Acts 22:24

Act_22:24-29

The chief captain commanded him to be brought to the castle.

The Jews, the Boman, and the Christian

I. The Jews in their conduct, which necessitated the interference of the chief captain, illustrate--

1. The blindness of religious bigotry. They rushed to the conclusion that Paul was not fit to live, in the first instance, with no evidence whatever. They now rushed to the same conclusion against the clearest evidence that could be produced. Thus bigotry works everywhere, in Church and State. Let a man run counter to prevailing prejudices, and he is condemned unheard; and no vindication, however clear and cogent; is allowed to remove the prejudice.

2. The murderousness of religious hatred. Twice within an hour was Pauls life in peril from the men with whom he differed in certain points. Let it be remembered that Pauls attitude was not antagonistic to Judaism; he had simply advanced Christianity beyond the Judaic province. But to have any relations with Gentiles was an unpardonable offence. And differences which have been far removed from hostilities in religion, politics, temperance, and other reforms, have been occasions for aiming poisoned darts at character, business, influence, etc.

II. The roman officer represents--

1. The stern justice which would get at the facts. Lysias, like Gallio, cared neither for the Jews nor for Paul, but, unlike Gallio, he desired that strict justice should be done. Paul had twice created an uproar in a short space--a thing undesirable anywhere to that embodiment of order, a Roman official, but most undesirable in Jerusalem, where inflammable materials always existed in abundance. So if he could get at the facts he might allay the present agitation, and perhaps prevent future disturbances. This is all Christianity wants--a fair field and no favour.

2. The legality which is equitable in its ends bus unfair in its use of means. Three courses were open to the captain--

(1) To interrogate Paul and the ringleaders separately.

(2) To bring them face to face.

(3) To assume Pauls guilt, and extract by torture the occasion of the uproar. This last was the course that Lysias proposed--a course allowable by Roman law in the case of all but Roman citizens, but violating the first principles of law. This has been the course pursued by all classes, and Christian and social reformers have in all ages been victims of it.

3. The officialism which, convicted of illegality, cowers in fear. When the chief captain discovered that he had bound, and nearly scourged, a Roman citizen, he was afraid, as he might well be (Act_22:29). And so has many an ecclesiastic and statesman when he has done, or proposed to do, evil that good might come.

III. Paul is an example of--

1. The prudence which quietly bides its time. Instead of angrily protesting, while the clamorous mob sufficiently deafened the soldiery, thereby adding exasperation to confusion, and in vain, Paul waits till the clamour subsides at the sight of preparations for scourging. Then, as soon as there is a lull and he can be heard, he speaks. A lesson of patience and self-possession. Many a man has lost himself and his cause through premature speech or action.

2. The wisdom which discerns when its time is come. Ere the first humiliating lash descended, Paul speaks the word which made the Roman quail. Many have the prudence to wait, but fail to see and seize upon the time to speak or act when it comes. How many opportunities for Christian effort or social usefulness are allowed to pass by from the lack of this faculty!

3. The dignity which asserts its rights. There is a time to submit, and that often came to Paul. But now clearly was the time for Christs sake and his own to stand upon his dignity. And that time comes both to the individual and to the Church. (J. W. Burn.)

The moral cowardice of warriors

I. Fear of the people made the chief captain cruel towards Paul. Why did the Roman tribune command Paul to be brought into the castle to be scourged? Not because he could have been in any way convinced of his guilt, but because he wished to conciliate the raging mob. Here is base cowardice. The love of right should make the ruler superior to the fear of man.

II. Fear of the Roman power forced him to desist. While the indignities were being inflicted, Paul, with the heroism of a great man, said, Is it lawful, etc. From the conversation that took place, three things are observable--

1. Pauls self-command. He speaks without rage or excitement to the bold Roman himself: Is it lawful, etc.

2. The apostles civic superiority. Paul was a freeborn citizen of Rome, the chief captain a citizen only by purchase.

3. The force of the Roman name. As soon as they heard that Paul was a Roman, the officer and the soldiers recoiled. Conclusion; This incident accords with Roman history. Cicero, against Verres, says, It is a heinous sin to bind a Roman citizen; it is wickedness to beat him; it is next to parricide to kill him; and what shall I say to crucify him? (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman?--

Asserting rights

Shortly before James I came to the throne of England, he set up a claim to all the small estates in Cumberland and Westmoreland, on the plea that the statesmen were merely the tenants of the Crown. The statesmen met, to the number of two thousand, at Batten Heath, between Kendal and Staveley, where they came to the resolution that they had won their lands by the sword and were able to hold them by the same. After that meeting no further claim was made. (H. O. Mackey.)

