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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
A C T S.
CHAP. XXII.
In the close of the foregoing chapter we had Paul bound, according to
Agabus’s prophecy of the hard usage he should receive from the Jews at
Jerusalem, yet he had his tongue set at liberty, by the permission the
chief captain gave him to speak for himself; and so intent he is upon
using that liberty of speech which is allowed him, to the honour of
Christ and the service of his interest, that he forgets the bonds he is
in, makes no mention of them, but speaks of the great things Christ had
done for him with as much ease and cheerfulness as if nothing had been
done to ruffle him or put him into disorder. We have here,
I. His address to the people, and their attention to it,
II. The account he gives of himself.
1. What a bigoted Jew he had been in the beginning of his time,
2. How he was miraculously converted and brought over to the faith of
Christ,
3. How he was confirmed and baptized by the ministry of Ananias,
4. How he was afterwards called, by an immediate warrant from heaven,
to be the apostle of the Gentiles,
III. The interruption given him upon this by the rabble, who could not
bear to hear any thing said in favour of the Gentiles, and the violent
passion they flew into upon it,
IV. Paul’s second rescue out of the hands of the rabble, and the
further course which the chief captain took to find out the true reason
of this mighty clamour against Paul,
V. Paul’s pleading his privilege as a Roman citizen, by which he was
exempted from this barbarous method of inquisition,
VI. The chief captain’s removing the cause into the high priest’s
court, and Paul’s appearing there,
| Paul’s First Defence. |
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1 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make
now unto you.
2 (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to
them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)
Paul had, in the
verse of the foregoing chapter,
gained a great
point, by commanding so profound a silence after so loud a clamour. Now
here observe,
I. With what an admirable composure and presence of mind he addresses
himself to speak. Never was poor man set upon in a more tumultuous
manner, nor with more rage and fury; and yet, in what he said,
1. There appears o fright, but his mind is sedate and composed. Thus he
makes his own words good, None of these things move me; and
David’s
(Ps. iii. 6),
I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set
themselves against me round about.
2. There appears no passion. Though the suggestions against him were
all frivolous and unjust, though it would have vexed any man alive to
be charged with profaning the temple just then when he was contriving
and designing to show his respect to it, yet he breaks out into no
angry expressions, but is led as a lamb to the slaughter.
II. What respectful titles he gives even to those who thus abused him,
and how humbly he craves their attention: “Men, brethren, and
fathers,
v. 1.
To you, O men, I call; men, that should hear reason, and be
ruled by it; men, from whom one may expect humanity. You,
brethren of the common people; you, fathers of the
priests.” Thus he lets them know that he was one of them, and had not
renounced his relation to the Jewish nation, but still had a kindness
and concern for it. Note, Though we must not give flattering titles to
any, yet we ought to give titles of due respect to all; and those we
would do good to we should endeavour not to provoke. Though he was
rescued out of their hands, and was taken under the protection of the
chief captain, yet he does not fall foul upon them, with, Hear now,
you rebels; but compliments them with, Men, brethren, and
fathers. And observe, he does not exhibit a charge against them,
does not recriminate, Hear now what I have to say against you, but,
Hear now what I have to say for myself: Hear you my defence; a
just and reasonable request, for every man that is accused has a right
to answer for himself, and has not justice done him if his answer be
not patiently and impartially heard.
III. The language he spoke in, which recommended what he said to the
auditory; He spoke in the Hebrew tongue, that is, the vulgar
language of the Jews, which, at this time, was not the pure
Old-Testament Hebrew, but the Syriac, a dialect of the Hebrew, or
rather a corruption of it, as the Italian of the Latin. However,
1. It showed his continued respect to his countrymen, the Jews. Though
he had conversed so much with the Gentiles, yet he still retained the
Jews’ language, and could talk it with ease; by this it appears he is a
Jew, for his speech betrayeth him.
2. What he said was the more generally understood, for that was the
language every body spoke, and therefore to speak in that language was
indeed to appeal to the people, by which he might have somewhat to
insinuate into their affections; and therefore, when they heard that
he spoke in the Hebrew tongue, they kept the more silence. How can
it be thought people should give any attention to that which is spoken
to them in a language they do not understand? The chief captain was
surprised to hear him speak Greek
(ch. xxi. 37),
the Jews were surprised to hear him speak Hebrew, and both
therefore think the better of him. But how would they have been
surprised if they had enquired, as they ought to have done, and found
in what variety of tongues the Spirit gave him utterance!
1 Cor. xiv. 18,
I speak with tongues more than you all. But the truth is, many
wise and good men are therefore slighted only because they are not
known.
| Paul’s First Defence. |
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3 I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city
in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel,
and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the
fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
4 And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and
delivering into prisons both men and women.
5 As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the
estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the
brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there
bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished.
6 And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come
nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a
great light round about me.
7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am
Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.
9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were
afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
10 And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto
me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee
of all things which are appointed for thee to do.
11 And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being
led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus.
12 And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a
good report of all the Jews which dwelt there,
13 Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul,
receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him.
14 And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that
thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and
shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.
15 For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast
seen and heard.
