The Apostle Paul before Nero

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rockytopva

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The Apostle Paul headed down to Jerusalem where he got in all kinds of trouble where he appealed his case to the governor Felix, in which Felix said,

"Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go." - Acts 25:12

So then Paul makes his case before the King Agrippa in which the conclusion of the matter was...

Then said Agrippa unto Festus, "This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar." - Acts 26:32

Paul then makes a harrowing journey to Rome, in which, the Emperor Nero, unwilling to hear is case leaves Paul for two years in his own hired house. It seems like Paul made well do with these lodgings and seemed to enjoy his life in this phase of living.

And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, - Acts 28:30

I do not believe that before he trial that Paul knew who the Emperor Nero was. Had he did he would have appealed to King Agrippa and not Nero.

1. Nero is now about thirty years of age; he has been emperor for fourteen years. He looked upon a young man who as a child was one of the most beautiful of all the children of Rome, and yet at thirty years of age. His hair is chestnut colored and arrayed in curls around his head.

When Nero wanted a woman, if refused him, that day he signed her death warrant. When a man looked melancholy in his presence he was slain on the spot. When a great captain complained of having a sore throat, Nero said, "I can cure that with a sure remedy." Sent him a potion of poison and commanded him to die. When Seneca, the great philosopher and his teacher came to be more loved by the scholars of Rome than the emperor himself, Nero sent Seneca a polite note telling him, asking him to commit suicide.

His sick aunt said to Nero, "If God will only grant me to live to see thy face first shaved, I will be content." And Nero replied, "Then I will have my face shaved at once." He did so and commanded his physicians to send her a death potion. And while the breath was still in her body, he seized her estates. He divorced his wife Octavia and murdered her. Twelve days after he married his second wife, “He kicked her to death for no other reason,” said Suetonius. Three times he tried to poison his mother and failed.

Nero is a lot like the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, who had great ambition to be a player, and a singer, and an actor. Nero never wore a garment but one time; wherever he went, there was carried for him one thousand carts of baggage. When Nero would drive in the races he ever was crowned victor. When Nero stood up to sing in the theater or to play on the Greek stage, he had with him five thousand robust young men, richly dressed, who were hired to applaud him and to mark anyone in the congregation, anyone in the audience, who had the bad taste not to applaud. It was a capital crime to call Nero a bad charioteer or a bad singer or a bad actor.

2. Paul, the prisoner, is at that time a worn out old guy and fared there on prisoner's food, bread and water. Paul the prisoner, stood there in travel-stained garments, begging here in this letter that Timothy bring him a cloak that he had left with Carpus in Troas [2 Timothy 4:13]. Paul was a soft-hearted, persecuted, age worn, and tender-hearted man. He was a man capable of great, great love. He would weep over his churches. And when he'd write letters to his churches, he would list sometimes two dozen friends. When he bowed down and prayed with a church, they would weep, fall on his neck and kiss him. The churches loved the apostle Paul, and Paul loved the people of his churches.

These are very much two different men. I doubt that if Paul knew Nero he would have ever have appealed to him!
 

rockytopva

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It seems that the Apostle Paul was greatly shaken by the trial of the emperor Nero and I believe speaks of it in 2 Timothy...

16 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
17 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. - 2 Timothy 4

It seems to me that he was sentenced to die in the circus, where he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. I believe that the reason that no man stood with him is because it would have been a death sentence to. The Apostle Paul also, after this trial, comes to understand that he lost the trial and from that time forward basically awaits his death...

6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. - 2 Timothy 4
 

Deborah_

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At the beginning of his reign, Nero appeared to be a very reasonable character - it was only much later that he turned into a monster. He ruled from AD 54 to 68, so his 14th year would have been long after Paul's death in AD64. Paul's appeal must be dated around AD59.

In any case, Paul was subject to the Roman judicial system. Appealing to King Agrippa was not an option, but he did have the right (as a Roman citizen) to be tried in Rome - not necessarily by the emperor himself. And because he was a Roman citizen, he most certainly would not have been sentenced to die in the circus. 'The lion's mouth' can be meant figuratively as 'looking death in the face'. In the end, he was beheaded.

The only alternative to his appeal was certain death at the hands of the Jewish leaders or their unofficial assassins.
 

rockytopva

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Thank you for the reply Ms Deborah, and welcome to CB by the way. We have very little on Paul's trial before Nero so much of my posting on this subject is speculation.