Take heed … for this man is a Roman.--

The prevailing plea

A man was captured in Cuba, in 1869, by the Spanish troops under suspicious circumstances, and he was condemned to be shot. English by birth and American by naturalisation, the consuls of these two nations interfered for his life, but in vain. The condemned man was brought out to be shot. The soldiers were drawn up in file with loaded guns, when the English and American consuls threw over the man their national flags; the Spanish authorities did not dare to fire upon the Cross of St. George or the Stars and Stripes, and the man was saved. Take heed, the consuls said, this man is English, this man is an American. So when a sinner trusts in Christ, and his soul is sprinkled with His precious blood, no power can harm. Christ says to Justice, Take heed, this man is My brother; and to the world, and to Satan, and to all the powers of evil, Take heed, this man is a Christian. (Christian Age.)

Paul said, But I was free born.--

Birthright goodness and goodness which we pay for

There are two kinds of goodness: that which comes of itself, and that which comes with effort and struggle; goodness born of nature, or made by will. Some people seem to be good by nature. They are free born. Children of a good blood, born in families educated during many generations to be true, just, generous, respectful; the stamp of the race appears in their habits of thought and action. But others are less fortunate. They come from a bad stock, and the poor blood of bad ancestors runs in their veins. They are by nature peevish, egotistical, vain, wilful, irritable, sensual. They are aware of their proclivities; they resist them with heroic courage. They succeed, with immense effort, in conquering this demon in their organisation, and contrive to become moderately good people. With a great sum they purchase this freedom from evil. They are emancipated by their own heroic efforts, and are not the slaves of sin, but have become the freemen of the truth. It is evident that those who have thus emancipated themselves by their own efforts deserve more credit than those who are born with the possession of all sweetnesses and all purities. This is the encouragement for those who find a great deal to contend against in their nature or their circumstances. When the spirit is willing, but the flesh weak; when the law in the member wars against the law of the mind; when some irresistible current seems to be setting you down, away from what is good and right; then remember that you need not despair; that you are not asked to do more than you can, but only what you can; that having little, you are to give diligence gladly to give of that little, and that your reward will be greater if you use your one talent aright, and improve it to the utmost, than those will obtain who, having a great endowment of power and faculty, make little use of it. All this is true; but it will not do to push this truth too far. If one deserves great credit who obtains his moral freedom with a great sum, expending time, effort, self-denial, self-control therein, it is also a great blessing to be free born. I am often asked, Which kind of goodness is the best and highest, that of nature or that of effort? If you say that the goodness of struggle is the best, because it has most temptations to conquer, then we must ask what temptations God has to resist? He is not tempted with evil at all. Moreover, if we say that that goodness is greatest which has most temptation to resist and most evil to conquer, then it would follow that as we grow better we grow worse. This is absurd. Therefore it follows that, while there is more moral merit in resisting evil, there is more moral beauty in not having any evil to resist. The life and character of Jesus is the best solution of this paradox. If we ask, Which is the best kind of goodness, that which consists in struggle and effort, or that which comes naturally and easily without struggle? we find that Jesus had both kinds of goodness in equal and harmonious union. His whole life, on one side, was a struggle and a battle. He was tempted on all points, like as we are; but without sin. Though a son, He learned obedience through the things which He suffered. Yet He was the well-beloved Son, dwelling in the bosom of the Father, pure from all stain of evil. He combined these two forms of goodness perfectly--that of nature and that of effort. This made Him complete and perfect. For though Jesus had this battle, it did not consist in any struggle with evil in Himself. He was born pure and free from stain. He was born of the Holy Spirit. No drop of black blood corrupted His heart. A great prophecy has lain hidden in human hearts from the beginning, of such a being as this. Seeing everywhere among men weakness, ignorance, sin, the human heart has cried out for someone to come who, while being a man like ourselves, should be an example of uncorrupt humanity. God, who made us with this longing and this prophetic hope, sent to us in Jesus Christ its answer and fulfilment. He showed us this one pure soul, in whose life the most searching criticism has never yet found a stain, and yet He was one who had to struggle, as we struggle, suffer as we suffer, resist temptation as we resist it, and whose whole life was not only growth, but also battle; in whom, therefore, we find the fulness of the Godhead by finding the fulness of manhood, since man was made in the image of God. Jesus stands as the central figure in history; the reconciliation of races, creeds, philosophies, and religions; the Son of God in holiness; the Son of man in goodwill and humility. There are, therefore, those two kinds of goodness: the goodness which comes from struggle, and that which comes from nature; but the life of Jesus shows that they are at heart one. This also appears from the fact that each tends to produce the other. The natural growth into good prepares us to struggle for it. Struggle and effort to do right at last consolidate into right habits and tendency. Mr. Darwin says that a long-necked horse by straining upward to get the leaves from the trees may, after a few thousand centuries, have been developed into a giraffe. About this we cannot be certain, but I do not doubt that a bad man after a while may become a good man. The goodness is incomplete which does not unite the virtue which struggles and the sweetness which grows. There are in all our lives a natural happy development, and hours of crisis. With Jesus the development came first, and prepared Him for the final crisis. With others the struggle comes first, and ripens into a calm and assured peace. We are made to inherit or attain both kinds of goodness; we are intended to grow up in all things into Him who is our Head, even Jesus. If He was perfect, He has said to us that we may also become perfect. Be ye perfect even as your Heavenly Father is perfect. If Jesus is thus far the exception, and if imperfection is thus far the rule, He came to reverse the law and to make that which is now the rule to become the exception. All the New Testament is full of calls and invitations to become like Jesus; to be grafted in Him, and so to produce much fruit; to grow up as He grew up, and to struggle manfully as He struggled, and so to inherit all His life and power; to be heirs with God and joint heirs with Christ, in this, and in all the worlds which are to come. (J. Freeman Clarke.)