16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
17 And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to
Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;
18 And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly
out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony
concerning me.
19 And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in
every synagogue them that believed on thee:
20 And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also
was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the
raiment of them that slew him.
21 And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence
unto the Gentiles.
Paul here gives such an account of himself as might serve not only to
satisfy the chief captain that he was not that Egyptian he took him to
be, but the Jews also that he was not that enemy to their church and
nation, to their law and temple, they took him to be, and that what he
did in preaching Christ, and particularly in preaching him to the
Gentiles, he did by a divine commission. He here gives them to
understand,
I. What his extraction and education were.
1. That he was one of their own nation, of the stock of Israel, of
the seed of Abraham, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, not of any obscure
family, or a renegado of some other nation: “No, I am verily a man
who is a Jew, aner Ioudaios—a Jewish man; I
am a man, and therefore ought not to be treated as a beast; a man who
is a Jew, not a barbarian; I am a sincere friend to your nation, for I
am one of it, and should defile my own nest if I should unjustly
derogate from the honour of your law and your temple.”
2. That he was born in a creditable reputable place, in Tarsus, a
city of Cilicia, and was by his birth a freeman of that city. He
was not born in servitude, as some of the Jews of the dispersion, it is
likely, were; but he was a gentleman born, and perhaps could produce
his certificate of his freedom in that ancient and honourable city.
This was, indeed, but a small matter to make any boast of, and yet it
was needful to be mentioned at this time to those who insolently
trampled upon him, as if he were to be ranked with the children of
fools, yea, the children of base men,
3. That he had a learned and liberal education. He was not only a Jew,
and a gentleman, but a scholar. He was brought up in Jerusalem,
the principal seat of the Jewish learning, and at the feet of
Gamaliel, whom they all knew to be an eminent doctor of the Jewish
law, of which Paul was designed to be himself a teacher; and therefore
he could not be ignorant of their law, nor be thought to slight it
because he did not know it. His parents had brought him very young to
this city, designing him for a Pharisee; and some think his being
brought up at the feet of Gamaliel intimates, not only that he was one
of his pupils, but that he was, above any other, diligent and constant
in attending his lectures, observant of him, and obsequious to him, in
all he said, as Mary, that sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his
word.
4. That he was in his early days a very forward and eminent professor
of the Jews’ religion; his studies and learning were all directed that
way. So far was he from being principled in his youth with any
disaffection to the religious usages of the Jews that there was not a
young man among them who had a greater and more entire veneration for
them than he had, was more strict in observing them himself, or more
hot in enforcing them upon others.
(1.) He was an intelligent professor of their religion, and had a clear
head. He minded his business at Gamaliel’s feet, and was there
taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the
fathers. What departures he had made from the law were not owing to
any confused or mistaken notions of it, for he understood it to a
nicety, kata akribeian—according to the most accurate
and exact method. He was not trained up in the principles of the
latitudinarians, had nothing in him of a Sadducee, but was of that sect
that was most studious in the law, kept most close to it, and, to make
it more strict than it was, added to it the traditions of the elders,
the law of the fathers, the law which was given to them, and which they
gave to their children, and so it was handed down to us. Paul had as
great a value for antiquity, and tradition, and the authority of the
church, as any of them had; and there was never a Jew of them all that
understood his religion better than Paul did, or could better give an
account of it or a reason for it.
(2.) He was an active professor of their religion, and had a warm
heart: I was zealous towards God, as you all are this day. Many
that are very well skilled in the theory of religion are willing to
leave the practice of it to others, but Paul was as much a zealot as a
rabbi. He was zealous against every thing that the law prohibited, and
for every thing that the law enjoined; and this was zeal towards God,
because he thought it was for the honour of God and the service of his
interests; and here he compliments his hearers with a candid and
charitable opinion of them, that they all were this day zealous
towards God; he bears them record
(Rom. x. 2),
that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
In hating him, and casting him out, they said, Let the Lord be
glorified
(Isa. lxvi. 5),
and, though this did by no means justify their rage, yet it enabled
those that prayed, Father, forgive them, to plead, as Christ
did, For they know not what they do. And when Paul owns that he
had been zealous for God in the law of Moses, as they were this
day, he intimates his hope that they might be zealous for God, in
Christ, as he was this day.
II. What a fiery furious persecutor he had been of the Christian
religion in the beginning of his time,
He mentions this to make it the more plainly and evidently to appear
that the change which was wrought upon him, when he was converted to
the Christian faith, was purely the effect of a divine power; for he
was so far from having any previous inclinations to it, or favourable
opinions of it, that immediately before that sudden change was wrought
in him he had the utmost antipathy imaginable to Christianity, and was
filled with rage against it to the last degree. And perhaps he mentions
it to justify God in his present trouble; how unrighteous soever those
were that persecuted him, God was righteous, who permitted them to do
it, for time was when he was a persecutor; and he may have a further
view in it to invite and encourage those people to repent, for he
himself had been a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and yet
obtained mercy. Let us view Paul’s picture of himself when he was a
persecutor.
