Paul's Prisons

Jennifer Felsberg

Prison’s of Paul Jennifer Felsberg Grand Canyon University BIB 123, New Testament History October 18, 2009

1

Jennifer Felsberg

2

The exact number of years Paul spent in Prison is estimated to be about seven. Paul was arrested in Jerusalem in 58 AD. He spent two years in the Caesarea jail from 58 AD to 60 AD. He was then shipwrecked on the way to Rome in 60 AD. This led to his first imprisonment in Rome which lasted from 61 AD to 63 AD. Paul was released from Roman prison in 63 AD, but was imprisoned again in 68 AD (Biblestudy.org). This paper will focus on descriptions of the prison in Caesarea Maritima, the jail in ancient Philippi and the Mamertine prison in Rome where Paul spent time according to biblical records. Caesarea Maritima is where Paul was put in prison by Felix. He spent two years here before sailing for Rome. During this time he also appeared before Festus and King Agrippa to defend himself. The site has been excavated by archeologists. Figure 1 shows ruins of the prison in Caesarea Maritime (Visual Bible Alive, 2009). Figure 2 shows the guard house where the Roman authorities would have first held Paul (Lion Tracks Ministries, 2009).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Paul and Silas were arrested In Philippi for Paul casting out an evil spirit in a young slave woman. It is not known if this is the exact cell that held Paul but he and Silas sat in cells just like the figures 3 and 4 below. This is also the site where Paul & Silas were singing hymns and praying when an earthquake happened. This caused the jail cell doors to open and their chains to fall off. As a result, their guard was converted to Christianity (Biblestudy.org).

Jennifer Felsberg

Figure 3

3

Figure 4

Because Paul was a Roman citizen who had committed no serious crime, he was given the privilege of being under house arrest during his first imprisonment in Rome. During Paul’s second imprisonment the conditions were much worse. Figure 5, below, shows the steps leading down to the cell and figure 6 shows the inside of the cell (Reymer, 2000).

Figure 5

Figure 6

The three prisons in Caesarea Maritima, ancient Philippi and the Mamertine prison in Rome where Paul spent time as a prisoner were generally bleak and dreary places, as one would

Jennifer Felsberg expect. It gave him much time to write. It is amazing that he was able to write and still offer encouragement to the new churches. This time in prison and these writings were important because most of the New Testament came from them. References Lion Tracks Ministries (2009). Lion Tracks Q ‘n’A. Retrieved October 17, 2009 from http://www.bibleistrue.com/qna/pqna18.htm Ministries, B. (1994). Paul's Prison. Retrieved October 15, 2009, from Bible Study: http://www.biblestudy.org/biblepic/philpris.html Reymer, E. (2000). History Link 101. Retrieved October 15, 2009, from History Link 101: http://historylink102.com/italy/rome-pictures-main.htm Visual Bible Alive. (2009). Retrieved October 14, 2009, from Ruins os Caesarea: http://www.visualbiblealive.com/stock_image.php?id=70462

4