The privileges of birth

1. Are not to be despised by Christians.

2. A wrong use of them, however, is worse than contempt for them.

3. There are times when they may be used as weapons of defence. (J. H. Tasson.)

The Christians birthright:--Every Christian is free born. Christ hath made him free. The new birth is a birth into freedom, freedom from sin, freedom from fear, freedom in love and in the truth, freedom in action as the natural outflowing of his soul, and yet at the beginning he has attained this freedom only in part. It. Independence Hall at Philadelphia there is the bell which in 1776 first rang out to the citizens who were awaiting the action of Congress, then sitting with closed doors, that the Declaration of Independence had been decided upon. Fifteen years before this, that bell was cast with these words upon it, Proclaim liberty to all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof (Lev_25:15). Fifteen long years it rang--rang the hope of liberty, rang the prophecy of liberty; but at length it rang out liberty attained and the prophecy was fulfilled. So every Christian has liberty inwrought upon his soul at his new birth--partly a fact and partly a prophecy, but a prophecy becoming fulfilled; and at length, when the truth has done its work, no longer in prophecy but in reality shall the Christian know the glorious liberty of the sons of God. (Christian Age.)

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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. Paul and the Chiliarch, Act_22:24-30.

24. The castle—Again in the barracks. Had Lysias understood the speech, and known that Paul’s crime was favour to the Gentiles, different would have been the result.

Examined by scourging—Compelling him to explain his own crime by torture. Lysias is here plainly overhasty. How easy was it for him to learn at least the accusation against Paul by calling in a few chief Jews. This lazy readiness for the scourge was one of the instances of the cruelty in which the Roman under-officers often indulged where the provincial population was alone concerned. But Lysias here committed himself, in that his victim was not a mere provincial, but a Roman citizen as well.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 22:24. Ἄγεσθαι, to be led) from the stairs, on which he had been standing.—μάστιξιν ἀνετάζεσθαι, that he should be examined by scourging) in order that he might as speedily as possible confess.—ἐπεφώνουν, they were so crying against him) Hearers are said to cry in acclamation of [or in anger at] one making a speech: ch. Act 12:22.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act_22:24. It is unnecessarily assumed by Heinrichs, Kuinoel, and de Wette that the tribune did not understand the Hebrew address. But the tumult, only renewed and increased by it, appeared to him to presuppose some secret crime. He therefore orders the prisoner to be brought into the barracks, with the command εἶπας (see Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 236 f. [E. T. 275]), to examine him by the application of scourging (ἀνετάζεσθαι, Susannah 14, Jdg_6:29, not preserved in Greek writers, who have ἐξετάζεσθαι), in order to know on account of what offence (Act_13:28, Act_23:28, Act_25:18, Act_28:18) they so shouted to him (to Paul, comp. Act_23:18).

