Acts 22:2

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