1. He hated Christianity with a mortal enmity: I persecuted this way
unto the death, that is, “Those that walked in this way I aimed, if
possible, to be the death of.” He breathed out slaughter against
them,
ch. ix. 1.
When they were put to death, he gave his voice against them,
ch. xxvi. 10.
Nay, he persecuted not only those that walked in this way, but the way
itself, Christianity, which was branded as a byway, a sect; he aimed to
persecute this to the death, to be the ruin of this religion. He
persecuted it to the death, that is, he could have been willing
himself to die in his opposition to Christianity, so some understand
it. He would contentedly have lost his life, and would have thought it
well laid out, in defence of the laws and traditions of the fathers.
2. He did all he could to frighten people from this way, and out of
it, by binding and delivering into prison both men and women; he
filled the jails with Christians. Now that he himself was bound, he
lays a particular stress upon this part of his charge against himself,
that he had bound the Christians, and carried them to prison; he
likewise reflects upon it with a special regret that he had imprisoned
not only the men, but the women, the weaker sex, who ought to be
treated with particular tenderness and compassion.
3. He was employed by the great sanhedrim, the high priest, and all the
estate of the elders, as an agent for them, in suppressing this new
sect; so much had he already signalized himself for his zeal against
it,
v. 5.
The high priest can witness for him that he was ready to be employed in
any service against the Christians. When they heard that many of the
Jews at Damascus had embraced the Christian faith, to deter others from
doing the like they resolved to proceed against them with the utmost
severity, and could not think of a fitter person to be employed in that
business, nor one more likely to go through with it, than Paul. They
therefore sent him, and letters by him, to the Jews at Damascus, here
called the brethren, because they all descended from one common
stock, and were of one family in religion too, ordering them to be
assisting to Paul in seizing those among them that had turned
Christians, and bringing them up prisoners to Jerusalem, in order to
their being punished as deserters from the faith and worship of the God
of Israel; and so might either be compelled to retract, or be put to
death for a terror to others. Thus did Saul make havoc of the
church, and was in a fair way, if he had gone on awhile, to ruin
it, and root it out. “Such a one,” says Paul, “I was at first, just
such as you now are. I know the heart of a persecutor, and therefore
pity you, and pray that you may know the heart of a convert, as God
soon made me to do. And who was I that I could withstand
God?“
III. In what manner he was converted and made what he now was. It was
not from any natural or external causes; he did not change his religion
from an affectation of novelty, for he was then as well affected to
antiquity as he used to be; nor did it arise from discontent because he
was disappointed in his preferment, for he was now, more than ever, in
the way of preferment in the Jewish church; much less could it arise
from covetousness, or ambition, or any hope of mending his fortune in
the world by turning Christian, for it was to expose himself to all
manner of disgrace and trouble; nor had he any conversation with the
apostles or any other Christians, by whose subtlety and sophistry he
might be thought to have been wheedled into this change. No, it was the
Lord’s doing, and the circumstances of the doing of it were enough to
justify him in the change, to all those who believe there is a
supernatural power; and none can condemn him for it, without reflecting
upon that divine energy by which he was he rein overruled. He relates
the story of his conversion here very particularly, as we had it before
(ch. ix.),
aiming to show that it was purely the act of God.
1. He was a fully bent upon persecuting the Christians just before
Christ arrested him as ever. He made his journey, and was come nigh
to Damascus
(v. 6),
and had no other thought than to execute the cruel design he was sent
upon; he was not conscious of the least compassionate relentings
towards the poor Christians, but still represented them to himself as
heretics, schismatics, and dangerous enemies both to church and state.
2. It was a light from heaven that first startled him, a
great light, which shone suddenly round about him, and the
Jews knew that God is light, and his angels angels of light, and that
such a light as this shining at noon, and therefore exceeding that of
the sun, must be from God. Had it shone in upon him into some private
room, there might have been a cheat in it, but it shone upon him in the
open road, at high noon, and so strongly that it struck him to the
ground
(v. 7),
and all that were with him,
ch. xxvi. 14.
They could not deny but that surely the Lord was in this light.
3. It was a voice from heaven that first begat in him awful
thoughts of Jesus Christ, of whom before he had had nothing but hateful
spiteful thoughts. The voice called to him by name, to distinguish him
from those that journeyed with him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And when he asked, Who art thou, Lord? it was answered,
I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest,
v. 8.
By which it appeared that this Jesus of Nazareth, whom they also were
now persecuting, was one that spoke from heaven, and they knew it was
dangerous resisting one that did so,
4. Lest it should be objected, “How came this light and voice to work
such a change upon him, and not upon those that journeyed with him?”
(though, it is very probable, it had a good effect upon them, and that
they thereupon became Christians), he observes that his fellow
travellers saw indeed the light, and were afraid they should be
consumed with fire from heaven, their own consciences, perhaps, now
telling them that the way they were in was not good, but like Balaam’s
when he was going to curse Israel, and therefore they might expect to
meet an angel with a flaming glittering sword; but, though the light
made them afraid, they heard not the voice of him that spoke to Paul,
that is, they did not distinctly hear the words. Now faith comes by
hearing, and therefore that change was now presently wrought upon him
that heard the words, and heard them directed to himself, which was not
wrought upon those who only saw the light; and yet it might afterwards
be wrought upon them too.