αὐτῷ] for the crying and shouting were a hostile reply to him, Act_22:22-23. On ἐπιφ. τινι, comp. Plut. Pomp. 4. Bengel well remarks: acclamare dicuntur auditores verba facienti. Comp. Act_12:22; Luk_23:21; 3Ma_7:13.

Moreover, it was contrary to the Roman criminal law for the tribune to begin the investigation with a view to bring out a confession by way of torture (L. 1, D. 48. 18), not to mention that here it was not a slave who was to be questioned (L. 8, ibid.). As in the case of Jesus (Joh_19:1), it was perhaps here also the contentment of the people that was intended. Comp. Chrysostom: ἁπλῶς τῇ ἐξονσίᾳ χρᾶται (the tribune), καὶ ἐκείνοις πρὸς χάριν ποιεῖ … ὅπως παύσειε τὸν ἐκείνων θυμὸν ἄδικον ὄντα.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 22:24 . ὁ χιλ ., see Act 21:31 . παρεμ ., Act 21:34 . εἰπὼν : whether the chiliarch understood Paul’s words or not, he evidently saw from the outcries of the mob that the Apostle was regarded as a dangerous person, and he probably thought to obtain some definite information from the prisoner himself by torture. μάστιξιν , cf. 2Ma 7:1 , 4Ma 6:3 ; 4Ma 9:12 , etc., and 1Ki 12:11 , Pro 26:3 , and in N.T., Heb 11:36 ; the Roman scourging was a terrible punishment; for its description cf., e.g. , Keim, Geschichte Jesu , iii., p. 390 (for Jewish scougings see Farrar, St. Paul , ii., Excurs., xi.). ἀνετάζεσθαι : not found in classical Greek, but ἐξετάζεσθαι used specially of examination by torture. It is found in the active voice in Jdg 6:29 A, and Susannah , ver 14 . ἐπεφ .: “shouted against him,” R.V., see on Act 21:34 , and 3Ma 7:13 only here with dative.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The wisdom of the flesh doth not consider what is just, but what is profitable, and therewithall measure the profit, according as it appeareth presently.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

examined by scourging--according to the Roman practice.

that he might know wherefore they cried so--Paul's speech being to him in an unknown tongue, he concluded from the horror which it kindled in the vast audience that he must have been guilty of some crime.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 24. Examined by scourging] As the chief captain did not understand the Hebrew language, he was ignorant of the charge brought against Paul, and ignorant also of the defence which the apostle had made; and, as he saw that they grew more and more outrageous, he supposed that Paul must have given them the highest provocation; and therefore he determined to put him to the torture, in order to find out the nature of his crime. The practice of putting people to the rack, in order to make them confess, has, to the disgrace of human nature, existed in all countries.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

24. The chief captain. It was well and wisely done of the chief captain thus to withdraw Paul from the sight of the people, forasmuch as his presence did move and more provoke them who were already too much moved. For by this means he provideth for the life of the holy man, and partly appeaseth the madness of the people. But when he commandeth him to be scourged, to whose charge he heard no certain crime laid, he seemeth to deal unjustly. And yet this injury [injustice] was not without color, because it was likely that it was, not without cause, that all the people had conspired to put one man to death. Therefore, a vehement presumption was the cause of so strait examination. But we must note that this is a common custom among politic men, that they be just judges, so far as is expedient for them; but if they be called away by profit, then they go out of the way. Nevertheless, it is sufficient for them to color this their wickedness with the title of wisdom, because they hold that general principle, that the world cannot be governed without some show or color of justice; but in all actions that subtilty whereof I spake doth prevail, that they consider rather what is profitable than what is equal and right.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(24) Bade that he should be examined by scourging.—The matter-of-course way in which this is narrated illustrates the ordinary process of Roman provincial administration. The chiliarch had probably only partially understood St. Paul’s Aramaic speech, and his first impulse was to have him scourged, so as to elicit from his own lips that which he could not gather from the confused and contradictory clamours of the crowd.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24. the chief captain, &c.] Probably the chief captain knew nothing of what St Paul had been saying, and would be surprised at the outbreak of rage on the part of the people, and conclude from it that there was some serious charge laid against him which he might best ascertain by subjecting his prisoner to torture till he should confess.

