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Paul's Speech to the Jews. Act_21:40; Act_22:1-21
Concerning Paul's early life and persecution of the Church:
v. 40. And when he had given him license, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,
v. 1. Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now unto you.
v. 2. (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence; and he saith,)
v. 3. I am verily a man which 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, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
v. 4, And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,
v. 5. as also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders, from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem for to be punished.
The commander of the garrison granted the request of Paul to speak to the people all the more readily, since he hoped to learn from the speech the real charges laid against him. The soldiers therefore having set Paul down and loosened at least one of his chains, he stood at the head of the stairway and beckoned to the people with his characteristic gesture to indicate that he was about to address them. "What nobler spectacle than that of Paul at this moment There he stands bound with two chains, ready to make his defense to the people. The Roman commander sits by to enforce order by his presence. An enraged populace looks up to him from below. Yet in the midst of so many dangers, how self-possessed is he, how tranquil!" (Chrysostomus) When then there was much silence, when comparative quiet had been restored, the very fact that the man whom they had just made ready to murder was seeking to impart something to them, making some impression upon them, Paul spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, that is, in the Aramaic language as it was then spoken generally by the Jews. He addressed them as brethren and fathers. Though they had almost succeeded in taking his life and had by no means relinquished the idea, yet Paul, neither in his tone nor in his words, showed any anger or resentment. With death staring him in the face, his thought was only for the spiritual welfare of his brethren according to the flesh, whether by any means he would still be able to save some of them. He asks them to hear from his lips the defense which he proposes to make to them now. And the fact that he employed the Aramaic dialect proved a further factor in quieting the multitude; they observed all the greater silence. Many members of the mob, hearing only half the charge and not understanding it correctly, had undoubtedly supposed that the man before them was himself a Gentile and not versed in either the Jewish language or the Jewish customs. And now Paul, in the honest attempt to gain his audience for at least an attentive listening to his apology, sets forth before them a few facts from his life. He was a Jewish man, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but educated in this very city of Jerusalem, and at the feet of Gamaliel, the celebrated teacher, at that, instructed according to the full strictness of the paternal Law. The Pharisees, to whom Gamalie belonged, prided themselves upon the exactness of their interpretation of the Law and upon the literalness which they demanded in its observation. All this Paul had learned, in it he had been drilled. And therefore he had been ardent, zealous of God and for His honor, just as his hearers had proved themselves to be on that very day, Rom_10:2. Paul's words contain no accusation of malicious obstinacy, but are merely the statement of a fact which may well be made of use to them. Of his own zeal he says that he had persecuted this way, the persons that accepted the way of salvation through faith in the redemption of Jesus, unto death, this being his aim and interest in the matter. And in order to realize this purpose, he had bound and delivered into prison both men and women. And for the truth of this assertion the high priest of that year himself could bear witness and the entire Syncdrion, for it was from them that he had received letters, credentials, to the brethren, whereupon he had traveled to Damascus, his object being to bind and to bring to Jerusalem also the disciples of that city, to lead them back in fetters, in order that adequate punishment might be meted out to them. Paul makes an open confession, withholding nothing from his hearers, and offering no excuse for his action. His narrative is a description of the state of the unconverted mind. In his unregenerate condition a person will either serve the fleshly lusts and trample upon the Law of God, or he will be zealous for an outward righteousness of the Law and despise the power and the beauty of the Gospel.