Acts 22:1

Paul's Hebrew Speech to the Jewish Crowd in the Temple Court from the steps leading to the Antonia Tower, and the Tumult which succeeded it, 1-23.

Acts 22:1. Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. The accurate translation of the Greek word would be simply, ‘Brethren and fathers.' It is noticeable that the opening words are the same as those used by Stephen in his great defence before the Sanhedrim (see chap. Acts 7:2). ‘Brethren' expresses the love Paul bore to his fellow-countrymen the Jews. ‘Fathers' seems to recognise the presence of some of the older and more prominent men of the Jerusalem Church, members, perhaps, of the.Sanhedrim, certainly well-known scribes and elders of the Holy City. It has been suggested with some probability, that ‘Brethren and fathers' was the received formula in addressing an assembly which included scribes and elders of the people.

Mr. Humphry, in his commentary on the ‘Acts,' happily touches on the leading characteristic features of this speech: ‘Though the subject-matter of this speech has been related before, it assumes here a fresh interest from the manner in which it is adapted to the occasion and the audience. The apostle is suspected of disaffection to the Mosaic law. In order to refute this charge, he addresses them in Hebrew; he dwells on his Jewish education, and on his early zeal for the law; he shows how at his conversion he was guided by Ananias, a man devout according to the law, and of good report among the Jews at Damascus, and how he subsequently worshipped in the temple at Jerusalem. So far they listen to him; but he no sooner touches on the promulgation of the gospel among the heathen (Acts 22:21) than he is interrupted, and his fate would probably have been the same as Stephen's, had he not been under the protection of the Roman captain.'