wherefore they cried so against him] The Rev. Ver. has “for what cause they so shouted against him,” and the verb is rendered “gave a shout” (Act_12:22), but there it is the voice of the applauding crowd that is spoken of. In this verse and Luk_23:21 (the only other passage in which the word is found in N. T.) “cry” seems to express better in English the utterance of an infuriated mob. It is true that a different verb is rendered by “cry” in Act_22:23, but that proves that the Greeks had two verbs which they could use for the noise of a mob, while in English we appear not to be so rich. In the A. V. “shout” seems always used of triumph and exultation.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When the centurion heard that,.... The question put by Paul, which strongly suggested that he was a Roman:

he went and told the chief captain; what Paul had said: saying, take heed what thou dost; or "art about to do"; lest some bad consequences should follow; lest he should affront the Roman people and senate, and lose his place, if not incur some corporeal punishment:

for this man is a Roman; and it can never be answered to bind and beat a Roman.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Ver. 24. Examined by scourgings] Politicians consider not often what is just, but what is of use for the present purpose, be it right or wrong. Paul is here commanded to be scourged, and then examined. This is hysteron proteron, justice turned topsy-turvy.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The castle - The castle of Antonia. He would be there removed entirely from the wrath of the Jews.

Should be examined - ἀνετάζεσθαι anetazesthai.” The word “examine” with us commonly means “to inquire, to question, to search for, to look carefully into a subject.” The word used here is commonly applied to metals whose nature is tested, or examined by fire; and then it mean to subject to torture or torments, in order to extort a confession where persons were accused of crime. It was often resorted to among the ancients. A common mode has been by the rack, but various kinds of torments have been invented in order to extort confessions of guilt from those who were accused. The whole practice has been one of the most flagrant violations of justice, and one of the foulest blots on human nature. In this case, the tribune saw that Paul was accused violently by the Jews; he was probably ignorant of the Hebrew language, and had not understood the address of Paul; he supposed from the extraordinary excitement that Paul must have been guilty of some flagrant offence, and he therefore resolved to subject him to torture to extort from him a confession.

By scourging - By the scourge or whip. Compare Heb 11:36. This was one mode of torture, in order to extort a secret from those who were accused.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The chief captain; of whom, Act 21:31.

The castle, or fort, called Antonia, as in Act 21:34.

By scourging; or torturing, (being put to the question, as the French expression is, agreeable to the Greek word here used), which went no further than by scourging; which was for this purpose used upon the blessed body of our Saviour, Mat 27:26. The chief captain took it for granted that he was some notorious malefactor whom all cried out against injuriously, accounting vox populi to be vox Dei; and because in that confusion he could not know the certainty from his accusers, he would wrest a confession out of St. Paul, whom they accused.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Bidding for and bade, A.V.; for what cause for wherefore, A.V.; so shouted for cried so, A.V. The chief captain. (see Act_21:31, note) The castle . (see Act_21:34, note) Examined; ajnetazesqai, only here and in ver. 29. in Jud_1:6:29 (Codex Alexandrinus) and in the Hist. of Susanna 14 the verb has the simple sense of "inquiring." The classical word for "examining" and especially by torture, is ejxetazein. By scourging (mastixin). The mastix was in Latin the flagellum, the m st severe implement of flogging, though even with the lighter virga, the rod of the lictor, slaves and others were beaten to death (usque ad necem). It was not lawful to beat a Roman citizen even with the virga (rJabdov); stix, Act_16:22, Act_16:35, Act_16:37, notes. The ma or scourge, was that with which our Lord was scourged at the bidding of Pilate (sav Mat_27:26, where fragellw is from the Latin flagellum; (Mar_10:34; Luk_18:33; Joh_19:1) Doubtless Lysias had not understood Paul"s Hebrew speech, and so had not known what it was which provoked so fierce an uproar among the people.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

