177
d 11-13. After three months. Departure.
A2 28:11-17.
e 14.
BRETHREN
Brethren found at Puteoli.
e 15.
Brethren met at Appii forum.
ON THE
ROUTE
d 16,17. After three days Arrival.
TO ROME.
f
A3 28:17-22.
17. Chief of Jews called. Sunkaleo.
g 17. Laws and customs of people and fathers.
JEWS AT
h 18. Romans found no cause of death.
ROME.
i 19. Paul spoken against. (Antilego).
f 20. Cause shown why Jews called (Parakaleo).
g 20. Hope of Israel.
h 21. Jews showed no harm.
i 22. This sect spoken against (Antilego).
Paul's relation with Israel during the whole period of the Acts attested (Acts 28:17-22)
It will be remembered that when writing the epistle to the Romans, the apostle expressed his great longing to
meet them (Rom. 1:10-12), telling them that when he did come he would come in the fulness of the blessing of the
gospel of Christ (Rom. 15:29). It is of great importance therefore to notice, that when at last the opportunity is
presented, those whom the apostle first actually saw, by his own request, were the `chief of the Jews' (Acts 28:17).
The apostle's primary object in so doing is on the surface. He knew by bitter experience what an influence the Jew,
in his fanatical obstinacy and religious pride, had even over temperate and just Roman rulers, and the character of
the Emperor before whose tribunal he was to appear made it imperative that the Jews in Rome should not be
permitted to weight the scales of justice. The apostle did not cover this very human purpose under a cloak of false
piety, but manfully told these Jewish leaders his object:
`Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I
delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. Who, when they had examined me, would
have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. But when the Jews spake against it, I was
constrained to appeal unto Cæsar; not that I had ought to accuse my nation of' (Acts 28:17-19).
Let us observe the following features:
Paul still addressed the chief of the Jews as `Men and brethren', a title which, as he explains in Romans 9,
belonged to Israel according to the flesh. The great change wherein `the twain' were created `one new man' had not
yet been announced, and Israel as a nation still stood before God. From Acts 13:15 it is clear that this form of
address was not necessarily a Christian one, for it was used by the ruler of the synagogue. When Paul used it for the
first time in the Acts, he added, by way of explanation, `children of the stock of Abraham' (Acts 13:26); the added
words, `and whosoever among you feareth God', is not an expansion, but addressed to a secondary company. So, in
Acts 13:38, `Men and brethren' is the mode of address to those who in verse 41 were to be called `despisers' and, as
verse 42 makes clear, were `Jews' as distinct from `Gentiles'. We find Peter and James using the same form of
address at the council at Jerusalem, where none but Hebrew Christians were present. We meet the expression no
more until Paul addresses the Jews in Acts 22:1; 23:1, and for the last time in 28:17. To those who have learned to
love and appreciate the hidden beauties of the Scriptures, it is no surprise to discover that this form of address occurs
in the Acts just twelve times, twelve being most evidently the number of Israel.
The apostle declared that he had committed nothing against `the people' or the customs of the fathers. Who, in
Paul's estimate, were `the people'? There is but one answer; Israel. In the same verse where we found the ruler of