Acts 28:21

πρὸς αὐτὸν : the emphatic position of the words may indicate, as Weiss suggests, that as Paul had spoken to them up to this point of a personal matter, so they in reply spoke with a like reference. αὔτε γράμματα, i.e., no official letters from the Sanhedrim this was practically impossible, for it is not likely that any ship had left Cæsarea before Paul's departure with such intelligence (so Weiss, Blass, Hackett). τῶν ἀδελ., i.e., of the Jewish nation, cf. Acts 28:17. The Jews do not assert that they know nothing of Paul, but only that with reference to the statement which he had just made they had received no report (ἀπήγ., cf. R.V., so Acts 4:23), or had any of his countrymen spoken evil of him. The aorists point to this limitation of the assertion (Page's note, and Nösgen, in loco), and this view prevents us from seeing any contradiction between Acts 28:21-22, for if the statement in the former verse be taken quite generally of Paul's work, the Jews contradicted themselves in Acts 28:22, where they evidently include Paul in this sect (ταύτης), of which they knew that it was everywhere spoken against. πονηρόν : the stress need not be laid on this word, as if the sentence meant that they had heard something about Paul, but nothing evil; it may well have been chosen with reference to the Apostle's own expression, οὐδὲν ἐναντίον.