Acts 28:21

And they said unto him, We neither received letters from Judaea concerning thee, nor did any of the brethren come hither and report or speak any harm of thee. But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against.

Acts 28:21 signals the end of any prosecution whatever against Paul in Rome, leading inevitably to his release from this first imprisonment. The speculation of some who would have it otherwise, to the effect that insufficient time had elapsed for the charges to arrive, is ridiculous. If they had wished to press charges, Paul's three months delay after shipwreck gave them plenty of time to have crawled to Rome, if they had had any intention whatever of appearing.

As to why the Sanhedrin decided not to send any charges, this was due to a number of possible reasons, any one of which was more than enough: (1) Only recently, the Jews had been expelled from Rome, and although the ban had by this time been relaxed, the Jerusalem hierarchy would have been loathe to open old wounds. (2) Having already failed miserably to convince the lower courts of Felix and Festus, they knew they had no case worthy of the name. (3) They had, at that time, no powerful advocate in Rome who could have aided their plea. The date here Isaiah 60 A.D., two whole years prior to Poppaea Sabina's marriage to Nero.[25] (4) They were as busy as beavers with the intrigues leading to the outbreak of the Jewish war. (5) They could also count on Paul's being held in prison for two more years without any charges being pressed by them; and they could have taken that option of keeping him in prison.

As MacGreggor said, "There is some evidence that if the prosecution failed to put in an appearance within two years, they lost their case by default."[26] Therefore, it is the confident conclusion of this writer that Luke, by Acts 28:21, signals that the freedom of Paul was momentarily expected when he concluded this report.

Paul was doubtless pleased with the indication that no further appearance of his old enemies from Jerusalem could be expected, else they would already have appeared. It was an additional bonus that the leaders of the Jews in Rome decided to hear his arguments on behalf of Christianity and promptly set a date.

ISRAEL'S FINAL REJECTION

[25] F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 530.

[26] G. H. C. MacGreggor, op. cit., p. 349.