Acts 22:22

Acts 22:22. And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth; for it is not fit that he should live. Literally, ‘they continued to listen to him until,' etc. ‘This word' does not refer to the expression ‘the Gentiles,' but to the whole of the last part of Paul's discourse, in which he explained that his mission to and his work among the Gentile nations were in accordance with a Divine command. This, to the fanatic Jewish mind, was indeed a startling statement, and, if true, would at once remove all reason for their jealousy of the foreigner. But could it be true that the long-expected Messiah the peculiar glory of the chosen race could, in their own proud House in Jerusalem, speak to this man from His glory-throne in heaven, and command him to leave his own city and people, and to devote himself solely to the uncircumcised Gentiles? Was not such an assertion of itself rank blasphemy? Could King Messiah send one once belonging to their own strictest sect of Pharisees to these uncovenanted Heathen to tell them that the Messiah, the Redeemer of Israel, was equally their Messiah and Redeemer? One who could say such things was surely unworthy to live. ‘The Gentile people of the earth cannot be said really to live,' was one of the maxims of the children of Israel; and were these degraded races to be told they stood as regards eternity on an equal footing with the favoured descendant of Abraham?