ministry at Corinth (II Cor. 11: 7-11). In the hour of his own peril, he would remember

that to this devoted pair both he and the Church of the Gentiles owed much, for, sending

them greetings at the close of the epistle to the Romans, he said:

How blessedly unconscious of an "halo" was the apostle! For in this hour of death,

forsaken by most and in extreme distress, his irrepressible spirit bubbled over, and he

used the familiar pet name "Prisca" for the "proper" name Priscilla! What volumes might

be filled at the writing of such a name at such a moment! Who, but the simply great,

would combine martyrdom and pet names, without some sense of the unseemly! Yet so

complete is the Apostle's trust, so victorious his hope, he can slip from the doxology to

endearment without the slightest self consciousness, and God has preserved the record for

all time among His sacred Scriptures. The fact that Paul salutes "the household of

Onesiphorus" suggests that Onesiphorus was either deceased or away from home. After

Onesiphorus, the apostle speaks of Erastus and of his abiding at Corinth. We know

nothing of the motives that moved Erastus, we can only ponder the statement and leave it

there. This reference to Erastus however will prove to be an important item when we

endeavour to arrive at a conclusion of the vexed question concerning Paul's

imprisonment. Some contend that Paul's imprisonment at Rome, as narrated in the

twenty-eighth of Acts, ended in his martyrdom. Some contend that Paul was liberated,

and that during that interval he wrote the first epistle to Timothy and the epistle to Titus,

and that he was subsequently apprehended, taken back to Rome, imprisoned as an

evil-doer, condemned and executed.

We hope to take up these epistles (I Timothy and Titus) as a sequel to the study now

drawing to a close and we may then give all the available arguments that are at our

disposal in settling this important matter.

The fact that Trophimus had been left at Miletum, sick, coupled with the fact that

Epaphroditus had been sick nigh unto death (Phil. 2: 27), and that Timothy suffered

"often infirmities" (I Tim. 5: 23), is an indication that a change of dispensation had

occurred since the miracles of healing were wrought in Melita (Acts 28: 1-10), after

the setting aside of Israel and their hope (28: 20, 25), and the sending of salvation to

the Gentiles subsequent to this crisis (28: 28).

The recognition of the dispensational boundary of  Acts 28:  and the vital

association of Paul's imprisonment with the new dispensation of the mystery, has been

the warp and woof of our ministry since the first line of The Berean Expositor was

penned. We have given Acts 28: a detailed examination in the series devoted to the

Acts of the Apostles, to which we refer the interested reader. Paul not only sends

greetings himself but he mentions by name a number of believers at Rome who join with

him in saluting the saints.  Before he mentions this however, he reverts to the

overwhelming desire that he had to see Timothy, saying: