Acts 28:30

And Paul The proper name is omitted in the oldest MSS., and this omission supports the rejection of Acts 28:29. It is only the insertion of that verse which rendered the word "Paul" here needful to the sense.

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 3:12). 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 3:12). Last of all Demas was there, soon after to be mentioned as having forsaken the good way through love of this present world (Colossians 3:14; 2 Timothy 4:10). More than this and the few words in this verse we do not know of this first imprisonment.

in his own hired house [R. V.dwelling] 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.

all that came[R. V.went] in 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.

with all confidence, no man forbidding him The word rendered "confidence" [R. V."boldness"] implies that "freedom of speech" which was looked upon by the Athenians as the great mark of their liberty. For Englishmen there must arise the thought that perhaps from some of those Roman soldiers who heard Paul in his prison the message of the Gospel came first to our island.

The historian had now reached the end of his work, and does not even tell the manner of the Apostle's release, though as he mentions the duration of the imprisonment, he must have known how he came to be liberated. But that concerned not the purpose of his record, and so he has no word more. "Victoria Verbi Dei. Paulus Romæ. Apex Evangelii. Actorum Finis" (Bengel).