Acts 22

21 The Lord said to Paul, “Go.” In Acts 9:30 it is written that when the brothers found out the Jews wanted to kill Paul, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him of f to Tarsus. The Lord spoke, and the brothers brought Paul out of Jerusalem. By these two means, then, the Lord showed Paul that He wanted him to leave Jerusalem.

The Lord said to Paul, “I will send you far away to the Gentiles.” Here Paul received from the Lord his special appointment to preach primarily among the Gentiles (see Galatians 2:8-9).

22 The people had listened quietly to Paul up to that point, but as soon as he mentioned that he had been sent to the Gentiles, the crowd went wild. The reason they had gotten mad at Paul in the first place was that they thought he had brought a Gentile into the temple. So now, as soon as they heard the word “Gentile” mentioned, their anger was rekindled.

23-24 When the commander saw the great anger of the crowd, he brought Paul immediately into the fort. Since the commander couldn’t understand the Aramaic language, he had not understood anything that Paul had said to the crowd. Therefore, in order to find out what crime Paul had committed and what he had done to get the people so angry, the commander decided to torture him by flogging.

In the Roman Empire, flogging was one of the most dreaded forms of torture. Small pieces of metal or bone were attached to the end of the whip, and these caused terrible wounds on the backs of the victims. Many people died from such flogging. Paul had already received five ordinary floggings from the Jews, and three times he had been beaten with rods by the Romans (Acts 16:2223; 2 Corinthians 11:24-25). But up to that time Paul had not received a flogging with a metal-tipped whip.

25-26 According to Roman law, it was illegal to flog a Roman citizen. Even if a Roman citizen was found guilty in court, he usually did not receive this terrible punishment. Paul was well aware of this.

In New Testament times, it was a great advantage to be a Roman citizen. A man could either be born a citizen, or he could be awarded citizenship for some outstanding service rendered to the state. Paul had been born a Roman citizen (verse 28); therefore, we know that his father must have been a citizen also. It is not known how Paul’s father received his citizenship; perhaps he had performed some valuable service for the Roman governor in Tarsus.

We can see from Paul’s example that when trouble comes to us it is proper for us to use any reasonable and legal means to escape from that trouble. If we are innocent of some alleged wrongdoing, we need to say so; we need to defend ourselves. We should use all legal means to avoid punishment for crimes we did not commit. Christians in this world have the same legal rights as anyone else, and it is appropriate to claim those rights in a humble and respectful way. However, Christians must remember that they should not put their faith in any legal system but in God alone. Even if we do not obtain justice from men, we shall always obtain justice from God (see 1 Peter 2:19-23 and comment).

27-28 When the commander heard that Paul was a Roman citizen, he found it hard to believe. Paul’s clothes were dirty and torn. He didn’t look like a Roman citizen; he looked like an ordinary criminal!

In Paul’s time it was possible to buy one’s citizenship. Roman officials made extra money by selling citizenship papers. The commander himself had bought his citizenship and had paid a lot of money for it. Thinking that Paul must have bought his citizenship too, the commander wondered how such a tattered and dirty man could have gotten the money to pay for it! But Paul answered: “I was born a citizen.”

29 Like the Philippian magistrates in a similar situation (Acts 16:38), the commander became alarmed. He had almost committed a great crime himself! In fact, he had already committed a crime simply by ordering that Paul be stretched … out in preparation for flogging (verse 25).

30 In the commander’s eyes, the anger of the crowd against Paul involved only a Jewish religious matter (see Acts 18:14-15). Since the Jewish Sanhedrin had authority to judge all cases involving the Jewish religion, thecommanderdecided to call theSan-hedrin together and get their help in finding out what the charges against Paul were.