Acts 22

22:1-11 The apostle addressed the enraged multitude, in the customary style of respect and good-will. Paul relates the history of his early life very particularly; he notices that his conversion was wholly the act of God. Condemned sinners are struck blind by the power of darkness, and it is a lasting blindness, like that of the unbelieving Jews. Convinced sinners are struck blind as Paul was, not by darkness, but by light. They are for a time brought to be at a loss within themselves, but it is in order to their being enlightened. A simple relation of the Lord's dealings with us, in bringing us, from opposing, to profess and promote his gospel, when delivered in a right spirit and manner, will sometimes make more impression that laboured speeches, even though it amounts not to the full proof of the truth, such as was shown in the change wrought in the apostle.

"\nAnd when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them,.... [See comments on Ac 21:40].\n\nthey kept the more silence; it being their mother tongue, and which they best understood; and which the captain and the Roman soldiers might not so well under stand; and chiefly because the Hellenistic language was not so agreeable to them, nor the Hellenistic Jews, who spoke the Greek language, and used the Greek version of the Bible; and such an one they took Paul to be, besides his being a Christian; wherefore when they heard him speak in the Hebrew tongue, it conciliated their minds more to him, at least engaged their attention the more to what he was about to say:\n\nand he saith; the Syriac and Ethiopic versions add, "to them", as follows.\n\n\n "

2. when they heard … the Hebrew tongue—(See on [2090]Ac 21:40).they kept the more silence—They could have understood him in Greek, and doubtless fully expected the renegade to address them in that language, but the sound of their holy mother tongue awed them into deeper silence.

"\nI am verily a man which am a Jew,.... By birth, a thorough genuine one; an Hebrew of the Hebrews, both by father and mother side, both parents being Jews, and so a true descendant from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:\n\nborn in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia; [See comments on Ac 21:39].\n\nyet brought up in this city; the city of Jerusalem; though Tarsus was the place of his birth, he had his education at Jerusalem:\n\nat the feet of Gamaliel; of whom see Ac 5:34 it was the custom of scholars among the Jews, to sit at the feet of their masters, when instructed by them; see De 33:3 hence that saying of Jose ben Joezer {a};\n\n"let thy house be an house of resort for the wise men, and be thou dusting thyself, \u05d1\u05e2\u05e4\u05e8 \u05e8\u05d2\u05dc\u05d9\u05d4\u05dd, "with the dust of their feet":''\n\nwhich by one of their commentators {b} is interpreted two ways, either\n\n"as if it was said that thou shouldst walk after them; for he that walks raises the dust with his feet, and he that goes after him is filled with the dust which he raises with his feet; or else that thou shouldst sit at their feet upon the ground, for so it was usual, that the master sat upon a bench, and the scholars sat at his feet upon the floor.''\n\nThis latter sense is commonly understood, and adapted to the passage here, as illustrating it; though it may be, that the sense may only be this, that the apostle boarded in Gamaliel's house, ate at his table, and familiarly conversed with him; which he modestly expresses by being brought up at his feet, who was a man that was had in great reverence with the Jews; and this sense seems the rather to be the sense of the passage, since his learning is expressed in the next clause; and since; till after Gamaliel's time, it was not usual for scholars to sit when they learned; for the tradition is {c}, that\n\n"from the times of Moses to Rabban Gamaliel, they (the scholars) did not learn the law but standing; after Rabban Gamaliel died, sickness came into the world, and they learned the law sitting; and hence it is said, that after Rabban Gamaliel died, the glory of the law ceased.''\n\nIt follows,\n\n[and] taught according to the perfect law of the fathers; not the law which the Jewish fathers received from Moses, though Paul was instructed in this, but in the oral law, the "Misna", or traditions of the elders, in which he greatly profited, and exceeded others, Ga 1:14.\n\nAnd was zealous towards God; or "a zealot of God"; one of those who were called "Kanaim", or zealots; who in their great zeal for the glory of God, took away the lives of men, when they found them guilty of what they judged a capital crime; see Mt 10:4. The Vulgate Latin version reads, "zealous of the law"; both written and oral, the law of Moses, and the traditions of the fathers:\n\nas ye all are this day; having a zeal for God, and the law, but not according to knowledge.\n\n{a} Misn. Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 4. {b} Bartenora in Misn. Piske Abot, c. 1. sect. 4. {c} T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 21. 1. Vid. Misn. Sota, c. 9. sect. 15.\n\n\n "

22:3 I am verily - This defence answers all that is objected, Acts 21:28. As there, so here also mention is made of the person of Paul, Acts 22:3, of the people and the law, Acts 22:3,5,12; of the temple, Acts 22:17; of teaching all men, Acts 22:15 - 17,21; and of the truth of his doctrine, Acts 22:6. But he speaks closely and nervously, in few words, because the time was short. But brought up at the feet of Gamaliel - The scholars usually sat on low seats, or upon mats on the floor, at the feet of their masters, whose seats were raised to a considerable height. Accurately instructed - The learned education which Paul had received was once no doubt the matter of his boasting and confidence. Unsanctified learning made his bonds strong, and furnished him with numerous arguments against the Gospel.