Bible Commentaries
Acts 22

Verses 1-20

40 God acts in marvelous ways. Human opposition works out his purposes quite as effectively as human help. What better means could be devised to get all Jerusalem as well as representatives from the dispersion together to hear this final testimony to the Messiah and His kingdom? Such an assemblage could not be called and there was probably no building large enough to hold them. It seems almost incredible that Paul should be granted an opportunity to speak to them, as Roman law and Roman soldiers were usually excessively strict and severe.

Thus, in a few minutes, the whole situation is changed. We would naturally expect him to speak Greek, for all would have understood him, but, with fine tact, he speaks to them in the language the people of the covenant would best understand, which was associated in their minds with all that was sacred in the Judaism they fought for. It was the nearest approach to the language of their sacred Scriptures. It was the language of Jew with Jew, just as Yiddish is with one class today.

3 We cannot help admiring the opening words of the apostle. His gesture had stopped the tumult. His language had quieted them. Now his words are calculated to draw them into sympathy with him, as he shows them that he understands perfectly why they are persecuting him, for he himself had outdone them in his desire to stamp out the heresy which he now defends. Indeed he had witnesses among their leaders who could testify that he had received authority from them to carry his persecution to outside cities.

4 "The way" on the lips or the apostle meant the true faith and the correct life. Apparently it was a phrase of the disciples' own choosing. "The Path" of Buddhism is an interesting parallel.

6 Never before had the apostle such an opportunity to tell of his meeting with the Messiah to his own people. We may gather much from his address concerning the status of the believers in Judea at this crisis. The offense of the cross had ceased. They were regarded simply as another Jewish sect. The crowd made no demonstration against the mention of Jesus as Messiah. Myriads of them believed that and the rest tolerated it.

9 The apparent discrepancy between this and the first account of his call ( Act_9:7 ) is readily explained. The men with him heard a sound but did not recognize it as the voice "of Him Who is speaking to me." The Greek word means both voice and sound . They gazed at the light , but not at the One from Whom it radiated.

10 With admirable tact Paul presses such points as were calculated to win his audience, but omits whatever would rouse their ire. The Lord Himself had told him that he was to be sent to the nations ( Act_26:17 ) and this was confirmed by Ananias ( Act_9:15 ). Yet he carefully refrains from any mention of the nations at this time. The wisdom of this is confirmed when they refused to hear him further, once he had mentioned the nations (21).

12 In the same spirit he introduces Ananias as "a pious man according to the law," omitting all mention of his belief in the Messiah. He speaks of "the God of our fathers," and baptism, and the familiar prophetic formula of "invoking His name."

17 Nothing is said here of Paul's sojourn in Arabia ( Gal_1:17-18 ), and the fact that he did not return to Jerusalem for three years after his call. What most concerned his hearers was that he did return and with the fullest confidence that those who knew so well of his malignant zeal against the followers of Jesus would not fail to believe his testimony concerning Him. He even argues the point with the Lord Himself. How could they refuse to listen when they knew perfectly how madly he had carried on his persecution and had even taken part in the murder of Stephen?

18 That this is a solemn witness against the Jews is evident from the statement of the Lord that they would not receive Paul's testimony no matter how anxious he was to win them. Paul is here being used in the land as he afterward was in Rome to the dispersion to give the apostate nation a solemn intimation that God was through with them for a time and was now about to take up the nations.

Verses 21-30

21 Here we have the cause of Israel's apostasy laid bare. They were to be a channel of blessing to the other nations, but, instead, they kept all Jehovah's gifts to themselves and refused to share them with the less favored nations. They were like the slave who owed ten thousand talents, but, having nothing to pay with, is forgiven the debt. But when he found a fellow slave who owed him much less, he refused to be merciful and had him cast into prison. Consequently his Lord was indignant and gave him up to the tormentors ( Mat_18:23 ). Israel is the ten thousand talent debtor. The nations were their fellow-slaves. Israel was pardoned, but, since they refuse to pass on the blessing to the nations, the pardon is withdrawn and the nation has been in the hands of the tormentors ever since. Only a few years after this Jerusalem was destroyed, the nation scattered and driven from the land to wander up and down the earth, despised by the nations whom they had wronged.

25 On several previous occasions Paul had been protected from the fury of his own countrymen by the intervention of the Roman power. Gallio had turned the tables against them ( Act_18:12-17 ), and the scribe of Ephesus had cleared him ( Act_19:37 ), but never before had he appealed to his Roman citizenship as a defense against his own kin. In Philippi he had used it, not to shield himself, but for the sake of the evangel. Now, however, that the nation in the land is finally given over to judgment, he has no hesitancy in claiming his rights as a Roman citizen. He had already been beaten five times by the Jews ( 2Co_11:24 ) and it was needless to bear any more.

25 As he was a Roman citizen, the captain had no right to bind Paul, much less to scourge him before trial. But the fact that he had bound him illegally put Paul in an advantageous position, to which was added the respect due to one who had received such a citizenship by birth, while the captain had obtained it by purchase. "I am a Jew" availed nothing with the Jews. But on his declaration that he is a Roman, his word is instantly accepted. It was a capital offense to claim unlawfully the possession of the citizenship.

1 Paul now stands before the Sanhedrin, in which body he seems to have had a vote after the death of Stephen. Doubtless many who were there were old associates of his and most of them were acquainted with his life and doctrines, so that the inquiry was a mere form and bound to arrive at no conclusion. Paul, contrary to his usual custom of speaking first in a winning way of his auditors, commences immediately with his own defense, and seems to apologize for the fact that his Roman citizenship had entitled him to this hearing before them. This so enraged the chief priest, who probably took it as a hint that he was beyond his jurisdiction, that he has him slapped on the mouth. There were constant changes in the high priestly office in those days, which accounts for the ignorance of the apostle as to the personality of the high priest. Josephus tells us that Paul's prediction was fulfilled in the Jewish war, when this hypocritical president of the Sanhedrin was murdered by assassins. Paul had the privileges of a Greek ( Act_21:37 ), a Hebrew ( Act_22:2 ), and a Roman ( Act_22:27 ). The man that Christ found had been separated and trained and circumstanced by God.

6 The Pharisees had this in common with the faith of Christ, that they believed in a resurrection of the dead, which was, however, denied by the Sadducees. This question was the cause of perpetual strife between them. Paul, seeing how useless any further appeal to the council would be, determined to shift the contention to the subject of resurrection, in which he would have the Pharisees on his side and thus they would be diverted into strife amongst themselves. The result justified his plan, for the Pharisees immediately become violent partisans of his and some are even willing to allow that a spirit-which the Sadducees did not believe in-had spoken to him. They thought to use his testimony as an argument against their enemies the Sadducees. Thus it has ever been with the Jews. Their own internal strife was seldom laid aside even in face of the gravest crisis, and became the cause of many of their miseries.