5. He assures them that when he was thus startled he referred himself
entirely to a divine guidance; he did not hereupon presently cry out,
“Well, I will be a Christian,” but, “What shall I do, Lord? Let
the same voice from heaven that has stopped me in the wrong way guide
me into the right way,
Lord, tell me what I shall do, and I will do it.” And immediately he
had directions to go to Damascus, and there he should hear further from
him that now spoke to him: “No more needs to be said from heaven,
there it shall be told thee, by a man like thyself, in the name
of him that now speaks to thee, all things which are appointed for
thee to do.” The extraordinary ways of divine revelation, by
visions, and voices, and the appearance of angels, were designed, both
in the Old Testament and in the New, only to introduce and establish
the ordinary method by the scriptures and a standing ministry, and
therefore were generally superseded when these were settled. The angel
did not preach to Cornelius himself, but bade him send for Peter; so
the voice here tells not Paul what he shall do, but bids him go to
Damascus, and there it shall be told him.
6. As a demonstration of the greatness of that light which fastened
upon him, he tells them of the immediate effect it had upon his
eye-sight
(v. 11):
I could not see for the glory of that light. It struck him blind
for the present. Nimium sensibile lædit sensum–Its radiance
dazzled him. Condemned sinners are struck blind, as the Sodomites
and Egyptians were, by the power of darkness, and it is a lasting
blindness, like that of the unbelieving Jews; but convinced sinners are
struck blind, as Paul here was, not by darkness, but by light: they are
for the present brought to be at a loss within themselves, but it is in
order to their being enlightened, as the putting of clay upon the eyes
of the blind man was the designed method of his cure. Those that were
with Paul had not the light so directly darted into their faces as Paul
had unto his, and therefore they were not blinded, as he was; yet,
considering the issue, who would not rather have chosen his lot than
theirs? They, having their sight, led Paul by the hand into the
city. Paul, being a Pharisee, was proud of his spiritual eyesight.
The Pharisees said, Are we blind also?
John ix. 40.
Nay, they were confident that they themselves were guides to the
blind, and lights to those that were in darkness,
Rom. ii. 19.
Now Paul was thus struck with bodily blindness to make him sensible of
his spiritual blindness, and his mistake concerning himself, when he
was alive without the law,
Rom. vii. 9.
IV. How he was confirmed in the change he had made, and further
directed what he should do, by Ananias who lived at Damascus.
Observe,
1. The character here given of Ananias. He was not a man that was any
way prejudiced against the Jewish nation or religion, but was himself
a devout man according to the law; if not a Jew by birth, yet
one that had been proselyted to the Jewish religion, and therefore
called a devout man, and thence advanced further to the faith of
Christ; and he conducted himself so well that he had a good report
of all the Jews that dwelt at Damascus. This was the first
Christian that Paul had any friendly communication with, and it was not
likely that he should instil into him any such notions as they
suspected him to espouse, injurious to the law or to this holy
place.
2. The cure immediately wrought by him upon Paul’s eyes, which miracle
was to confirm Ananias’s mission to Paul, and to ratify all that he
should afterwards say to him. He came to him
(v. 13);
and, to assure him that he came to him from Christ (the very same who
had torn and would heal him, had smitten, but would bind him up, had
taken away his sight, but would restore it again, with advantage), he
stood by him, and said, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. Power
went along with this word, and the same hour, immediately, he
recovered his sight, and looked up upon him, ready to receive
from him the instructions sent by him.
3. The declaration which Ananias makes to him of the favour, the
peculiar favour, which the Lord Jesus designed him above any other.
(1.) In the present manifestation of himself to him
(v. 14):
The God of our fathers has chosen thee. This powerful call is
the result of a particular choice; his calling God the God of our
fathers intimates that Ananias was himself a Jew by birth, that
observed the law of the fathers, and lived upon the promise made unto
the fathers; and he gives a reason why he said Brother Saul,
when he speaks of God as the God of our fathers: This God of our
fathers has chosen thee that thou shouldst,
[1.] Know his will, the will of his precept that is to be done
by thee, the will of his providence that is to be done concerning thee.
He hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know it in a more peculiar
manner; not of man nor by man, but immediately by the revelation of
Christ,
Gal. i. 1, 12.
Those whom God hath chosen he hath chosen to know his will, and to do
it.
[2.] That thou shouldst see that Just One, and shouldst hear the
voice of his mouth, and so shouldst know his will immediately from
himself. This was what Paul was, in a particular manner, chosen to
above others; it was a distinguishing favour, that he should see Christ
here upon earth after his ascension into heaven. Stephen saw him
standing at the right hand of God, but Paul saw him standing at
his right hand. This honour none had but Paul. Stephen saw him, but we
do not find that he heard the voice of his mouth, as Paul did, who
says, he was last of all seen of me, as of one born out of due
time,
1 Cor. xv. 8.
Christ is here called that Just One; for he is Jesus Christ the
righteous, and suffered wrongfully. Observe, Those whom God has chosen
to know his will must have an eye to Christ, and must see him, and hear
the voice of his mouth; for it is by him that God has made known his
will, his good-will to us, and he has said, Hear you him.
