The circumstance of his being again in Rome a prisoner, after having
been once set free by the mandate of the emperor himself, after a
full hearing, must at once require a reference to a state of things,
in which Paul’s religious profession and evangelizing labors, before
esteemed so blameless that no man in Rome forbade him to preach the
gospel there,――had now, by a mighty revolution in opinions, become
a crime, since for these, he was now held in bondage, without the
possibility of escape from the threatened death. Such a change actually
did occur in the latter part of the reign of Nero, when, as already
related in the history of Peter’s first epistle, the whole power of the
imperial government was turned against the Christians, as a sect, and
they were convicted on that accusation alone, as deserving of death.
The date of this revolution in the condition of the Christians, is
fixed by Roman history in the sixty-fourth year of Christ; and the
time when Paul was cast into chains the second time, must therefore be
referred to this year. His actual death evidently did not take place at
once, but was deferred long enough to allow of his writing to Timothy,
and for him to make some arrangements therein, for a short continuance
of his labors. The date which is commonly fixed as the time of his
execution, is in the year of Christ 65; but in truth, nothing whatever
is known about it, nor can even a probability be confidently affirmed
on the subject. Being a Roman citizen, he could not die by a mode so
infamous as that of the cross, but was beheaded, as a more honorable
exit; and with this view, the testimony of most of the early Fathers,
who particularize his death, distinctly accords.
Of the various fictions which the monkish story-tellers have
invented to gratify the curiosity which Christian readers
feel about other particulars of the apostle’s character, the
following is an amusing specimen. “Paul, if we may believe
Nicephorus, was of a low and small stature, somewhat stooping;
his complexion fair; his countenance grave; his head small; his
eyes sparkling; his nose high and bending; and his hair thick
and dark, but mixed with gray. His constitution was weak, and
often subject to distempers; but his mind was strong, and endued
with a solid judgment, quick invention, and prompt memory,
which were all improved by art, and the advantages of a liberal
education. Besides the epistles which are owned to be genuine,
several other writings are falsely ascribed to him: as an
epistle to the Laodiceans, a third to the Thessalonians, a third
to the Corinthians, a second to the Ephesians, his letter to
Seneca, his Acts, his Revelation, his voyage to Thecla, and his
Sermons.” (Cave’s Lives of the Apostles.)
But the honors and saintship of Paul are recorded, not in the vague
and misty traces of bloody martyr-death, but in the far more glorious
achievements of a heroic life. In these, are contained the essence
of his greatness; to these, all the Gentile world owes its salvation;
and on these, the modern historian, following the model of the sacred
writers, dwells with far more minuteness and particularity, than on a
dull mass of uncertain tradition.