After the last post (A Divining Demon, Angry Slave Owners, and the Roman Card), I remembered another time Paul let someone know he had Roman citizenship, and this time he did it before he was beaten. I’ll be in Acts 21:27-22:30.
In the first part of Acts 21, Paul has been visiting churches and seeing all the Christian brethren. They were encouraging each other, catching up, and probably hugging each other. Right before we get to our passage, Paul has reached Jerusalem and gone to visit James and more Christians in the area. They were all excited to see him and to hear about how many people are believing in Jesus. Then they brought up a concern about how some of the Jews around there were starting to think that Paul had cast away his Jewish heritage and was teaching other Jews not to follow particular laws of Moses. To prove that Paul still observed his lawful Jewish heritage, they suggested that Paul go with some of the other Jewish men with them to purify themselves for their vows at God’s temple according to the law of Moses. Paul agreed.
As we reach our passage, Paul and these men were heading into the temple to do what they were supposed to be doing, but then some of the Jews who had heard about Paul stirred up the crowd and grabbed him. The Jews called out for help, saying that Paul had been teaching people to go against the law and the temple, adding that he’d even brought Gentile Greeks into the temple. Now Paul had taught and done no such things, and they’d only said he’d brought in Greeks because they’d seen him earlier with an Ephesian friend of his and assumed he’d come with Paul.
The people in the temple were making such a ruckus that the whole city joined in on it. People ran together into a crowd and dragged Paul out of the temple, closing the doors quickly after him. They were trying to kill him when news of the uproar came to the chief captain in town. He ran in with some men, and those who were beating Paul stopped beating him because they saw the Roman soldiers. The chief captain seized Paul, had him bound with two chains, and demanded to know what was going on. Some people in the crowd said one thing and some said another. Since no clear answer was made, the chief captain took Paul to the castle or barracks. The following crowd was so violent and insistent Paul be taken away that the soldiers had to carry Paul up the steps.
As they came to the door, Paul asked the chief captain if he could speak to him. The chief captain was surprised that Paul was speaking Greek, and asked if he wasn’t that Egyptian that had led around a bunch of murderers in the wilderness. Paul let the chief captain know that he was Jewish and what city he was from, then begged to talk to the assembled people. The chief captain allowed it.
Paul beckoned for the people to listen, so they hushed and he spoke in Hebrew to them. They grew quieter once he started speaking in their language, and Paul began his testimony. He told them who he was and where he was from, and how he was brought up there in Jerusalem and learned from one of the Jews’ most respected teachers, Gamaliel. Paul recounted to them how zealous he had been for the law and how he’d taught it. He told them he has been as zealous for God as the assembled crowd in front of him. Paul let them know (and probably reminded some of them) how he used to persecute Christians and made sure they were bound and imprisoned, whether man or woman. He let them know that the high priest and the elders knew and could tell them it was true, since Paul had wanted letters of authority to go hunt down even more Christians. He had gone to Damascus to do that hunting when he was stopped by a blinding light and fell to the ground. A voice had said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Paul asked, “Who are you, sir?” The voice responded, “I am Jesus, the one you’re persecuting.” Paul asked what he should do, and Jesus replied that Paul should continue on to Damascus and he would be told there what to do.
I’m not sure what the people were thinking at this point, but they must have been listening intently since Paul continued. He said that after the light went away, he was blind and had to have his travelling companions lead him along. While he was waiting for whatever Jesus was going to tell him next, God sent a Christian man named Ananias to heal Paul’s blindness and tell him that God had chosen him to be a witness for Him. After that when Paul had returned to Jerusalem, he had been praying in the temple when he saw and heard Jesus again. They had a brief conversation, during which Jesus told Paul to leave quickly, Paul spoke of the things he’d done to persecute Christians, and Jesus told him that He would be sending Paul far and wide to the Gentiles.
The crowd was with Paul until he said that part about the Gentiles, then they all got angry again and started yelling that he should die and that it would be fitting if he did. People started tearing at their clothes and throwing dust in the air. The chief captain figured the only way he’d find out why the crowd was so angry would be to beat it out of Paul, so he had Paul brought inside and prepared for beating.
As the soldiers were binding Paul for the beating, he looked at the centurion captain and said, “Is it lawful for you to beat an uncondemned Roman citizen?” I’m not sure what his tone was, but when I read it Paul seems so calm and casual. Whatever the tone, the centurion captain quickly went and told the chief captain that he’d better not beat this man or he’d be in trouble, so the chief captain came to speak with Paul and confirm his citizenship. They had a brief conversation about it, wherein Paul noted that he was born with the citizenship and the chief captain noted he had paid money to buy his citizenship. The soldiers who were to forcefully interrogate Paul left quickly, and the chief captain was a worried because he’d bound a Roman citizen.
It seems Paul spent the night there, and the next day when things had calmed down, the chief captain arranged a meeting with Paul and some of the people who were angry with Paul so they could all talk and the chief captain could figure out why they’d caused such a ruckus. If you want to know how that went and the interesting chain of events that brought Paul to his ultimate calling, go ahead and read more for yourself in Acts. It’s very exciting!
Related:
God’s Forgiveness – Paul the Apostle
Paul’s Prison Ministry