Where did Paul die?

Tradition states that Paul died in Rome during the persecution of Christians by Emperor Nero sometime between 64 and 67 AD. The same tradition holds that Paul was beheaded for his faith. Scripture is silent concerning the death of all the apostles except James, who was killed in Jerusalem (Acts 12:1–2).

The last time we see Paul in the Bible, he is in Rome. Acts 28 relates the last leg of Paul’s journey to Rome as a prisoner. The book ends with these words:

Later, Paul wrote 2 Timothy from a Roman jail cell. He knew the end was near: “I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near” (2 Timothy 4:6). This passage, with Acts 28, lends support to the tradition that Paul died in Rome at the hands of the Emperor.

Other evidence supporting Rome as the location of Paul’s death includes early Christian writings affirming that Paul was martyred there. Caius, a third-century presbyter in Rome, wrote of seeing “the trophies [memorials] of the Apostles [Paul and Peter]” (quoted by Eusebius, Church History, II.xxv). Also, Dionysius of Corinth, a convert of Paul’s, wrote a letter to the church in Rome in which he said, “Peter and Paul . . . taught us in the same way as they taught you when they went to Italy; and having taught you, they suffered martyrdom at the same time” (Letter to the Roman Church, III).

The historian Eusebius of Caesaria claimed that Paul was imprisoned in Rome twice and that Paul’s martyrdom occurred during his second Roman imprisonment. Eusebius writes, “After he had made his defense [during his first Roman imprisonment], it is said that the apostle was sent again upon the ministry of preaching, and that upon coming to the same city [Rome] a second time he suffered martyrdom. In this imprisonment he wrote his second epistle to Timothy, in which he mentions his first defense and his impending death” (Church History, II.xxii). Eusebius also cited Origen as a source of information concerning Paul’s death: “What do we need to say concerning Paul, who preached the Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and afterwards suffered martyrdom in Rome under Nero? These facts are related by Origen in the third volume of his Commentary on Genesis” (ibid., III.i).

The Acts of Paul, although a spurious book, mentions Paul’s execution in Rome. That account adds some fanciful details such as milk spurting from Paul’s wound and two appearances of Paul after his death (chapter X, § 4–7).

Again, the New Testament lacks any details concerning Paul’s death. The book of Acts concludes with Paul under house arrest in Rome, but alive and still preaching. We shouldn’t wonder that Acts does not relate information about Paul’s death. Luke’s purpose in writing the book was to trace the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome, not to write Paul’s biography.

The traditional account of Paul being martyred in Rome may very well be true, and we have no biblical reason to doubt it.