Acts 22:21-30

21 Here we have the cause of Israel's apostasy laid bare. They were to be a channel of blessing to the other nations, but, instead, they kept all Jehovah's gifts to themselves and refused to share them with the less favored nations. They were like the slave who owed ten thousand talents, but, having nothing to pay with, is forgiven the debt. But when he found a fellow slave who owed him much less, he refused to be merciful and had him cast into prison. Consequently his Lord was indignant and gave him up to the tormentors (Mat_18:23). Israel is the ten thousand talent debtor. The nations were their fellow-slaves. Israel was pardoned, but, since they refuse to pass on the blessing to the nations, the pardon is withdrawn and the nation has been in the hands of the tormentors ever since. Only a few years after this Jerusalem was destroyed, the nation scattered and driven from the land to wander up and down the earth, despised by the nations whom they had wronged.

25 On several previous occasions Paul had been protected from the fury of his own countrymen by the intervention of the Roman power. Gallio had turned the tables against them (Act_18:12-17), and the scribe of Ephesus had cleared him (Act_19:37), but never before had he appealed to his Roman citizenship as a defense against his own kin. In Philippi he had used it, not to shield himself, but for the sake of the evangel. Now, however, that the nation in the land is finally given over to judgment, he has no hesitancy in claiming his rights as a Roman citizen. He had already been beaten five times by the Jews (2Co_11:24) and it was needless to bear any more.

25 As he was a Roman citizen, the captain had no right to bind Paul, much less to scourge him before trial. But the fact that he had bound him illegally put Paul in an advantageous position, to which was added the respect due to one who had received such a citizenship by birth, while the captain had obtained it by purchase. "I am a Jew" availed nothing with the Jews. But on his declaration that he is a Roman, his word is instantly accepted. It was a capital offense to claim unlawfully the possession of the citizenship.

1 Paul now stands before the Sanhedrin, in which body he seems to have had a vote after the death of Stephen. Doubtless many who were there were old associates of his and most of them were acquainted with his life and doctrines, so that the inquiry was a mere form and bound to arrive at no conclusion. Paul, contrary to his usual custom of speaking first in a winning way of his auditors, commences immediately with his own defense, and seems to apologize for the fact that his Roman citizenship had entitled him to this hearing before them. This so enraged the chief priest, who probably took it as a hint that he was beyond his jurisdiction, that he has him slapped on the mouth. There were constant changes in the high priestly office in those days, which accounts for the ignorance of the apostle as to the personality of the high priest. Josephus tells us that Paul's prediction was fulfilled in the Jewish war, when this hypocritical president of the Sanhedrin was murdered by assassins. Paul had the privileges of a Greek (Act_21:37), a Hebrew (Act_22:2), and a Roman (Act_22:27). The man that Christ found had been separated and trained and circumstanced by God.

6 The Pharisees had this in common with the faith of Christ, that they believed in a resurrection of the dead, which was, however, denied by the Sadducees. This question was the cause of perpetual strife between them. Paul, seeing how useless any further appeal to the council would be, determined to shift the contention to the subject of resurrection, in which he would have the Pharisees on his side and thus they would be diverted into strife amongst themselves. The result justified his plan, for the Pharisees immediately become violent partisans of his and some are even willing to allow that a spirit-which the Sadducees did not believe in-had spoken to him. They thought to use his testimony as an argument against their enemies the Sadducees. Thus it has ever been with the Jews. Their own internal strife was seldom laid aside even in face of the gravest crisis, and became the cause of many of their miseries.