Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / The Year of St. Paul: St. Luke's emphasis upon St. Paul's chains
The Year of St. Paul: St. Luke's emphasis upon St. Paul's chains
by Fr. Richard J. Cassidy special to The Michigan Catholic
Published June 5, 2009
Editor's note: This is the fourth in a five-part periodic series on the Year of St. Paul.
In writing the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke devotes nearly half of his text to St. Paul. Beginning with chapter nine, Luke narrates Paul's change from persecutor to apostle and then relates how Paul subsequently became a Roman prisoner.
St. Luke gives prominence to chains as a means of bracketing the transformation that Paul experienced. Luke begins his account with Paul brandishing chains. He closes his narrative with Paul being guarded in chains.
At Acts 9:12 St. Luke relates that Paul had hatred in his heart and chains in his hands as he raced to Damascus to capture Christians living there and bring them bound in chains to Jerusalem. Then Paul was driven to the ground by the blinding light of Christ.
As he collapsed under the impact of Christ's light, his chains became useless to him as a weapon. He no longer had any desire to chain the members of the body of Christ.
At Acts 9:16 Paul learned from Ananias how he would testify to Jesus and that he would have to suffer many things for the sake of Jesus' name. Paul might have envisioned that he would have dangerous journeys, hunger, sleepless nights, and various forms of rejection and persecution. It probably never occurred to him that Roman chains might become the greatest challenge he would have to face.
After all, Paul was a Roman citizen, a member of the elite of the empire. He could seemingly be protected from mistreatment by rulers simply by declaring the words: "I am a citizen." Further, during the initial part of his Christian journey, Paul urged Christians living in the capital to cooperate fully with the Roman imperial system (Romans 13:1-7).
Paul also indicated to the Roman Christians that he would visit their city as a stopover on his projected missionary journey to Spain. First, however, he had to take the funds from his collection in Greece to alleviate the economic hardship of the churches in Judea.
As Paul approached Jerusalem, he received a prophecy alerting him to the fact that chains awaited him in that city. St. Luke records the following intervention by Agabus (Acts 21:10-11):
A prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us he took Paul's girdle and bound his own feet and hands, and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this girdle and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'"
After narrating this riveting prophecy, St. Luke then describes the complex events that resulted in Paul's arrest and custody. In the aftermath of a riot actually instigated by Paul's enemies, the Roman commander for Jerusalem came to believe that Paul was a terrorist. This tribune's first response was to consign Paul to chains (Acts 21:27-40).
When Paul disclosed that he was a Roman citizen, the military personnel who had been on the point of scourging him drew back in fear. The declaration of his citizenship should have gained Paul his release. However, because of the corruption of two Roman governors, Paul remained in Roman chains for four plus years, until the time of his beheading by the emperor Nero.
Despite the humiliation of being treated like a criminal, Paul never allowed his chains to diminish his enthusiasm for serving Jesus Christ. Indeed, he even dictated/wrote five important letters while confined in chains.
In these letters Paul expressed the view that what had befallen him had actually served to advance the proclamation of Christ's Gospel. In his Letter to the Philippians, Paul also revised his earlier positive affirmation concerning allegiance to the Roman authorities.
In the final verses of the Acts, St. Luke highlights that Paul again stands with chains. He no longer brandishes chains as a weapon against Christians. Rather he now wears chains as a prisoner awaiting the emperor's verdict.
Ultimately, St. Luke's concern is to underscore that Paul's spirit was never broken by his years in Roman chains. Luke's four memorable words ending the Acts of the Apostles (28:31) show Paul continuing to testify to Jesus, his Lord "with all boldness; un-intimidated."
Fr. Richard J. Cassidy is a professor of sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, and author of "Paul In Chains: Roman Imprisonment and the Letters of St. Paul."
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