(2.) In the after-manifestation of himself by him to others
(v. 15):
“Thou shalt be his witness, not only a monument of his grace, as
a pillar may be, but a witness viva voce–by word of mouth; thou
shalt publish his gospel, as that which thou hast experienced the power
of, and been delivered into, the mould of; thou shalt be his witness
unto all men, Gentiles as well as Jews, of what thou hast seen
and heard, now at the very first.” And finding Paul so particularly
relating the manner of his conversation in his apologies for himself,
here and
we have reason to think that he frequently related the same narrative
in his preaching for the conversion of others; he told them what God
had done for his soul, to encourage them to hope that he would do
something for their souls.
4. The counsel and encouragement he gave him to join himself to the
Lord Jesus by baptism
(v. 16):
Arise, and be baptized, He had in his circumcision been given up
to God, but he must now by baptism be given up to God in Christ–must
embrace the Christian religion and the privileges of it, in submission
to the precepts of it. This must now be done immediately upon his
conversion, and so was added to his circumcision: but to the seed of
the faithful it comes in the room of it; for it is, as that was to
Abraham and his believing seed, a seal of the righteousness which is
by faith.
(1.) The great gospel privilege which by baptism we have sealed to us
is the remission of sins: Be baptized and wash away thy sins;
that is, “Receive the comfort of the pardon of thy sins in the through
Jesus Christ and lay hold of his righteousness for that purpose, and
receive power against sin for the mortifying of thy corruption;” for
our being washed includes our being both justified and sanctified,
Be baptized, and rest not in the sign, but make sure of the thing
signified, the putting away of the filth of sin.
(2.) The great gospel duty which by our baptism we are bound to is
to call on the name of the Lord, the Lord Jesus; to acknowledge
him to be our Lord and our God, and to apply to him accordingly; to
give honour to him, to put all our petitions in his hand. To call on
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord (Son of David, have mercy on us)
is the periphrasis of a Christian,
We must wash away our sins, calling on the name of the Lord;
that is, we must seek for the pardon of our sins in Christ’s name, and
in dependence on him and his righteousness. In prayer, we must not any
longer call God the God of Abraham, but the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and in him our Father; in every prayer, our eye must be to
Christ.
(3.) We must do this quickly. Why tarriest thou? Our covenanting
with God in Christ is needful work, that must not be deferred. The case
is so plain that it is needless to deliberate; and the hazard so great
that it is folly to delay. Why should not that be done at the present
time that must be done some time, or we are undone?
V. How he was commissioned to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles.
This was the great thing for which they were so angry at him, and
therefore it was requisite he should for this, in a special manner,
produce a divine warrant; and here he does it. This commission he did
not receive presently upon his conversion, for this was at
Jerusalem, whither he did not go till three years after, or
more
(Gal. i. 18);
and whether it was then, or afterwards, that he had this vision here
spoken of, we are not certain. But, to reconcile them, if possible, to
his preaching the gospel among the Gentiles, he tells them,
1. That he received his orders to do it when he was at prayer, begging
of God to appoint him his work and to show him the course he should
steer; and (which was a circumstance that would have some weight with
those he was now speaking to) he was at prayer in the temple,
which was to be called a house of prayer for all people; not
only in which all people should pray, but in which all people should be
prayed for. Now as Paul’s praying in the temple was an evidence,
contrary to their malicious suggestion, that he had a veneration for
the temple, though he did not make an idol of it as they did; so God’s
giving him this commission there in the temple was an evidence that the
sending him to the Gentiles would be no prejudice to the temple, unless
the Jews by their infidelity made it so. Now it would be a great
satisfaction to Paul afterwards, in the execution of this commission,
to reflect upon it that he received it when he was at prayer.
2. He received it in a vision. He fell into a trance
(v. 17),
his external senses, for the present, locked up; he was in an ecstasy,
as when he was caught up into the third heaven, and was not at
that time sensible whether he was in the body or out of the
body. In this trance he saw Jesus Christ, not with the eyes of his
body, as at his conversion, but represented to the eye of his mind
(v. 18):
I saw him saying unto me. Our eye must be upon Christ when we
are receiving the law from his mouth; and we must not only hear him
speak, but see him speaking to us.
3. Before Christ gave him a commission to go to the Gentiles, he told
him it was to no purpose for him to think of doing any good at
Jerusalem; so that they must not blame him, but themselves, if he be
sent to the Gentiles. Paul came to Jerusalem full of hopes that, by the
grace of God, he might be instrumental to bring those to the faith of
Christ who had stood it out against the ministry of the other apostles;
and perhaps this was what he was now praying for, that he, having had
his education at Jerusalem and being well known there, might be
employed in gathering the children of Jerusalem to Christ that were not
yet gathered, which he thought he had particular advantages for doing
of. But Christ crosses the measures he had laid: “Make haste,”
says he, “and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem;” for, though
thou thinkest thyself more likely to work upon them than others, thou
wilt find they are more prejudiced against thee than against any other,
and therefore “will not receive thy testimony concerning me.” As
God knows before who will receive the gospel, so he knows who will
reject it.
