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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 22:3 - 22:3
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3. ἐγώ εἰμι ἀνὴρ Ἰουδαῖος, I am a Jew. These first words of the Apostle would correct many wrong impressions among the crowd, for we may be sure that many, beside the chief captain, had the notion that St Paul was one of those foreign desperadoes with which Judæa abounded at this time.
γεγεννημένος ἐν Ταρσῷ τῆν Κιλικίας, born in Tarsus of Cilicia. On Tarsus, cf. note on Act 6:9.
ἀνατεθραμμένος δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ, but brought up in this city. St Paul means not that from his infancy he had lived in Jerusalem, but that, when he had reached an age fitted for it, he was sent from home to be educated under Gamaliel. The verb is used in this sense in classical Greek. On Gamaliel, see note on Act 5:34.
παρὰ τοὺς πόδας, at the feet. The most usual position of teacher and pupils at the time of St Paul was that both should sit, the former on a higher level than the latter. For the evidence on this matter from the Talmud, see Taylor Pirke Aboth, pp. 28, 29.
πεπαιδευμένος κατὰ ἀκρίβειαν τοῦ πατρῴου νόμου, ζηλωτὴς ὑπάρχων, instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous, &c. For an account by the Apostle himself of his Jewish birth, education, and character, cf. Php 3:5-6. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and his language shews how learned he was in all that concerned his own people. He makes frequent allusions to Jewish customs, laws, and festivals, and reckons his time by the Jewish calendar. He was also a Pharisee, and none of his contemporaries surpassed him, while but few equalled him, in strictness of legal observance.
καθὼς πάντες ὑμεῖς ἐστε, as ye all are. The Apostle, who never puts himself in peril when no good end is to be served by it, wishes to set himself in an acceptable light before his audience. This is his reason for explaining that he, like themselves, had been a zealous observer of the law.