about Jesus, but he gets mixed results. Some believe, others don’t, and they end up disagreeing among themselves.
The day ends thusly:
25 And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:
26 “‘Go to this people, and say,
“You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
27 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed;
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’
28 Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”
Which, to my ears, seems harsh. Luke doesn’t record the kind of violent response Paul had gotten from other Jewish leaders, he just got mixed results: some believed and some didn’t. Of course, they’d had an entire day of Paul trying to convince them that Luke obviously can’t record for us, so this isn’t coming out of nowhere.
Regardless, the chapter—and, thus the book—ends like this:
30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
To me, it’s kind of fitting that the book of Acts ends with Paul teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, since right after the book of Acts we come to a series of Paul’s letters, full of his teachings: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. But, as mentioned, a major “plot point” is just left hanging – does he ever stand before Caesar? And if so, what’s the result?
Whatever circumstances led to the point where Luke didn’t record this—i.e. whether he decided not to write about it, or if he wrote this book before it happened—we can be sure that God didn’t feel it needed to be included. We have what we need.
Thoughts
For some reason I’m really stuck on the fact that Acts ends where it does. 🙃 It does make me wish I’d been able to finish the biography of Paul I’d started reading before getting here; if Paul did end up standing before the emperor, I assume it will be mentioned there…
Healing
There are those in the modern Christian Church who believe physical healing is still a thing—that it should still be commonplace—and those who don’t believe healing or other types of miracles are a thing anymore, or believe that miracles can happen (because God is still powerful), but that they’re rare.
One point in favour of those who believe miracles still happen would be a read-through of the book of Acts, where it seems Paul is healing the sick everywhere he goes. It’s so common in Acts for Paul to be healing people that by the end of the book it’s no longer surprising; he’s in a new place, of course one of the first things he does is start healing people! It just seems to be a normal part of his ministry, demonstrating the power of God in a way that matches the preaching he does.
Another point in favour of those who believe miracles still happen is the fact that it’s only Westerners who tend to be so critical of the idea of healing in the modern world; in other parts of the world it’s not seen as being so out of the question. Westerners think the rest of the world is backward and simplistic; the rest of the world wonders why Westerners are so close-minded that they think the visible world is all that exists.
Despite saying all of this, if I personally hear of someone who claims to be a “healer” I’m not going to believe it. In my context, where I live, it’s much more likely to be a charlatan than genuine miracles from God. But then a person like me has to content with a book like Acts where healing is very, very commonplace.
After Acts
Though a meeting with Caesar is never recorded, we know that this imprisonment in Rome is not the end of Paul’s life. From what I read (despite not having finished the biography I keep mentioning for some reason), he was in prison in Rome around A.D. 60–62, then released, then imprisoned again—and martyred—around A.D. 66.
The folks who wrote the ESV Study Bible see that as evidence that Luke probably wrote Acts during that two-year period of Paul’s first imprisonment, hence the abrupt ending to the book:
Some scholars date Acts c. A.D. 70. This assumes that Acts was written after the Gospel of Luke (Acts 1:1) and that Luke used the Gospel of Mark as one of his sources (Luke 1:1–2). (Early tradition has Mark’s Gospel written after Peter’s death, which most likely occurred in the mid-60s.) Others date Acts in the 70s or 80s. They hold that the primary purpose of Acts was to give an account of how and where the gospel spread, rather than to be a defense of Paul’s ministry (thus accounting for the omission of the events at the end of his life). Thus the gospel spread to “the end of the earth” (1:8)—that is, to Rome, which represented the end of the earth as the center of world power. But a number of scholars date Acts as early as A.D. 62, basing their view primarily on the abrupt ending of the book. Since Acts ends with Paul in Rome under house arrest, awaiting his trial before Caesar (28:30–31), it would seem strange if Luke knew about Paul’s release (a proof of his innocence), possibly about his defense before Caesar (fulfilling 27:24), and about his preaching the gospel as far as Spain (…), but then did not mention these events at the end of Acts. It seems most likely, then, that the abrupt ending is an indication that Luke wrote Acts c. A.D. 62, before these events occurred.
ESV Study Bible
None of this, of course, changes how one reads Paul’s letters, or his understanding of Christianity, or even of our reading of the events in the book of Acts itself. It’s just a tantalizing little bit of history that I’m interested in.
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