4. Paul, notwithstanding this, renewed his petition that he might be
employed at Jerusalem, because they knew, better than any did, what he
had been before his conversion, and therefore must ascribe so great a
change in him to the power of almighty grace, and consequently give the
greater regard to his testimony; thus he reasoned, both with himself
and with the Lord, and thought he reasoned justly
(v. 19, 20):
“Lord,” says he, “they know that I was once of their
mind, that I was as bitter an enemy as any of them to such as believed
on thee, that I irritated the civil power against them, and
imprisoned them, and turned the edge of the spiritual power
against them too, and beat them in every synagogue.” And
therefore they will not impute my preaching Christ to education nor to
any prepossession in his favour (as they do that of other ministers),
but will the more readily regard what I say because they know I have
myself been one of them: particularly in Stephen’s case; they know that
when he was stoned I was standing by, I was aiding and abetting and
consenting to his death, and in token of this kept the
clothes of those that stoned him. Now “Lord,” says he, “if I appear
among them, preaching the doctrine that Stephen preached and suffered
for, they will no doubt receive my testimony.” “No,” says Christ to
him, “they will not; but will be more exasperated against thee as a
deserter from, than against others whom they look upon only as
strangers to, their constitution.”
5. Paul’s petition for a warrant to preach the gospel at Jerusalem is
overruled, and he has peremptory orders to go among the Gentiles
(v. 21):
Depart, for I will send thee far hence, unto the Gentiles. Note,
God often gives gracious answers to the prayers of his people, not in
the thing itself that they pray for, but in something better. Abraham
prays, O that Ishmael may live before thee; and God hears him
for Isaac. So Paul here prays that he may be an instrument of
converting souls at Jerusalem: “No,” says Christ, “but thou shalt be
employed among the Gentiles, and more shall be the children of the
desolate than those of the married wife.” It is God that appoints
his labourers both their day and their place, and it is fit they should
acquiesce in his appointment, though it may cross their own
inclinations. Paul hankers after Jerusalem: to be a preacher there was
the summit of his ambition; but Christ designs him greater preferment.
He shall not enter into other men’s labours (as the other apostles did,
but shall break up new ground, and preach the gospel where Christ
was not named,
Rom. xv. 20.
So often does Providence contrive better for us than we for ourselves;
to the guidance of that we must therefore refer ourselves. He shall
choose our inheritance for us. Observe, Paul shall not go to preach
among the Gentiles without a commission: I will send thee. And,
if Christ send him, his Spirit will go along with him, he will stand by
him, will carry him on, and bear him out, and give him to see the fruit
of his labours. Let not Paul set his heart upon Jerusalem, for he must
be sent far hence; his call must be quite another way, and his work of
another kind. And it might be a mitigation of the offence of this to
the Jews that he did not set up a Gentile church in the neighbouring
nations; others did this in their immediate vicinity; he was sent to
places at a distance, a vast way off, where what he did could not be
thought an annoyance to them.
Now, if they would lay all this together, surely they would see that
they had no reason to be angry with Paul for preaching among the
Gentiles, or construe it as an act of ill-will to his own nation, for
he was compelled to it, contrary to his own mind, by an overruling
command from heaven.
| Paul’s First Defence. |
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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.
23 And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and
threw dust into the air,
24 The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the
castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging; that he
might know wherefore they cried so against him.
25 And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the
centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man
that is a Roman, and uncondemned?
26 When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief
captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a
Roman.
27 Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art
thou a Roman? He said, Yea.
28 And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I
this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.
29 Then straightway they departed from him which should have
examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he
knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.
30 On the morrow, because he would have known the certainty
wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his
bands, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to
appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before them.
Paul was going on with this account of himself, had shown them his
commission to preach among the Gentiles without any peevish reflections
upon the Jews, and we may suppose designed next to show how he was
afterwards, by a special direction of the Holy Ghost at Antioch,
separated to this service, how tender he was of the Jews, how
respectful to them, and how careful to give them the precedency in all
places whither he came, and to unite Jews and Gentiles in one body; and
then to show how wonderfully God had owned him, and what good service
had been done to the interest of God’s kingdom among men in general,
without damage to any of the true interests of the Jewish church in
particular. But, whatever he designs to say, they resolve he shall say
no more to them: They gave him audience to this word. Hitherto
they had heard him with patience and some attention. But when he speaks
of being sent to the Gentiles, though it was what Christ himself said
to him, they cannot bear it, not so much as to hear the Gentiles named,
such an enmity had they to them, and such a jealousy of them. Upon the
mention of this, they have no manner of patience, but forget all rules
of decency and equity; thus were they provoked to jealousy by those
that were no people,
Rom. x. 19.
Now here we are told how furious and outrageous the people were against
Paul, for mentioning the Gentiles as taken into the cognizance of
divine grace, and so justifying his preaching among them.
I. They interrupted him, by lifting up their voice, to put him into
confusion, and that nobody might hear a word he said. Galled
consciences kick at the least touch; and those who are resolved not to
be rules by reason commonly resolve not to hear it if they can help it.
