The Road to Bithynia: A Novel of Luke, the Beloved Physician

by Frank G. Slaughter

  Now he was able to see Paul lying half-conscious upon the stones of the street but apparently not seriously injured, for he got slowly to his knees while the soldiers cleared a circle around him. On the order of the colonel, one of the captains bent over Paul and affixed chains to his ankles and wrists. A hush fell over the crowd at this exercise of Roman authority, and during it the colonel demanded, “What crime has this man committed that you would kill him without a trial?”

  A babble of angry shouts answered him as the Jews screamed insults and false charges at Paul. Seeing that he could get no sense out of the mob, the colonel ordered two of the soldiers to support Paul between them, and the group marched slowly back through the streets to the steps leading up to the Antonia. The angry crowd followed upon their heels and surged up to the very gate before which the colonel now stopped to speak to them again. For the moment, however, the howls of the crowd for Paul’s blood were so loud that even the Roman officer could not be heard.

  Luke had stayed close beside the soldiers who were half carrying Paul. When they set the apostle on his feet before the gate of the fortress, he saw that, while still rather dazed, Paul seemed to have recovered from the rough handling. He looked down at the chains upon his ankles and wrists, then said in Greek to the colonel, “May I say something to you, sir?”

  Claudius Lysias looked surprised. “Do you know Greek?” he asked.

  Something of the old look of fearless pride came again into Paul’s face, and he answered, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. Please let me speak to the people.”

  The colonel was obviously startled by Paul’s cultured tones, his composure, and his air of authority. “You may speak to them if you wish,” he said courteously.

  Paul turned to the crowd. With a proud gesture he raised his arms before him, in spite of the chains. “Men and brothers,” he said to them in Hebrew, “listen to what I have to say in my defense.”

  Luke knew enough Hebrew from his years of association with Paul to understand what the apostle was saying. And when the mob heard him speaking in their own language, they grew quiet and listened.

  “I am a Jew,” Paul told them, “born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up here in the city and carefully educated under the teachings of Gamaliel in the law of our forefathers. I was zealous for God, as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way even unto the death and kept on binding both men and women and putting them in jail, as the high priest and the whole council will bear me witness. Indeed I had received letters from them to the brothers in Damascus and was on my way to bind those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem, to be punished. But on my way, just before I reached Damascus, suddenly about noon a blaze of light from heaven flashed around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?’ I answered, ‘Who are you, sir?’ Then he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.’ The men who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of him who was speaking. Then I asked, ‘What am I to do, Lord?’ And the Lord answered, ‘Get up and go into Damascus and there it will be told to you what you are destined to do.’ Since I could not see because of the dazzling sheen of that light, I was led by the hand by my companions, and in this way I reached Damascus. There a man named Ananias, a man devout in strict accordance with the law, of good reputation among all the Jews who lived there, came to see me and, standing by my side said to me, ‘Saul, my brother, recover your sight.’ Then I instantly did recover it and looked at him, and he said, ‘The God of our forefathers has appointed you to learn His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear Him speak, because you are to be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why are you waiting? Get up and be baptized and wash your sins away by calling on His name.’

  “After I had come back to Jerusalem,” Paul went on, “one day while I was praying in the temple I fell into a trance and saw Him saying to me, ‘Make haste and at once get out of Jerusalem, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’ So I said, ‘Lord, they know for themselves that from one synagogue to another I used to imprison and flog those who believed in You, and when the blood of Your martyr Stephen was being shed, I stood by and approved it and held the clothes of those who killed him.’ Then He said to me, ‘Go, because I am to send you out and far away among the heathen.’”

  Until Paul said this, the Jews had listened quietly, but at the word “heathen” they began to shout again, making such a clamor that he could not be heard. “Away with him!” some shouted. And others called, “Stone him! Crucify him!” Some of the crowd, worked up into a fury once more, began to push up the steps toward the Roman guard. Rather than be forced to repel them with naked spears and swords, the colonel ordered his guards and the prisoner inside the gates and shut them to keep out the crowd. In the confusion Luke managed to slip in beside Paul.

  When the gates were shut Claudius Lysias turned to one of the captains. “Now maybe we can find out something about this troublemaker,” he said curtly. “Let him be flogged until we get the truth.” Before Luke could protest, he had turned on his heel and entered the fort.

  Under the direction of the captain preparations went forward immediately for the flogging. Paul was jerked across the parade ground to where a post stood with iron rings set into the wood, two at the bottom near the ground, and two others a little higher than an average man’s head. One of the soldiers looped short strands of rope around the chains that bound Paul’s ankles and wrists, while another brought a whip of leather thongs from the armory. The rope attached to Paul’s wrist chain was run through the rings and drawn tightly and the apostle was stretched against the pole. When the second rope was secured to the lower rings, the victim was securely lashed so that he could not jerk away from the whip.

  Luke had seen such a Roman interrogation by flogging in Antioch and knew its dangers. More than one victim had died under the lash, and Paul was not robust. While the ropes were being tied he came close to Paul and said, “Let me tell them you are a Roman citizen, Paul. The law protects you from being bound and flogged. It is your right.”

