Acts 22:28

28 and the chief captain answered, `I, with a great sum, did obtain this citizenship;' but Paul said, `But I have been even born [so].'

Acts 22:28 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 22:28

And the chief captain answered, with a great sum obtained I
this freedom
For, it seems, he was not a Roman born, but very likely a Grecian, or Syrian, by his name Lysias; and as all things were now venal at Rome, the freedom of the city was to be bought with money, though a large sum was insisted on for it: this the chief captain said, as wondering that so mean a person, and who he understood was a Jew by birth, should be able to procure such a privilege, which cost him so much money:

and Paul said, but I was free born;
being born at Tarsus; which, as Pliny says ^F12, was a free city, and which had its freedom given it by Mark Antony, and which was before the birth of Paul; and therefore his parents being of this city, and free, he was born so.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 27.

Acts 22:28 In-Context

26 and the centurion having heard, having gone near to the chief captain, told, saying, `Take heed what thou art about to do, for this man is a Roman;'

27 and the chief captain having come near, said to him, `Tell me, art thou a Roman?' and he said, `Yes;'

28 and the chief captain answered, `I, with a great sum, did obtain this citizenship;' but Paul said, `But I have been even born [so].'

29 Immediately, therefore, they departed from him who are about to examine him, and the chief captain also was afraid, having learned that he is a Roman, and because he had bound him,

30 and on the morrow, intending to know the certainty wherefore he is accused by the Jews, he did loose him from the bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all their sanhedrim to come, and having brought down Paul, he set [him] before them.