And the spirit of enmity against the gospel of Christ commonly shows
itself in silencing the ministers of Christ and his gospel, and
stopping their mouths, as the Jews did Paul’s here. Their fathers had
said to the best of seers, See not,
Isa. xxx. 10.
And so they to the best of speakers, Speak not. Forbear, wherefore
shouldst thou be smitten?
2 Chron. xxv. 16.
II. They clamoured against him as one that was unworthy of life, much
more of liberty. Without weighing the arguments he had urged in his own
defence, or offering to make any answer to them, they cried out with a
confused noise, “Away with such a fellow as this from the
earth, who pretends to have a commission to preach to the Gentiles;
why, it is not fit that he should live.” Thus the men that have
been the greatest blessings of their age have been represented not only
as the burdens of the earth, but the plague of their generation. He
that was worthy of the greatest honours of life is condemned as not
worthy of life itself. See what different sentiments God and men have
of good men, and yet they both agree in this that they are not likely
to live long in this world. Paul says of the godly Jews that they were
men of whom the world was not worthy,
Heb. xi. 38.
And therefore they must be removed, that the world may be justly
punished with the loss of them. The ungodly Jews here say of Paul that
it was not fit he should live; and therefore he must be removed, that
the world may be eased of the burden of him, as of the two witnesses,
III. They went stark mad against Paul, and against the chief captain
for not killing him immediately at their request, or throwing him as a
pry into their teeth, that they might devour him
(v. 23);
as men whose reason was quite lost in passion, they cried out like
roaring lions or raging bears, and howled like the evening wolves; they
cast off their clothes with fury and violence, as much as to say
that thus they would tear him if they could but come at him. Or,
rather, they thus showed how ready they were to stone him; those that
stoned Stephen threw off their clothes,
Or, they rent their clothes, as if he had spoken blasphemy; and
threw dust into the air, in detestation of it; or signifying how
ready they were to throw stones at Paul, if the chief captain would
have permitted them. But why should we go about to give a reason for
these experiences of fury, which they themselves could not account for?
All they intended was to make the chief captain sensible how much they
were enraged and exasperated at Paul, so that he could not do any thing
to gratify them more than to let them have their will against him.
IV. The chief captain took care for his safety, by ordering him to be
brought into the castle,
A prison sometimes has been a protection to good men from popular rage.
Paul’s hour was not yet come, he had not finished his testimony, and
therefore God raised up one that took care of him, when none of his
friends durst appear on his behalf. Grant not, O Lord, the desire
of the wicked.
V. He ordered him the torture, to force from him a confession of some
flagrant crimes which had provoked the people to such an uncommon
violence against him. He ordered that he should be examined by
scourging (as now in some countries by the rack), that he might
know wherefore they cried so against him. Herein he did not proceed
fairly; he should have singled out some of the clamorous tumultuous
complainants, and taken them into the castle as breakers of the peace,
and should have examined them, and by scourging too, what they had to
lay to the charge of a man that could give so good an account of
himself, and did not appear to have done any thing worthy of death or
of bonds. It was proper to ask them, but not at all proper to ask Paul,
wherefore they cried so against him. He could tell that he had
given them no just cause to do it; if there were any cause, let them
produce it. No man is bound to accuse himself, though he be guilty,
much less ought he to be compelled to accuse himself when he is
innocent. Surely the chief captain did not know the Jewish nation when
he concluded that he must needs have done something very bad whom they
cried out against. Had they not just thus cried out against our Lord
Jesus, Crucify him, crucify him, when they had not one word to
say in answer to the judge’s question, Why, what evil has he
done? Is this a fair or just occasion to scourge Paul, that a rude
tumultuous mob cry out against him, but cannot tell why or wherefore,
and therefore he must be forced to tell?
VI. Paul pleaded his privilege as a Roman citizen, by which he was
exempted from all trials and punishments of this nature
(v. 25):
As they bound him with thongs, or leathern bands, to the
whipping post, as they used to bind the vilest of malefactors in
bridewell from whom they would extort a confession, he made no outcry
against the injustice of their proceedings against an innocent man, but
very mildly let them understand the illegality of their proceedings
against him as a citizen of Rome, which he had done once before at
Philippi after he had been scourged
(ch. xvi. 37),
but here he makes use of it for prevention. He said to the centurion
that stood by, “You know the law; pray is it lawful for you
who are yourselves Romans to scourge a man that is a Roman, and
uncondemned?” The manner of his speaking plainly intimates what a
holy security and serenity of mind this good man enjoyed, not disturbed
either with anger or fear in the midst of all those indignities that
were done him, and the danger he was in. The Romans had a law (it was
called lex Sempronia), that if any magistrate did chastise or
condemn a freeman of Rome, indicta causa–without hearing him speak
for himself, and deliberating upon the whole of his case, he should
be liable to the sentence of the people, who were very jealous of their
liberties. It is indeed the privilege of every man not to have wrong
done him, except it be proved he has done wrong; as it is of every
Englishman by Magna Charta not to be dis-seized of his life or
freehold, but by a verdict of twelve men of his peers.