  Paul shook his head, but Luke cast about in his mind for some way to influence him. Then he remembered Paul’s second greatest love after the Way of Jesus, the churches he had established throughout the provinces. “Think of the churches in Galatia and Asia, and in Macedonia and Greece,” he urged. “They need you now more than ever.”

  Paul hesitated, and before Luke could say more, the captain called, “You, there! Move if you would not feel the lash yourself.”

  Luke moved back, but as the soldier was raising the whip, Paul spoke. “Is it lawful for you to flog a Roman?” he asked. “And one who is not condemned at that?”

  The captain stared at him in amazement. “Did you say you are a Roman? It is unlawful to bind and flog a Roman citizen without a trial before a magistrate.”

  “He is a Roman citizen, and so am I,” Luke said, stepping between Paul and the whip, so that it would strike him first if it were used.

  The captain looked nonplused. “Put down the lash,” he ordered. “I must consult the colonel about this.”

  Claudius Lysias came back with him, both of them quite obviously perturbed. The laws governing the privileges of Roman citizenship were very strict, and not even the emperor could abrogate them without danger of punishment. “Tell me,” the colonel said to Paul. “Are you a Roman?”

  “Yes, I am,” Paul said proudly.

  “I paid a large sum for this citizenship of mine,” the colonel said, looking at Paul as if he could not believe that a Jew who wore garments of homespun and rough sandals on his feet could aspire to citizenship in the mighty empire of Rome.

  “I was born a citizen,” Paul said calmly.

  “You should have told me that before,” the colonel said severely. “Remove his bonds at once,” he ordered th
e captain, “and put him in prison under guard.” As Paul was led away he turned to Luke. “How do you come to be with this man? The captain tells me you are the son of Theophilus.”

  Luke quickly explained the reasons for his presence in Jerusalem. “What will you do with Paul?” he asked then.

  Claudius Lysias shrugged. “First I must find out what these Jews charge against him. I will ask the high priest to convene their council in the morning and take Paul before them.”

  “But you will not turn him over to them, will you?” Luke asked, remembering the fate of Jesus and Stephen.

  “I have no desire to follow in the steps of Pontius Pilate,” the Roman said shortly. “So long as your friend claims the protection of Roman citizenship he shall have it from me, even if he decides to carry his case to the emperor in Rome, as is his right.”

  As he was leaving the Antonia, Luke noticed a youth whose face seemed to be familiar waiting near the gates. He stared at Luke for a moment, then came closer and spoke courteously. “Is your name Luke?” he asked.

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Paul pointed you out to me once,” the youth explained. “I am his nephew Joseph.”

  “Your uncle is in prison, Joseph,” Luke said kindly. “But the Romans will protect him.”

  “I was in the temple when the riot started and saw it,” Joseph said eagerly. “They have been planning this for several days.”

  “They?” Luke asked. “Whom do you mean?”

  “Some men who work for the priests, and some people among the Christians who hate Paul. They hoped to stir up the crowd so that Paul would be stoned to death before the Romans could save him.”

  “Where did you learn all this, Joseph?” Luke asked.

  “I am apprenticed to a money-changer in the lower level of the temple,” Joseph explained. “I often hear people talking when they do not know I am listening.”

  “Do many people know that Paul is your uncle?”

  “No, Paul is hated so here in Jerusalem that we have not spoken much about it.”

  “Then you can help us,” Luke told him. “The Romans are bringing Paul before the Sanhedrin tomorrow. I want you to listen in the temple and tell me if you hear of any more plots against him.”

  Joseph nodded his understanding, and Luke left him near his home while he went on to the home of Mark, where he was staying. The Christians in Jerusalem were stunned by the news of Paul’s arrest, and that night the congregation prayed long for his safety, led by the patriarch James. Luke wished that Peter or Barnabas were here now to advise him, but Peter and Mark were still away in the region of Galilee and Barnabas was at Antioch.

  Jews were already thronging the streets leading to the temple when Luke started for the fortress of Antonia to see Paul the next morning. From them he learned that the city was afire with the news that Paul would be brought before the Sanhedrin shortly before noon. At the fortress Luke was recognized and admitted to the cell where Paul was kept. He found the apostle striding about the narrow room, a look of calm purpose on his face. This was a very different man from the dazed and dejected Paul whom Luke had been forced to goad into claiming his rights as a Roman citizen the day before.

  “What has happened, Paul?” he asked. “Have they told you something which has given you new hope?”

  “Not the Romans, Luke. God has spoken to me.”

  “God!” Luke echoed. “But how?”

  “It was as plain as I see you standing there now. Last night in a dream the Lord came into this very cell and said to me, ‘Courage, Paul. For just as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, you must testify for Me in Rome too.’”

  “In Rome? What could that mean?”

  “I am to be released, what else could it mean? Then I must go on to Rome, for few have heard the teachings of Jesus there. I am sure it is the Lord’s will that I go; nothing can keep me away.”

  “Nothing but the fact that you are in prison,” Luke pointed out logically. “And that today you are to appear before the council.”

