Acts 28:15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

When the brethren, &c.— That is, the Christians residing at Rome,—came to meet him, sensible of the great character of St. Paul, and the important obligations which they were under to him for his excellent Epistle to them written a few years before this. It is very remarkable, that we have no certain information by whom Christianity was first preached at Rome: probably as some inhabitants of that celebrated city were present at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, ch. Acts 2:10 they being converted themselves, might at their return carry the gospel thither, confirming it by miraculous works, and by the exercise of extraordinary gifts. Appii Forum was a town in the Appian way between Rome and Campania, at the distance of fifty-one miles from Rome. Tres Tabernae, or The Three Taverns, was another place, which stood on the Appian-way, about thirty miles from Rome. The rendering it Three Taverns, gives us the idea of inns or houses appointed for refreshment and accommodation. The proper meaning of the word tabernae is frontier towns, built to repress the inroads and insults of foreigners. That this was a city properly so called, and an episcopal see in the time of Constantine, is evident from Optatus, who mentions Felix a Tribus Tabernis, "of the Three Tabernae," as one of the nineteen bishops. The expression at the end of the verse, he thanked God and took courage, may perhaps intimate that his courage began in some small measure to be shaken. He knew there was a flourishing church at Rome, which had been some time planted, (Romans 1:8.) and to which, about three years before this journey, he had written a long epistle, in which he had expressed an affectionate desire to see them. Romans 1:11; Romans 15:32. In a near view of doingthis, he now rejoiced, esteeming it as the first-fruits of their friendship that they had come a day's journey to meet him, no doubt in a very kind and respectful manner. He might reasonably expect that they would contribute much to lighten his bonds, as without question they did, though so strange a panic seized them when he appeared before Caesar to make his apology. See 2 Timothy 4:16.