Acts 22:2

2 When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,

Acts 22:2 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 22:2

And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to
them (See Gill on Acts 21:40).

they kept the more silence;
it being their mother tongue, and which they best understood; and which the captain and the Roman soldiers might not so well under stand; and chiefly because the Hellenistic language was not so agreeable to them, nor the Hellenistic Jews, who spoke the Greek language, and used the Greek version of the Bible; and such an one they took Paul to be, besides his being a Christian; wherefore when they heard him speak in the Hebrew tongue, it conciliated their minds more to him, at least engaged their attention the more to what he was about to say:

and he saith;
the Syriac and Ethiopic versions add, "to them", as follows.

Acts 22:2 In-Context

1 "Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you."

2 When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,

3 "I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are this day.

4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

5 As also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify, from whom also I received letters to the brothers, and journeyed to Damascus to bring them also who were there to Jerusalem in bonds to be punished.