Philippians 1:12

The things which happened unto me — viz., since he parted from them (see Acts 20:6) — his arrest at Jerusalem, and the long captivity of years, first at Cæsarea, then at Rome. Nothing could have appeared to be a more fatal blow to the progress of the gospel; but St. Paul assures them that “rather” (i.e., on the contrary) all these things tended to its furtherance. He had intended to see Rome (Acts 19:21; Romans 15:23), since his work in Greece and Asia was now over. He did visit it, although in chains; and his acquaintance with the Roman soldiers at Cæsarea probably prepared for him an opening at Rome, which he could not otherwise have found, even into Cæsar’s household.