Acts 22

Chap. XXII. Ver. i—30. Paul’s defence to his brethren, in the Hebrew tongue——Having obtained permission of the Roman commander, Paul now addresses his countrymen in their own dialect, which, for some time, procured their attention. The account of his birth, education, persecuting zeal, and extraordinary conversion, having been before narrated, will require but little observation here, especially as the narrations will again come under our notice in his speech before. The only new fact here developed in relation to St. Paul, is the trance which he had in the temple, when the Lord Jesus appeared to him, and warned him to leave Jerusalem, and go and preach unto the Gentiles. In this case Paul seems to have had too much confidence in his own strength, and but a slight acquaintance with the obduracy of the human heart.

He thought the narrative he could unfold would be so affecting and convincing—such an appeal to facts within their own knowledge, as must be irresistible: that when they saw a man who had been brought up in the same religious principles, and had been actuated by the same persecuting zeal as themselves; that such a man had been so completely changed, that he was now ready to die in the behalf of that Jesus all he so bitterly had persecuted, that his ministry must have been here abundantly successful. So it is said of the celebrated Melancthon, when he first began to preach, that he thought his arguments and his eloquence would be irresistible; but a little experience convinced him, as himself expressed it, ‘that old Adam was indeed too strong for young Melancthon.”

Paul was not left, however, thus to waste his strength by “going a warfare,” as it were, “at his own expense.” He was directed whither to go, and a power went with him that insured success. But when his countrymen heard it avowed that his commission was to the Gentiles, they (as on former occasions) would not hear another word, but “lifted up their voices” in one continued cry—“Away with such a fellow from the earth.” It is probable that the chief captain did not well understand this speech, which was in Hebrew, from his having previously asked the apostle, (ch. xxi. 37,) Canst thou speak Greek? He was therefore about to have recourse to the barbarous custom of that age, of extorting confession by the torture of the whip, but Paul’s privilege as a Roman citizen again saved him from it; and finding with whom he now had to do, the chief captain loosed his bands, and ordered all his accusers to appear before him on the following day, when Paul was set before them, again to make his own defence.

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXII Ver. 1. My defence——Greek, apologia. Scott says, “The sacred writers never use this word, or the corresponding verb, except when the person spoken of defended himself from some charge brought against him…. They never call the preaching of the gospel an apology.” Ver. 2. In the Hebrew tongue—That is, as then spoken, which the learned are pretty well agreed was the Syro-Chaldaic, a mixed dialect. Ver. 3. Born in Tarsus.—See note on (Acts 21:39).—Brought up…. at the feet of Gamaliel.—The Jewish students used to sit on the ground before the feet of their Rabbins. Ver. 4. Unto the death.—Unto death.—Bishop Lowth. Ver. 5. The high priest—Of that time, namely, Caiaphas, (as Doddridge supposes.)——With the elders doth bear me witness—By the official letters which they gave him. Ver. 6.

And it came to pass.—[It is evident that the apostle considered his extraordinary conversion as a most complete demonstration of the truth of Christianity; and when all the particulars of his education, his previous religious principles, his zeal, his enmity against Christians, and his prospects of secular honours and preferments by persecuting them, are compared with the subsequent part of his life, and the sudden transition from a furious persecutor to a zealous preacher of the gospel, in which he laboured and suffered to the end of his life, and for which he died a martyr, it must convince every candid and impartial person, that no rational account can be given of this change except what he himself assigns; and consequently, if that be true, that Christianity is divine.

]—Bagster.: Ver. 9. Heard not the voice of him that spake.—Compare note on (Acts 9:7). Ver. 12. And one Ananias.—Compare (Acts 9:10), et seq. Ver. 14. That Just One—Namely, Jesus Christ. ec et iii. 145 vi. 52, As dey 16, And wash away thy sins.—See (Acts 2:38), and compare 1 Peter iii. 21. Ver. 17. When I was come again to Jerusalem.—After he had been to Damascus and Arabia—then while he was in the temple—perhaps in a portico, and at a time when no one was with him. Ver. 19. Lord, they know.—Paul is understood here to plead for the probability of his success among the Jews, on the ground of his having been formerly a persecutor. Ver. 20. Consenting unto his death.—So ch. viii. 1. Scott thinks this version much too weak.

The word rendered “consenting,” implies a complacency in the deed; and the word rendered “death,” implies “murder.” Ver. 23. Cast off their clothes.—Sir J. Chardin mentions, that the Persians, when they complain to their sovereign, go in numbers, with strange cries, tearing their garments, and casting dust into the air.—Harmer’s Obs. Ver. 24. The chief captain.—{As the chief captain did not understand Hebrew, he was ignorant of the charge against Paul, and also of the defence which the apostle had made; but as he saw that they grew more and more outrageous, he supposed that Paul must have given them the highest provocation, and therefore, according to the barbarous and irrational practice which has existed in all countries, he determined to put him to the torture, in order to make him confess his crime.|—Bagster.—Examined by scourging.—This is the cruel method by which evidence was formerly extorted; but it was not applicable to a Roman citizen.

See note on ch. xvi. 37; Ver. 25. Is it lawful for you?—[By the Roman law, it owed to punish a Roman citizen capitally, or by inflicting stripes, or even la cm; and =p eer earsossion: I am a Roman citizen, arrested their severest decrees, and obtained, if not an escape, at least a delay of his punishment.] Ver. 26. I was—It is extremely probable, that the inhabitants of Tarsus, born in that city, had the same rights and privileges as Roman citizens, in consequence of a grant or charter from Julius Caesar, from whom it was called Juliopolis. But, if this were not the case, St. Paul’s father, or some of his ancestors, might have been rewarded with the freedom of the city of Rome, for his fidelity and bravery in some military service, as Josephus says several of the Jews were; or he might have obtained it by purchase, as in the instance of the chief captain.

]—Bagster..!