  “I do not fear the council,” Paul said confidently. “They will tell lies about me, but I shall brand them untrue. And since I have placed myself under the protection of Rome, I must be tried before a Roman magistrate. Then these false charges will be cast aside.”

  “I hope you are right,” Luke said soberly. “But I have never seen the city so aroused. If the Romans set you free now, the Jews would riot and kill you.”

  “Wait until I speak before the council,” Paul insisted. “The priests are also servants of the Most High. They must realize that I serve God just as they do.”

  Privately Luke was doubtful. He remembered Stephen’s defense when Paul had been prosecutor. It had been eloquent but futile, and Stephen had not been hated in Jerusalem with anything like the virulence which the people now felt toward Paul.

  The guards came shortly to take Paul to the temple, and Luke followed the Roman party, knowing that unless he went with them he would have little chance of being admitted to the council chamber. The crowd already filled the lower terrace and spilled down into the streets leading to the temple.

  Looking around him at the familiar room, Luke could see little change in the years since he had first sat here with Silvanus and Apollonius at the trial of Stephen. There were new faces among the judges who flanked the high priest on either side. But the long beards, the black caps and robes, the phylacteries, and the look of that which they had turned upon Stephen were the same, only this time more intense. It was as much folly to expect justice from such an obviously biased tribunal, Luke thought, as there had been in the case of the other two martyrs, Jesus and Stephen, who had been sentenced to death by the Sanhedrin.

  Luke noted one sharp difference, however. In the trial of Stephen, Paul had stood beside the chief priest in his capacity as prosecutor, but now he stood before the council in the position of the accused. And yet Paul faced the council confidently, convinced by his dream the night before that it was not God’s plan for his career to end here, but that he was to teach the Way of Jesus in the very citadel of the empire itself, the capital city of Rome.

  A new prosecutor, a tall Jew with burning eyes, stood beside the high priest. Now, as the council was formally opened, he read the list of charges against Paul. They were as vague as those against Stephen, alleging that Paul had blasphemed against the temple by bringing one who was unclean into the sacred confines, and that he had been known to teach that circumcision was unnecessary and that Jews and Gentiles could sit down to eat together. The prosecutor then brought on the usual file of witnesses who parroted their prepared testimony, after which he harangued the council at some length. Everyone present understood that all of this was a mere concession to the tradition that every accused must be tried before the council for a capital offense. The verdict was all too obvious in the manner of the judges.

  When finally it came Paul’s turn to speak, he walked over until he stood only a few feet from the council table itself, facing his judges proudly. “Brothers,” he cried in that ringing voice of his, “I swear to you by the Most High with a clear conscience that I have done my duty to God up to this very day, as a man and as a Jew, like yourselves.”

  A roar of anger came from the crowd, and one of the council leaned over the table and struck Paul upon the mouth, bringing blood to his lips as teeth cut into flesh. Paul made no move toward the one who had struck him, but his voice lashed out contemptuously, like the cut of a whip. “You whitewashed wall! God will strike you! Do you sit as a judge to try me in accordance with the law of our forefathers, yet in violation of that law you strike me?”

  “He insults God’s high priest!” the man who had struck Paul screamed.

  “I spoke to you who struck,” Paul said, “and not to the high priest, for God has written, ‘You must not speak evil against any ruler of your people.’”

  Claudius Lysi
as stood up. “Is this man to be given his right before the law to defend himself?” he snapped. “Or am I to remove him from the council chamber?”

  The Jews quieted down at this peremptory demand, and after awhile Paul was able to be heard again. “Brothers,” he said then, “I am a Pharisee, a Pharisee’s son, and now I am on trial for the hope of the resurrection of the dead.”

  Knowing the Jews as he did from long association and study of their religion, Luke could see Paul’s purpose in thus injecting the question of the resurrection of the dead into the proceedings. In any gathering such as this there would be both Pharisees and Sadducees. While the Pharisees stood upon the resurrection of the dead and the assurance that all who obeyed the law would live in heaven with Jehovah, the Sadducees vehemently refused to believe in the resurrection and even denied the existence of angels or the Spirit. By appealing to the Pharisees to support him against their traditional enemies, thus reviving an ancient controversy which still divided the Jewish faith, Paul was using the old military tactic of dividing the enemy in the midst of a battle.

  The ruse was effective, for a great hubbub arose again in the chamber and in the crowd outside. In the midst of the clamor one of the Pharisees of the council itself shouted, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit or an angel has really spoken to him?”

  At that the opposing faction set up such a din that no one could be heard. The crowd was rapidly whipping itself into a frenzy, as much against each other now as against Paul, but Luke knew from his previous experience with crowds that all of this fury could just as easily be turned suddenly against the apostle at any moment. In the midst of the uproar Claudius Lysias apparently began to fear for the safety not only of his prisoner but of himself and his soldiers, for he suddenly barked an order to his men. The soldiers moved quickly to form a square around Paul and, drawing their swords, began to move out of the chamber. The crowd had no choice except to give ground if they did not want to feel the blades themselves, so a way was quickly opened for the Roman party to leave. Luke followed close behind the soldiers until he was safely away from the temple, then he turned and hurried to bring this news of Paul’s fortunes to James and the others.