Acts 22:1

Acts 21 tells how Paul came back to Jerusalem, wanting to show that he still kept the customs of his people. Jews from Asia accused him of teaching against the law and of bringing Gentiles into the temple, and the crowd was beating him when the Roman tribune, Claudius Lysias, stepped in and carried him off to the barracks (Acts 21:27–36). Paul spoke to the tribune in Greek, which surprised him, told him he was a Jew of Tarsus, and asked leave to speak to the people (Acts 21:37–40). These verses are the opening of what he said, and the whole speech runs through Acts 22.

When the people heard that he spoke to them “in the Hebrew tongue”, they became stiller than before. The phrase joins Hebraḯs, the Hebrew or Jewish language, to diálektos, a mode of speech, a language or dialect. In Jerusalem at this time, Aramaic was the language of everyday life, Greek was the common tongue of the empire, and Hebrew was used mainly for Scripture and learned study. So the “Hebrew tongue” here was most likely Aramaic, the speech of the Jews of Judea, and that is what the crowd recognised. The verb for “heard” is the same akoúō that Paul used in verse 1.

Hearing their own language changed how they saw him. They had been told that he had abandoned the customs of his people (Acts 21:28), and now a man who might have been taken for a foreigner or a Greek-speaking apostate addressed them as one of their own. “They kept the more silence”: mâllon is “more”, in a greater degree, and hēsychía is stillness, a ceasing from noise and talk. The shouting gave way to a deeper quiet, and Paul was able to begin. The words “and he saith” lead into his account in Acts 22:3–21.

A proverb speaks of the joy of a fitting answer and of how good a word spoken at the right time is (Proverbs 15:23). God gave his servant the wisdom to speak a word this crowd would hear, and it opened a door for his testimony. Paul shows the same care for his hearers later, when he speaks before King Agrippa (Acts 26:1–29).

“I am verily a man which am a Jew” answers the charge at once. He is a Jew by birth, neither a Gentile nor a proselyte. “Born” is gennáō, to beget or bring forth, used here of his birth in Tarsus. Tarsus, in Cilicia, was a major Greek-speaking city, a centre of learning and trade and a Roman provincial capital, with a large Jewish community. Paul was also a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37), but before this crowd he stresses that he is a Jew.

“Yet brought up in this city” means Jerusalem, the heart of Jewish life, where he was raised from his youth. “At the feet of Gamaliel” is a way of saying that he was formally taught as a disciple of that master. Gamaliḗl, a name of Hebrew origin, was the revered Pharisee and teacher of the law usually called Gamaliel I, a leading member of the council, known for wisdom and moderation. Acts shows him counselling the council to leave the apostles alone, in case they should be found fighting against God (Acts 5:34–39). To name him as one’s teacher was to claim the finest religious education of the day.

“Taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers” says the same thing in another way. “Taught” is paideúō, to train up a child or to educate. “Perfect manner” is akríbeia, exactness, so he was trained in the law with strict precision. “Of the fathers” is patrōios, belonging to one’s fathers, inherited, the law handed down from their ancestors. Verse 1 shares the English “fathers”, and there the Greek is patḗr. His training covered the written law of Moses and the body of tradition and interpretation handed down with it, which was central to the Pharisees.

“And was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.” “Zealous” is zēlōtḗs, a zealot, one full of fervent devotion, from a root meaning to be hot or to boil. Paul sets his past beside their present: what they are today, he was. He credits them with real zeal for God, and the same words gently suggest that their zeal, like his own once was, may be sincere and still aimed the wrong way. Elsewhere Paul writes that his zeal showed itself in persecuting the church (Philippians 3:4–7) and that he advanced in Judaism beyond many of his own age (Galatians 1:13–16).

God was preparing him through all of this. The learning he gained under Gamaliel, which he first turned against the church, later equipped him to explain the Scriptures and defend the gospel. The Lord told Ananias that Saul was his chosen vessel to carry his name (Acts 9:15).

“And I persecuted this way unto the death.” “Persecuted” is diṓkō, a strengthened form of a verb meaning to flee, so it means to pursue, to put to flight. It can mean simply to follow after, and here it means to hunt down with hostile intent. Paul names himself as the one who did it.

