Acts 22
(Acts 22:3, ESV Bible)
The First Defense
Paul wanted to clear his name and defend himself against the slander that the men from Asia had spoken against him. He also saw an opportunity to testify on behalf of Yeshua and proclaim the gospel to a large crowd in the very heart of Jerusalem. Despite the battering he had just endured, he pulled himself together and addressed the crowd. Hands still bound with heavy chains, Paul motioned for silence. When the crowd saw that he was going to speak, they grew quiet. He said, "Brethren and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you."
When the crowd heard Paul address them in Hebrew (i.e., Aramaic), they became even quieter. They had assumed he was merely a troublemaker from the Diaspora. He captured the attention of the Hebraic Jews and effectively excluded the Diaspora Jews from the conversation, who knew only Greek. Paul began by offering his credentials to answer several of the charges that they had lobbed against him. Contrary to the charge that he taught against the Jewish people, he pointed out that he himself was a Jew brought up in Jerusalem. Contrary to the charge that he taught against the Torah, he pointed out that he was a disciple of the esteemed Rabban Gamliel and was educated "strictly according to the Torah of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today."
Don't dismiss these statements as background information, as if Paul was only describing his life before becoming a Christian. On the contrary, Paul intended to exonerate himself from the charge of apostasy. Although he was no longer a disciple of Gamliel (who had died more than a decade earlier), Paul was still a Jew, still educated strictly according to the Torah, and still zealous for God.
In his epistle to the Philippians, Paul seems to deprecate his credentials in Judaism: "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing the Messiah Yeshua my Master, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain the Messiah" (Philippians 3:8). In the context, that deprecation is only by way of comparison. When compared with the value of knowing the Messiah, Paul considered all of his pedigree, accomplishments, and claims to prestige as irrelevant. That is not the same as saying that he disavowed his Jewishness or allegiance to the Torah.
Paul hoped that the story of his encounter with the Master and his subsequent reversal might inspire the crowd to reconsider Yeshua of Nazareth. He told the crowd about how he was once the chief persecutor of the sect of the Way. He related the story of how he had worked with Caiaphas and Annas and even pursued the disciples of Yeshua as far as Damascus. He told them the story of his encounter with Yeshua, the light from heaven, the voice of the Master, and his ensuing blindness.
He told the crowd about Ananias of Damascus, the man who ushered him into the kingdom. He described Ananias as "a man who was devout by the standard of the Torah, and well spoken of by all the Jews." Allegiance to Yeshua did not diminish allegiance to the Torah. Disciples of the Nazarene observed the Torah devoutly (evlevis, εὐλαβῶς).
Paul told the crowd about his next encounter with Yeshua of Nazareth. After returning to Jerusalem, he had been praying in the Temple when he fell into a trance. The Master appeared to him in a vision and warned him to leave Jerusalem. The story of his experience in the Temple indirectly refuted the charge that he taught against the Temple. Instead, he considered the Temple a holy place; he prayed there, and he received revelation there.
The crowd made no objections to Paul's story. They listened attentively. They offered no shouts of "Blasphemy!" or jeers when Paul told about how the Master had appeared to him and spoken from heaven. The claim that Yeshua had risen from the dead and the claim that he was the Messiah did not faze them. None of Paul's seemingly controversial statements about Yeshua provoked them.
Then Paul told them about how the Master had commissioned him, saying, "Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles." That triggered a vitriolic response. The crowd immediately broke into a clamor of objections, shouting, "Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!" They tossed off their cloaks and looked for rocks to cast at him. None were handy. They scooped up handfuls of dust and hurled them toward Paul.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
(Acts 22:27-28)
A Roman Citizen
The Roman tribune did not know Hebrew or Aramaic. He did not understand a word of Paul's address. He only observed that Paul had said something to infuriate the crowd. He felt irritated with himself for giving the Jew the chance to speak to the people. He ordered his men to take Paul into the fortress and scourge him until he revealed who he was and what he had done to incite the hatred of the people.
A centurion and his men dragged Paul into the fortress, stripped his tunic from his back, bound his hands with thongs, and spread his arms. The Romans did not practice the Jewish law of forty-lashes-minus-one. They often scourged their prisoners to death with knotted leather straps embedded with pieces of bone or metal. Josephus describes the Romans scourging a Jerusalemite man "till his bones were laid bare."
Paul believed in discipleship, but he felt that he had endured enough floggings and beatings already. He played his last card. He asked the centurion, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?" Of course, it was not. The centurion immediately went to the tribune and shifted all responsibility to him. He said, "What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman."
The tribune came and asked skeptically, "Are you a Roman?" Anyone might claim to be a citizen. The tribune observed that he himself had acquired his citizenship only by means of a large sum of money. The Romans conferred citizenship through a variety of means. The status could be inherited from parents. The government sometimes bestowed it as a reward for military service. Veterans often obtained it at the time of their discharge but only after two or three decades of service in the army. The emperor could confer citizenship on individuals or on whole communities. Slaves emancipated from the house of a Roman citizen often received the privilege. Paul's parents may have received their citizenship as emancipated slaves. Claudius Lysias, the tribune, apparently received his citizenship in return for a generous gift to Emperor Claudius. If so, that explains why he bore the emperor's nomen (Claudius).
Paul was born a citizen. The men charged with scourging and interrogating Paul immediately withdrew from the room. Claudius Lysias ordered the man unshackled and conducted him to more comfortable accommodations. He was afraid that Paul might file a complaint for the mistreatment he had already received. No doubt, the tribune gave Paul immediate access to medical attention, the officer's bathhouse, and a decent bed. The tribune was accustomed to handling Jewish prisoners with a brutal, sadistic disregard for humanity and justice. Now that he held a Jewish Roman, he was at a loss for how to proceed. He could not let him go, and even if he did, would Paul survive the wrath of the multitude? He decided to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin to see if they might shed some light on the situation and determine a formal charge to levy against the prisoner. Perhaps this was a Jewish problem and not a Roman one?
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.