Acts 22:1

1 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense [which I make] 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 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense [which I make] now to you.

2 (And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)

3 I am verily a man [who am] a Jew, born in Tarsus, [a city] in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, [and] taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, being zealous towards God, as ye all are this day.

4 And I persecuted this way even to death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

5 As also the high priest doth bear me testimony, and all the estate of the elders; from whom also I received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them who were there bound to Jerusalem, to be punished.