Rome

Paul had never set foot in Rome when he wrote to the church there, but he had wanted to for years. His letter opens by addressing believers he only knew by reputation, thanking God that their faith was already being talked about everywhere, and telling them plainly that he longed to come and preach the gospel to them too, just as he had among the other Gentiles. His plan, laid out later in the same letter, was to finish carrying a collection for the poor believers in Jerusalem and then travel on to Rome on his way to Spain. That plan did not go the way he expected. Paul reached Rome years later not as a free visitor but as a prisoner, having appealed to Caesar after his arrest in Jerusalem. The book of Acts follows the journey in detail, ending with a ship's voyage through Malta and up the Italian coast to Puteoli. When believers in Rome heard he was coming, they walked out to meet him on the road, as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns. Seeing them encouraged Paul enough that he stopped to thank God on the spot. Once in the city, he was allowed to live by himself with only a soldier guarding him, and for two full years he welcomed everyone who came to see him, teaching about the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ without anyone stopping him. Rome had already touched the story of the early church more than once before Paul ever arrived there in person. Visitors from Rome were in the crowd at Pentecost, hearing Peter's sermon in their own tongue. Years later, the emperor Claudius ordered all Jews out of the city, which is how Paul first met Priscilla and Aquila, refugees from Rome who had settled in Corinth and became his close friends and coworkers. Peter's own first letter closes with a greeting sent from a place he calls "Babylon." Most readers, ancient and modern alike, take that as a coded name for Rome, matching how Revelation later uses "Babylon" the same way.