n Rome, did he find St Paul, and at what
stage of his Roman residence? Our answer must begin with affirming the
conviction that it _was_ to Rome, not elsewhere, that Epaphroditus
went. The reader is aware that the Epistle itself names no place of
origin; it only alludes to a scene of _imprisonment_. And this does
not of itself decide the locality; for at Caesarea Stratonis, in
Palestine, as well as at Rome, St Paul spent two years in captivity
(Acts xxiv. 27). Some modern critics have favoured the date from
Caesarea accordingly. They have noticed e.g. the verbal coincidence
between Herod's _praetorium_ (A.V. "judgment-hall") of Acts xxiii. 35,
and the _praetorium_ (A.V. "palace") of Phil. i. 13. But Lightfoot[4]
seems to me right in his decisive rejection of this theory and unshaken
adherence to the date from Rome. He remarks that the oldest Church
tradition is all for Rome; that the Epistle itself evidently refers to
its place of origin as to a place of first-rate importance and extent,
in which any advance of the Gospel was a memorable and pregnant event;
and that the allusion to "Caesar's household" (though it is not so
quite decisive as it might at first sight appear to be) "cannot without
much straining of language and facts be made to apply to Caesarea."

If now the Epistle was written from Rome, during the "two whole years"
of Acts xxviii. 30, at what point in that period may we think that the
writing fell? Here again is a problem over which much thought and
labour has been spent. A majority of opinions no doubt is in favour of
a date towards the end of the imprisonment, so that Philippians would
follow after Colossians and Ephesians. It is held that (1) the tone of
the Epistle betokens the approach of a closing crisis for St Paul; and
that (2) it seems to indicate an already developed Christian mission
work at Rome, as if St Paul had worked there some while; and that (3)
Epaphroditus' visit cannot be adjusted with any probability if we do
not allow a good time for previous communications between Rome and
Philippi. But here again Lightfoot's view commends itself to my mind
decisively. He holds that Philippians was _the first_ of the "Epistles
of the Captivity," and was written perhaps within the first few months
of the "two whole years." Two of his reasons seem adequate of
themselves to make this likely. The first is, that St Paul's allusion
to the profound _impression made on the Roman Christians_ b