Acts 16:22

Acts 16:22. And the multitude rose up against them. The citizens and dwellers in that proud and exclusive Roman garrison town of Philippi as usual were at once roused by such an accusation.

The original cause of offence, the damage done to the productive property of the slave-owners, was quite lost sight of in the supposed public offence committed by the eastern strangers.

And the magistrates rent off their clothes. The praetors, without examining into the case, when they heard the nature of the charge, complying with the popular clamour, at once condemned the accused to a painful and shameful punishment before they were imprisoned and formally tried; acting as another and far higher Roman official had once acted when another and greater Captive stood before him accused of a state crime: ‘From thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him…… When he heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment-seat…… Then delivered he Him unto them to be crucified' (John 19:12-16).

The magistrates in the case of Paul and Silas, as was the custom when criminals were ordered to be scourged, commanded the lictors the executioners violently to pull off the clothes of the condemned. The judicial form was, ‘Summove lictor despolia verbera.'