Where was Paul when he wrote to the Philippians?

Question

Different sources point to different locations, namely

• Caesarea
• Ephesus
• Rome

Where was Paul when he wrote to the Philippians? If we cannot say where he was, what can we say about the location?

Answer 1

It is clear that Paul is imprisoned by Rome at the time of writing this epistle (see Phil. 1:13). It is not entirely clear during which of Paul's imprisonments this was.

The most commonly suggested location in the literature is Rome, followed by Caesarea. Ephesus is an outlying, minority view (Ephesus would be very difficult to square with the account in Acts).

I will review the case that Paul is writing this epistle from Rome, during the period covered by Acts 28:30-31. For a thoughtful, competing view, see Robinson's argument for Caesarea here (pp. 54-62).

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Explicitly Roman references

There are two explicitly "Roman" references in Philippians.

1. The reference in 1:13 to the praetorium establishes that Paul is in Roman custody. Many also see it as a straightforward reference to Rome itself. This is possible, but not certain, as the same word is used to refer to the Caesarean judgement hall of Herod Agrippa II in Acts 23:35.

2. The stronger of the two is the reference to "Caesar's household" in 4:22, which is much easier to square with Paul being in Rome than in Caesarea.

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Paul has been in prison for a while

Paul's statements about the growth of the work (1:13) and the travels related to Epaphroditus (2:25-30) indicate that Paul hasn't just been imprisoned, rather, he has been there for some time.

In the case of Epaphroditus, whom the Philippian saints sent to Paul with relief/supplies, the following would have had to have happened:

1. The Philippians hear of Paul's imprisonment
2. Epaphroditus travels to wherever Paul is
3. Epaphroditus suffers a serious illness, and recovers
4. Word of Epaphroditus' illness travels back to Philippi

This means at least 3 journeys between Philippi and Paul's location have occurred, as well as other events. Whether Paul is in Caesarea or Rome, this travel would have occupied some time.

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Impending death or release?

In 1:20-21 & 2:16-17 Paul contemplates the possibility of dying soon, and the end of his mortal work.

In 2:23-24, however, Paul acknowledges that he thinks acquittal is a likely outcome and a decision is to be reached soon.

These variables appear to better suit a Roman imprisonment than one in Caesarea. Paul was sent to Caesarea because he was safe there (from the Jews who wanted to kill him). He still has his legal trump card, an appeal to Caesar, that he can play if the Romans in Caesarea try to kill him or hand him back to the Sanhedrin (which would be essentially the same as killing him). And while imprisoned under the corrupt, vacillating Felix, Paul has relatively little reason to believe:

a. he'll be killed OR

b. he'll be released soon

Whereas in Rome, Paul will now be appearing before the court of last resort. If Caesar sentences Paul to death, Paul has no further legal recourse. As such, I suggest the possibility of impending death would weigh more heavily on Paul's mind in Rome than in Caesarea.

Philippians 1:17 appears to echo the thoughts expressed in Acts 23:11, and I suggest that Acts 23:11 provides one of the more compelling reasons to believe that Philippians was written from Rome, not Caesarea.

11 And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

This is prima facie evidence as good as it gets that Paul is not going to die in Caesarea--he will live to travel to Rome. This visit by the Lord took place after Paul's arrest in Jerusalem and just before he is sent to Caesarea. Since Paul could not have written Philippians from Caesarea prior to this time, he knows while imprisoned in Caesarea that he isn't going to die there.

His contemplation of the possibility of imminent death, then, fits a Roman setting in a way it does not fit Caesarea.

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Other Considerations

The bold preaching of the Christian message without fear, described in 1:14, appears to better fit a Roman setting (where the legal status of Christianity was still an open question), than anywhere close to the power of the Sanhedrin, who had already killed a Christian preacher (Acts 7:60), arrested plenty more, and demonstrated potent hostility towards the Christian message.

In 2:19 Paul promises to send Timothy to the Philippians and/or visit himself. While it is not impossible that Paul sent Timothy while he (Paul) was in Caesarea, we have no evidence of it. On the other hand, the evidence from Paul's later writings (especially 1 & 2 Timothy) is that both Paul & Timothy did travel to this part of the world after Paul's Roman imprisonment (Ephesus is just across the Aegean from Philippi).

• Paul had no real chance of leaving to visit Philippi from Caesarea, and there's no evidence he sent Timothy during this time
• Paul did visit Macedonia (Philippi is in Macedonia) after his Roman imprisonment, and Timothy traveled with him to that region (even if Timothy was detained in Ephesus).

This favors (but does not prove) Rome as the place of writing.

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Chronology

If we accept the view that the accession of Porcius Festus occurred in AD 59 (a good, solid estimate, though not unequivocally established. If we moved his accession a year or two on the timeline the surrounding events in Paul's life would be moved accordingly as well), then the following events can be plotted on the timeline of Paul's life:

• AD 57: Paul travels to Jerusalem and is arrested there (Acts 21)
• AD 57-59: Paul's Caesarean imprisonment (Acts 23-24)
• AD 59: Paul appears before Festus & Agrippa and is sent to Rome (Acts 25-27)
• AD 60: after wintering on Malta, Paul arrives in Rome (Acts 27-28)
• AD 60-62: Paul's first Roman imprisonment (Acts 28:30)

If Paul wrote Philippians from Caesarea, we can estimate the date at AD 58 or 59 (see notes above about Paul having been in prison for a while by the time of writing). If Paul wrote Philippians from Rome, we can estimate the date at AD 61 or 62.

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Conclusion

Because there is no evidence in Acts to support the epistles-during-Ephesian-imprisonment theory I have not spent much time on it here.

A Caesarean provenance for Philippians appears unlikely but not impossible.

The evidence most strongly supports Philippians having been written from Rome.

Answer 2

Paul's letter to the Philippians is generally understood to one of the "prison epistles", along with Ephesians (see Eph 6:20), Colossians (Col 4:18) and Philemon (V1, 9).

In the case of Philippians, we have this testimony from Paul:

Phil 1:13, 14 - As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard [πραιτώριον] and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And most of the brothers, confident in the Lord by my chains, now dare more greatly to speak the word without fear.

The question then becomes - which palace guard [πραιτώριον] was Paul confined in? Was it Rome, Caesarea or Jerusalem? Ellicott observes this in his comments on Phil 1:13 concerning the Greek word prætorium -

It may be noted that coincidence with this last passage is the chief, and almost the sole, argument for the untenable idea that this Epistle belongs to the Cæsarean and not the Roman captivity.

Meyer explains in more detail:

But it is the Roman castrum praetorianorum, the barracks of the imperial body-guard (Camerarius, Perizonius, Clericus, Elsner, Michaelis, Storr, Heinrichs, Flatt, Matthies, Hoelemann, van Hengel, de Wette, Rilliet, Wiesinger, Ewald, Weiss, J. B. Lightfoot, and others), whose chief was the praefectus praetorio, the στρατοπέδων ἔπαρχος, to whom Paul was given in charge on his arrival in Rome (Acts 28:16)

Therefore, it appears most likely that the letter to the Philippians was written from Rome. [However, Caesarea cannot be completely ruled out, but the language makes this less likely.] See Phil 1:13, Acts 23:35, John 19:9, 18:33, etc.