Videos—JR: Caesarea to Myra
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Rome—Caesarea: Departure
Paul languished two years incarcerated in Caesarea due to a miscarriage of provincial justice. The Roman governor in Caesarea, Felix, held Paul without justification: He was looking for a bribe from Paul, but also he was doing Jerusalem leaders a favor (Acts 24:26–27). Rome replaced corrupt Felix with Festus. Jewish leaders lobbied inexperienced Festus to move Paul's trial back to Jerusalem as a ruse to kill him. To avoid this Jerusalem jeopardy, Paul appealed to Caesar. A Roman citizen had appealed to the emperor, but Felix had left Festus with a prisoner with no witnesses for the case, and no case for the prosecution. How could Festus write legal transfer papers to Rome? Festus saw the experienced Jewish leader, Agrippa II, visiting Caesarea to make a call on the new governor, as his ticket for the task. Paul gives a defense before Agrippa. All assembled, including the tribunes of Caesarea (Acts 25:23), agreed Paul was innocent. The tribune who commanded Julius probably relayed all this information to his centurion, Julius, when giving him orders to take Paul to Rome. This likely communication positively impacted the future relationship of Paul and Julius. Note that the story of the journey to Rome starts in Acts 27:1, and the grammar suddenly shifts to first person plural, “we.” When Paul begins to move toward Rome—God's original will for Paul back in Ephesus on the 3MJ (Acts 19:21)—by no accident Luke decidedly rejoins the narrative storyline. Further, Luke is fronting himself as an eyewitness to the voyage and shipwreck of Paul.
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