“As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders.” “Bear witness” is martyréō, to be a witness, to testify. Paul calls on the highest authorities of his people as men who can confirm his story. “The estate of the elders” is presbytérion, the order of elders. The word can name a Christian presbytery, and here it is the Sanhedrin, the supreme council of chief priests, scribes and elders. His persecution was sanctioned by the very council his hearers honoured.

“From whom also I received letters unto the brethren.” The letters (epistolḗ, a written message) served as warrants, giving him legal standing to arrest believers in Jesus far from Judea. “Brethren” is the same word adelphós that Paul used of the crowd in verse 1. It means his fellow Jews, the Jews of Damascus, and the people he went to arrest were Jewish believers in Jesus.

“And went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem.” Damascus was a major city of Syria with a large Jewish population, and the faith had already taken root there. Acts tells this journey in full (Acts 9:1–19). “Bound” here is déō, to bind or tie, while the “binding” of verse 4 is desmeúō, so the two verses share only the English word. He meant to bring them back as prisoners for trial before the council.

“For to be punished.” The verb timōréō means properly to protect one’s honour, and so to avenge or inflict a penalty. The penalty in view could range from flogging, which Paul himself later received from the Jews (2 Corinthians 11:24), to imprisonment, and in the worst cases death, as Stephen’s stoning shows. And there is a deep irony here. The man who once bound believers and led them away for punishment now stands bound himself, on trial for the faith he tried to destroy.

Paul recounts all this to show that his change came from God. He knew the law thoroughly and served it with his whole heart, and he was utterly convinced that he was serving God. He later told Agrippa that he thought he ought to do many things against the name of Jesus (Acts 26:9). To him the claim that Jesus was the Messiah was blasphemy, and he believed he was defending the law and the traditions of his fathers. That is why the next part of his speech, his meeting with the risen Christ on the Damascus road (Acts 22:6–16), is so striking. Acts tells this conversion three times: in Acts 9 when it happened, here before the crowd, and again before Agrippa (Acts 26:9–18), each told for its own hearers.

His story shows that sincere zeal can still set a man against God. Saul was fervent and devout, and he was persecuting the church of God. Salvation came to him as a gift of grace through faith, unearned by any religious effort (Ephesians 2:8–9). Paul later counted all his credentials as loss for the sake of Christ (Philippians 3:7–8), for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). He called himself the chief of sinners and said that he obtained mercy so that Christ might show in him all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who would believe after him (1 Timothy 1:12–16).

Paul pleads his case before his accusers. Jesus, when he stood before his, offered no defence at all, as Isaiah foretold: “he was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). God vindicated him by raising him from the dead, declaring him to be the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4), and he now pleads for us as our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). The punishment Saul wanted to bring on believers fell on Christ himself, who was wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5). The high priest of verse 5 signed letters to bind and punish, while Jesus, our great high priest (Hebrews 4:14), sets his people free.

Paul’s choice to speak in the people’s own tongue is a small picture of what Christ did on a far greater scale. He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7), the Word made flesh who lived among us (John 1:14). The hush that fell on the crowd is a faint echo of the authority of Jesus, who stilled a storm with a word (Mark 4:39) and whose teaching astonished the crowds (Matthew 7:28–29). And the gospel Paul was about to proclaim crosses every barrier of language, as Pentecost showed when people from many nations heard the wonderful works of God in their own tongues (Acts 2:4–11).

The Way that Saul persecuted belonged to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Jesus had told his followers that they would be hated for his name’s sake (Matthew 10:22), and the persecutor became one of them, suffering beatings, prisons and dangers for Christ (2 Corinthians 11:23–27). His whole life became a witness that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).

These verses give us a man who stood among his enemies with courtesy and courage, and who told the truth about the worst things he had done. They show us a God who chose Saul while he was still dragging believers to prison, and who used even his training under Gamaliel for the gospel he once fought. No one in the crowd that day was further from Christ than Paul had been.

Paul’s way of speaking is a pattern for the answer Peter tells us always to be ready to give for the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15). It is speech seasoned with grace (Colossians 4:6), given in the defence and confirmation of the gospel (Philippians 1:7). And it is a reason to pray with hope for the fiercest opponents of the faith, because the Lord who turned Saul around is the same today.