How did the apostle Paul die?

It may interest the reader if we permit ourselves to go outside Scripture, and give what ordinary history tells us about Paul’s closing days. He stood his last trial before the Emperor Nero, the foulest of all the Roman Emperors. He was conducted down the Appian Way on his last journey. A flash of the sword, and the head of the devoted servant of Christ was separated from his body. The tired body, scarred by scourgings, bearing the brands of the Lord Jesus, was laid down. He could write to Timothy, his son in the faith, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 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 Tim. 4:6-8).

We have the concurrent testimony of antiquity that Paul suffered martyrdom during the Neronian persecution, and most probably in A.D. 67. As a Roman citizen, he was beheaded in place of being scourged and crucified or exposed to the frightful tortures then invented for the Christians. Like his Master he suffered "without the gate." There is a spot on the Ostian Road, about two miles beyond the city walls, where it is supposed his martyrdom took place. There the last act of human cruelty was executed, and the great apostle was "absent from the body, and present with the Lord." His fervent and happy spirit was released from his feeble and suffering body; and the long cherished desire of his heart was fulfilled — "to depart and to be with Christ which is far better."

The death of James can scarcely be ascribed to the persecuting edicts of Nero, however, it was an unpremeditated act for which the Jewish nation was alone responsible. Yet that does not clear the emperor of the guilt of shedding an apostle's blood; for it is generally allowed that both Peter and Paul suffered during the persecution which he had authorised. The following reference to these devoted servants of Christ, by Clement, a fellow-labourer with the latter (see Phil. 4:3) is replete with interest. "Let us take," says he, the examples of our age. Through zeal and envy, the most faithful and righteous pillars of the church have been persecuted even to the most grievous deaths.. Let us set before our eyes the holy apostles. Peter, by unjust envy, underwent not one or two, but many sufferings; till at last, being martyred, he went to the place of glory that was due to him. For the same cause did Paul in like manner receive the reward of his patience.. Seven times he was in bonds; he was whipped, he was stoned, he preached both in the east and in the west, leaving behind him the glorious report of his faith; and so, having taught the whole world righteousness, and for that end travelled even unto the utmost bounds of the west, he at last suffered martyrdom by the command of the governors, and departed out of the world, and went unto his holy place, being become a most eminent pattern of patience unto all ages." It is said that the mode of Peter's execution was crucifixion, and that he was fastened to the cross with his head downwards; choosing that position because he felt his unworthiness to suffer in the same position as his Master. Paul, who suffered on the same day and at the same place (Rome) was spared so painful and lingering a death. He was beheaded.

As to Paul, the Acts of the Apostles closes with the apostle's having dwelt two whole years in his own hired house. There can be little doubt but that he was liberated, and took another missionary journey. When he wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy, he was again at Rome, and not apparently so comfortable a prisoner as when described in the end of the Acts; for he speaks of his chain, and says, "I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds." To be a Christian had then been declared to be a crime, and Paul would fall under the condemnation. But he was sustained by his God. He wrote: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day." (2 Tim. 4:6-8.) He, as a Roman citizen, was beheaded. The date is not known, but it is put down at A.D. 66 or 68.

There is much that speaks in favour of Paul's release after two years of imprisonment in Rome (as described by the end of Acts) around the year 63 AC. Hints to this effect can already be found in his Epistles to the Philippians (chap. 1:22-26; 2:24) and to Philemon (verse 22). According to the messages in the Pastoral Epistles he then came to Minor Asia, Crete and Greece (compare with 1 Tim. 1:3; 2 Tim. 4:13.20; Tit. 1:5; 3:12). Only hereafter Paul was again taken captive and condemned to death and executed in Rome.

The history of Paul is thus far given in the Acts of the Apostles, but there are intimations in the later epistles that after the two years at Rome he was liberated. His movements from that time are not definitely recorded; apparently he visited Ephesus and Macedonia, 1 Tim. 1:3; wrote the FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY; visited Crete, Titus 1:5; and Nicopolis, Titus 3:12; wrote the EPISTLE TO TITUS (the early writers say that he went to Spain, which we know he desired to do, Rom. 15:24, 28); visited Troas and Miletus, 2 Tim. 4:13, 20; wrote the EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS; and when a prisoner at Rome the second time, wrote the SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, when expecting his death. Early writers say that he was beheaded with the sword, which is probable, as he was a Roman citizen.

It was during the reign of Nero, the ravening "lion" (2 Tim. 4:17), that the Apostles Paul and Peter were martyred; the former by beheading, the latter by crucifixion, and, at his own request, with his head down as unworthy to die like his Master. We see no reason to doubt the traditions concerning these beloved Apostles; certain it is that both had special revelations of their near end, although not, perhaps, of the manner of their death. It may be well to remark in passing, that both Apostles firmly insisted on the saints rendering obedience and honour to Nero the Emperor — one of the worst and most cruel of men who ever sat on the throne of the Caesars; not the character of the ruler, but the office he fills, is that which demands the respect and reverence of the saints of God. (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:17.)

Paul entered into the apostleship a year after the ascension of Christ, and beginning at Jerusalem, he advanced as far as Illyricum, and Italy, and Spain, preaching the gospel for five-and-thirty years. And in the time of Nero he was beheaded at Rome, and was buried there.

(*Paul was a Jew, of the sect of the Pharisees, of the honoured tribe of Benjamin, a free-born citizen of Tarsus of Cilicia, educated in Jerusalem, under Gamaliel, converted in A.D. 36, and sixteen years afterwards commenced writing these inspired communications bearing his name, as also that to the Hebrews; was martyred by beheading at Rome, A.D. 68, under Nero, perhaps the cruelest of the Caesars. Thus died Paul, after 32 years' life of service and suffering, unexampled by all then or since. His record is on high.)

Once again, after the lapse of years, he revisited Troas, and left a cloak there with Carpus. Of this he tells Timothy, asking him to bring it to Rome, where he was a second time a prisoner (2 Tim.4:13). But the cloak did not, we believe, reach Paul in time. Ere Timothy got there the Apostle had done for ever with earth, and cloaks, and parchments, and books. By the order of the Emperor Nero he was executed. By the permission of the Lord that took place, and the labourer and soldier entered into rest through death.