Paul, seeing that there was no justice for him in Palestine, had appealed to Caesar, as every Roman citizen had the right to do. In due course, he had been despatched to Rome under military escort, and, when he had arrived there, he had been handed over to ‘the captain of the guard’ and allowed to live by himself under the care of a soldier who was his guard (Acts 28:16). Ultimately, although still under guard, he had been allowed to have his own rented lodging (Acts 28:30), which was open to all who cared to come to see him.
In the Authorized Version, we read that Paul said his imprisonment was ‘manifest in all the palace’. The word translated as palace is praitōrion, which can mean either a place or a body of people. When it has the meaning of a place, it has three meanings. (1) Originally, it meant a general’s headquarters in camp, the tent from which he gave his orders and directed his campaign. (2) From that, it very naturally moved on to mean a general’s residence; it could, therefore, mean the emperor’s residence, that is, his palace, although examples of this usage are very rare. (3) By another natural extension, it came to mean a large house or villa, the residence of some wealthy or influential person. Here, praitōrion cannot have any of these meanings, for it is clear that Paul stayed in his own rented lodging, and it does not make sense that this lodging was in the emperor’s palace.
So we turn to the other meaning of praitōrion, a body of people. In this usage, it means the Praetorian Guard or, very much more rarely, the barracks where the Praetorian Guard lived. The second of these meanings we can leave on one side, for it is unlikely that Paul would have rented accommodation in a Roman barracks.
The Praetorian Guard were the Imperial Guard of Rome. They had been set up by Augustus and were a body of 10,000 select troops. Augustus had kept them dispersed throughout Rome and the neighbouring towns. Tiberius had concentrated them in Rome in a specially built and fortified camp. Vitellius had increased their number to 16,000. They served for twelve, and later for sixteen, years. At the close of their term of service, they received the citizenship and a financial payment. Latterly, they became very nearly the emperor’s private bodyguard; and in the end they became a significant problem. They were concentrated in Rome, and there came a time when the Praetorian Guard became nothing less than king-makers; for inevitably it was their nominee who was made emperor every time, since they could impose their will by force, if need be, upon the people. It was to the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, their commanding officer, that Paul was handed over when he arrived in Rome.
Paul repeatedly refers to himself as a prisoner or as being in chains or fetters. He tells the Roman Christians that, although he had done no wrong, he was delivered a prisoner (desmios) into the hands of the Romans (Acts 28:17). In Philippians, he repeatedly speaks of his imprisonment (Philippians 1:7, 1:13, 1:14). In Colossians, he speaks of being in prison for the sake of Christ, and tells the Colossians to remember his chains (Colossians 4:3, 4:18). In Philemon, he calls himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and speaks of being imprisoned for the gospel (Philemon 9:13). In Ephesians, he again calls himself the prisoner for Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:1).
There are two passages in which his imprisonment is more closely defined. In Acts 28:20, he speaks of himself as being bound with this chain; and he uses the same word (halusis) in Ephesians 6:20, when he speaks of himself as an ambassador in chains. It is in this word halusis that we find our key. The halusis was the short length of chain by which the wrist of a prisoner was bound to the wrist of the soldier who was his guard, so that escape was impossible. The situation was this. Paul had been delivered to the captain of the Praetorian Guard, to await trial before the emperor. He had been allowed to arrange a private lodging for himself; but night and day in that private lodging there was a soldier to guard him, a soldier to whom he was chained by his halusis all the time. There would, of course, be a rota of guardsmen assigned to this duty; and in the two years one by one the guardsmen of the Imperial Guard would be on duty with Paul. What a wonderful opportunity! These soldiers would hear Paul preach and talk to his friends. Is there any doubt that, in the long hours, Paul would open up a discussion about Jesus with the soldier to whose wrist he was chained?
His imprisonment had opened the way for preaching the gospel to the finest regiment in the Roman army. No wonder he declared that his imprisonment had actually been for the furtherance of the gospel. All the Praetorian Guard knew why Paul was in prison; many of them were touched for Christ; and the very sight of this gave to the Christians at Philippi fresh courage to preach the gospel and to witness for Christ.
Paul’s chains had removed the barriers and given him access to the finest section of the Roman army, and his imprisonment had been the medicine of courage to the Christian men and women at Philippi.
THE ALL-IMPORTANT PROCLAMATION
Philippians 1:15–18
Some in their preaching of Christ are actuated by envy and strife; some by goodwill. The one preach from love, because they know that I am lying here for the defence of the gospel; the other proclaim Christ for their own partisan purposes, not with pure motives, but thinking to make my bonds gall me all the more. What then? The only result is that in every way, whether as a cloak for other purposes, or whether in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice –
HERE indeed, Paul is speaking from the heart. His imprisonment has been an incentive to preaching. That incentive worked in two ways. There were those who loved him; and, when they saw him lying in prison, they redoubled their efforts to spread the gospel, so that it would lose nothing because of Paul’s imprisonment. They knew that the best way to delight his heart was to see that the work did not suffer because of his unavoidable absence. But others were moved by what Paul calls eritheia, and preached for their own biased motives. Eritheia is an interesting word. Originally, it simply meant working for pay. But anyone who works solely for pay works from a low motive. Such a person is out solely for personal benefit. The word, therefore, came to describe someone who was chiefly interested in developing a career, seeking office merely for self-improvement; and so it came to be connected with politics and to mean canvassing for office. It came to describe self-seeking and selfish ambition, which was out to advance itself and did not care to what methods it stooped to achieve its ends. So there were those who preached even harder now that Paul was in prison, for his imprisonment seemed to present them with a heaven-sent opportunity to advance their own influence and prestige and to lessen his.
There is a lesson for us here. Paul knew nothing of personal jealousy or of personal resentment. As long as Jesus Christ was preached, he did not care who received the credit and the honour. He did not care what other preachers said about him, or how unfriendly they were to him, or how contemptuous they were of him, or how they tried to go one better and outdo him. All that mattered was that Christ was preached. All too often, we resent it when someone else gains some distinction or credit which we do not. All too often, we regard someone as an enemy simply for expressing some criticism of us or of our methods. All too often, we think people can do no good because they do not do things in our way. All too often, the intellectuals have no time for the evangelicals, and the evangelicals question the faith of the intellectuals. All too often, those who believe in the evangelism of education have no use for the evangelism of decision, and those who practise the evangelism of decision have no use for those who feel that some other approach will have more lasting effects. Paul is the great example. He lifted the matter beyond all personalities; all that mattered was that Christ was preached.
THE HAPPY ENDING
Philippians 1:19–20
For I know that this will result in my salvation, because of your prayer for me, and because of the generous help the Holy Spirit of Christ gives to me, for it is my eager expectation and my hope that I shall never on any occasion be shamed into silence, but that on every occasion, even as now, I shall speak with all boldness of speech, so that Christ will be glorified in my body, whether by
