Acts 22:2

2 And [when they] heard that he was addressing them in the Aramaic language, {they became even more silent}. 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 "Men--brothers and fathers--listen to my defense to you now!"

2 And [when they] heard that he was addressing them in the Aramaic language, {they became even more silent}. And he said,

3 "I am a Jewish man born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated according to the exactness of the law received from our fathers, being zealous for God, just as all [of] you are today.

4 {I} persecuted this Way to the death, tying up and delivering to prison both men and women,

5 as indeed the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me, from whom also I received letters to the brothers in Damascus, [and] was traveling [there] to lead away those who were there also tied up to Jerusalem so that they could be punished.

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("heard") which is understood as temporal
• [b]. Literally "they showed even more silence"