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Festus was sent by Nero to be Felix's successor. Under him Paul,
having made his defense, was sent bound to Rome Aristarchus was with
him, whom he also somewhere in his epistles quite naturally calls his
fellow-prisoner.
And Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, brought his history
to a close at this point, after stating that Paul spent two whole
years at Rome as a prisoner at large, and preached the word of God
without restraint. Thus after he had made his defense it is said that
the apostle was sent again upon the ministry of preaching, and that
upon coming to the same city a second time he suffered martyrdom. In
this imprisonment he wrote his second epistle to Timothy, in which he
mentions his first defense and his impending death. But hear his
testimony on these matters: "At my first answer," he says, "no
man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may
not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me,
and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known,
and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the
mouth of the lion." He plainly indicates in these words that on the
former occasion, in order that the preaching might be fulfilled by
him, he was rescued from the mouth of the lion, referring, in this
expression, to Nero, as is probable on account of the latter's
cruelty. He did not therefore afterward add the similar statement,
"He will rescue me from the mouth of the lion"; for he saw in the
spirit that his end would not be long delayed. Wherefore he adds to
the words, "And he delivered me from the mouth of the lion," this
sentence: "The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will
preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom," indicating his speedy
martyrdom; which he also foretells still more clearly in the same
epistle, when he writes, "For I am now ready to be offered, and
the time of my departure is at hand." In his second epistle to
Timothy, moreover, he indicates that Luke was with him when he
wrote, but at his first defense not even he. Whence it is probable
that Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles at that time, continuing
his history down to the period when he was with Paul. But these
things have been adduced by us to show that Paul's martyrdom did not
take place at the time of that Roman sojourn which Luke records. It
is probable indeed that as Nero was more disposed to mildness in the
beginning, Paul's defense of his doctrine was more easily received;
but that when he had advanced to the commission of lawless deeds of
daring, he made the apostles as well as others the subjects of his
attacks.
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