VII. The chief captain was surprised at this, and put into a fright. He
had taken Paul to be a vagabond Egyptian, and wondered he could speak
Greek
(ch. xxi. 37),
but is much more surprised now he finds that he is as good a gentleman
as himself. How many men of great worth and merit are despised because
they are not known, are looked upon and treated as the offscouring of
all things, when those that count them so, if they knew their true
character, would own them to be of the excellent ones of the earth! The
chief captain had centurions, under-officers, attending him,
One of these reports this matter to the chief captain
(v. 26):
Take heed what thou doest, for this man is a Roman, and what
indignity is done to him will be construed an offence against the
majesty of the Roman people, as they loved to speak. They all knew what
a value was put upon this privilege of the Roman citizens. Tully extols
it in one of his orations against Verres, O nomen dulce libertatis,
O jus eximium nostræ civitatis! O lex Porcia! O leges
Semproniæ; facinus est vincere Romanum civem, scelus verberare–O
Liberty! I love thy charming name; and these our Porcian and Sempronian
laws, how admirable! It is a crime to bind a Roman citizen, but an
unpardonable one to beat him. “Therefore” (says the centurion) “let
us look to ourselves; if this man be a Roman, and we do him any
indignity, we shall be in danger to lose our commissions at least.”
Now,
1. The chief captain would be satisfied of the truth of this from his
own mouth
(v. 27):
“Tell me, art thou a Roman? Art thou entitled to the privileges
of a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” says Paul, “I am;” and perhaps
produced some ticket or instrument which proved it; for otherwise they
would scarcely have taken his word.
2. The chief captain very freely compares notes with him upon this
matter, and it appears that the privilege Paul had as a Roman citizen
was of the two more honourable than the colonel’s; for the colonel owns
that his was purchased: “I am a freeman of Rome; but with a great
sum obtained I this freedom, it cost me dear, how came you by it?”
“Why truly,” says Paul, “I was free-born.” Some think he became
entitled to this freedom by the place of his birth, as a native of
Tarsus, a city privileged by the emperor with the same privileges that
Rome itself enjoyed; others rather think it was by his father or
grandfather having served in the war between Cæsar and Antony, or
some other of the civil wars of Rome, and being for some signal piece
of service rewarded with a freedom of the city, and so Paul came to be
free-born; and here he pleads it for his own preservation, for which
end not only we may but we ought to use all lawful means.
3. This put an immediate stop to Paul’s trouble. Those that were
appointed to examine him by scourging quitted the spot; they
departed from him
(v. 29),
lest they should run themselves into a snare. Nay, and the colonel
himself, though we may suppose him to have a considerable interest, was
afraid when he heard he was a Roman, because, though he had not beaten
him, yet he had bound him in order to his being beaten. Thus many are
restrained from evil practices by the fear of man who would not be
restrained from them by the fear of God. See here the benefit of human
laws and magistracy, and what reason we have to be thankful to God for
them; for even when they have given no countenance nor special
protection to God’s people and ministers, yet, by the general support
of equity and fair dealing between man and man, they have served to
check the rage of wicked and unreasonable illegal men, who otherwise
would know no bounds, and to say, Hitherto it shall come, but no
further; here shall its proud waves by stayed. And therefore this
service we owe to all in authority, to pray for them, because this
benefit we have reason to expect from them, whether we have it or no,
as long as we are quiet and peaceable–to live quiet and peaceable
lives in all godliness and honesty,
1 Tim. ii. 1, 2.
4. The governor, the next day, brought Paul before the sanhedrim,
He first loosed him from his bands, that those might not
prejudge his cause, and that he might not be charged with having
pinioned a Roman citizen, and then summoned the chief priests and all
their council to come together to take cognizance of Paul’s case, for
he found it to be a matter of religion, and therefore looked upon them
to be the most proper judges of it. Gallio in this case discharged
Paul; finding it to be a matter of their law, he drove the prosecutors
from the judgement-seat
and would not concern himself at all in it; but this Roman, who was a
military man, kept Paul in custody, and appealed from the rabble to the
general assembly. Now,
(1.) We may hope that hereby he intended Paul’s safety, as thinking, if
he were an innocent and inoffensive man, though the multitude might be
incensed against him, yet the chief priests and elders would do him
justice, and clear him; for they were, or should be, men of learning
and consideration, and their court governed by rules of equity. When
the prophet could find no good among the poorer sort of people, he
concluded that it was because they knew not the way of the Lord, nor
the judgments of their God, and promised himself that he should
speed better among the great men, as the chief captain here did, but
soon found himself disappointed there: these have altogether broken
the yoke, and burst the bonds,
Jer. v. 4, 5.
But,
(2.) That which he is here said to aim at is the gratifying of his own
curiosity: He would have known the certainty wherefore he was
accused of the Jews. Had he sent for Paul to his own chamber, and
talked freely with him, he might soon have learned from him that which
would have done more than satisfy his enquiry, and which might have
persuaded him to be a Christian. But it is too common for great men to
affect to set that at a distance from them which might awaken their
consciences, and to desire to have no more of the knowledge of God’s
ways than may serve them to talk of.
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