Acts - Week 11 / Friday

Reading for today: Acts 22:22-30

The Jews in the courtyard listened to Paul until he spoke of the command to go to the Gentiles. This set off the crowd again. Even though the Old Testament spoke clearly of God's care for the Gentiles, the Roman oppression had blinded their minds. In their eyes, Gentiles were dogs, scavengers. And so they expressed their belief that Paul was not worthy to live.

The Roman commander ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks where they were going to flog him. That meant that they were going to question him while torturing him with a whip made of leather thongs with pieces of bone and metal sewn in them. A Roman scourge often crippled or killed its victim.

At that point Paul asked the man in charge if it was legal to scourge a man who was a Roman citizen and uncondemned. The commander was called in, and he asked Paul if he was a Roman citizen. When Paul answered in the affirmative, the commander commented that he had paid a great sum of money for his Roman citizenship. In other words, he had bought a citizenship, even though he was not one by birth. This was rather common in the Roman empire, especially since it was a good way to line their pockets!

Paul said that he was a citizen by birth. His father or grandfather must have given unusual service to the Romans in Tarsus and been rewarded by Roman citizenship for himself and his family.

Paul's possible "pain inflicters" quickly realized that they were in trouble if Paul decided to press charges against them for what they had threatened to do to him, so they kept him in custody, but without chains, we can be sure. So, Paul escaped a beating---thankfully!

Next week: Paul wisely knows the crowd he speaks to