Acts 22:1

1 Brethren and fathers [Men, brethren and fathers], hear ye what reason I yield now to you.

Acts 22:1 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 22:1

Men, brethren, and fathers
A common form of address used by the Jews; see ( Acts 7:2 ) but that the apostle should introduce his speech to these people in this manner, after they had treated him so inhumanly, as to drag him out of the temple, and beat him so unmercifully, is remarkable, and worthy of observation, when they scarcely deserved the name of "men"; and yet he not only gives them this, but calls them "brethren", they being his countrymen and kinsmen according to the flesh; and fathers, there being some among them, who might be men in years, and even members of the sanhedrim, and elders of the people, that were now got among the crowd: this shows how ready the apostle was to put up with affronts, and to forgive injuries done him:

hear ye my defence, which I make now unto you;
in opposition to the charges brought against him, of speaking ill of the people of the Jews, the law of Moses, and of the temple, and in order to clear himself of these imputations, and vindicate his character and conduct.

Acts 22:1 In-Context

1 Brethren and fathers [Men, brethren and fathers], hear ye what reason I yield now to you.

2 And when some heard that in Hebrew tongue he spake to them, they gave the more silence. And he said,

3 I am a man a Jew, born at Tarsus of Cilicia, nourished and in this city beside the feet of Gamaliel, taught by the truth of fathers? law, a lover of the law [nourished forsooth in this city beside the feet of Gamaliel, learned after the truth of fathers? law, follower, or lover, of the law], as also ye all be to day.

4 And I pursued this way till to the death, binding [together] and betaking into holds men and women,

5 as the prince of priests yieldeth witnessing to me, and all the greatest of birth [and all the more in birth]. Of whom also I took epistles to brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring from thence men bound into Jerusalem, that they should be pained.