LYSIAS PROCEEDS TO HAVE HIM COWHIDED

24-30. The uproarious clamor and the awful fury of the Jews impress Lysias that Paul is guilty of some terrible crime, about which he has hitherto been unable to secure information. Consequently, he now resorts to an awfully cruel procedure customary among the Romans, i. e., to beat a prisoner with thongs of a rawhide, which would cut his flesh all to pieces, and torture him so awfully that it was believed it would coerce the desired confession of crime. It was not uncommon for the party thus scourged to fall dead. When I was a boy I saw these cowhides on sale in stores, then used by cruel people on horses. I am glad they have long since disappeared.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See notes on verse 22

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

24–30. Bade that he be examined by scourging. Probably ignorant of the Hebrew tongue, unable to understand what had caused the fury of the people, thinking that it might be due to the commission of some horrible crime by the speaker, the chief captain, drawing him into the castle, ordered that he be put to the torture to compel him to make a confession. Until recent times, it was common to torture prisoners under the belief that thus they could be compelled to speak the truth. Scourging was the usual method of torture among the Romans. The prisoner's back was bared, he was bound, and the rods borne by the lictors were usually employed.

Paul said to the centurion. Who was seeing that the chief captain's orders were carried out. Is it lawful to scourge a Roman? Once before at Philippi (16:37) he had appealed to his rights as a Roman, but this was after the scourging. The name Roman acted like magic in each case. The centurion at once pauses, tell his commander to beware; no officer dared to lay a hand in violence on a Roman citizen without trial. The claim was at once allowed, for it was a capital offense to make a false claim of citizenship, and none dared attempt it. “He who falsely pretended to Roman citizenship was beheaded on the Esquiline hill.”—Suetonius. A constant traveler like Paul would be likely to carry papers that would prove his claims.

Art thou a Roman? The commander comes at once to inquire for himself.

The officer states that he had bought citizenship himself. He was not of Roman birth, an alien, but by a heavy bribe had obtained Roman rights. This was not uncommon in the corrupt period of Roman government that had come. But I was free born. His father before had been a Roman citizen. Whether he inherited it also, or had in some way secured the right, is unknown. If any wonder how a Jew could be a Roman, let them look around and see Jews, Germans, Irish, etc., who are American citizens.

The chief captain was afraid. Because he had bound Paul for the torture, and had thus violated the privileges of Roman citizenship.

On the morrow. Perplexed concerning the animosity of his countrymen to Paul, anxious to know whether he was a malefactor, he ordered a meeting of the Sanhedrim that it might investigate the charges against him.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

24. ὁ χιλίαρχος εἰσάγεσθαι αὐτὸν with אABCDE. Vulg. ‘tribunus induci eum.’

24. ἐκέλευσεν ὁ χιλίαρχος εἰσάγεσθαι αὐτὸν κ.τ.λ., the chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle. Probably the chief captain understood nothing of what St Paul had been saying, and would be surprised at the outbreak of rage on the part of the people, and conclude from it that there was some serious charge laid against him which he might best ascertain by subjecting his prisoner to torture till he should confess.

εἴπας μάστιξιν ἀνετάζεσθαι αὐτόν, having bidden that he should be examined by scourging. The active verb ἀνετάζειν is found LXX. Susanna 14, ἀνετάζοντες ἀλλήλους, but it is of very rare occurrence.

The mode of examination by torture among the Romans consisted in binding the limbs of the person to be tortured fast to a framework on which arms and legs were spread apart (divaricatio), and then the beating was inflicted by means of rods.

δι’ ἣν αἰτίαν οὕτως ἐπεφώνουν αὐτῷ, for what cause they cried so against him. Here the antecedent has been, as is not uncommon, transferred into the relative clause.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24.] The tribune, not understanding the language in which Paul spoke, wished to extract from him by the scourge the reason which so exasperated the Jews against him. In this he was acting illegally: ‘Non esse a tormentis incipiendum, Div. Augustus constituit.’ Digest. Leg. 48, tit. 18, c. 1 (De W.).

ἐπεφών.] they were thus crying out against him.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Examined [ανεταζεσθαι] . Only here and ver. 29. Not found in classical Greek. Apocrypha, Susanna, ver. 14.

By scourging [μαστιξιν] . Lit., with scourges.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.