Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 22:19
And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee:
19. Lord, they know, &c.] The Rev. Ver. gives “they themselves know” to mark that the pronoun is emphatic. This is not English, but there seems to be no other way of indicating in our language the emphasis which is expressed in the original. Saul is confident that he will be well known by many to whom he is speaking, and that his zealous persecution of the Christians less than four years before cannot have fallen out of men’s memories.
I imprisoned and beat ] The Greek implies that this conduct was of some continuance. Saul was regularly engaged in the work.
in every synagogue ] For the synagogues as places where such punishment was inflicted cp. Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34, Mar 13:9, Luk 21:12. That they were also places in which charges were heard is seen from Luk 12:11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And I said, Lord – This shows that it was the Lord Jesus whom Paul saw in a trance in the temple. The term Lord is usually applied to him in the Acts . See the notes on Act 1:24.
They know – Christians know; and they will therefore be not likely to receive to their fellowship their former enemy and persecutor.
Beat in every synagogue – Beating, or scourging, was often done in the synagogue. See the notes on Mat 10:17. Compare Act 26:11. It was customary for those who were converted to Christianity still to meet with the Jews in their synagogues, and to join with them in their worship.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 19. I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue] This shows what an active instrument Saul of Tarsus was, in the hands of this persecuting priesthood, and how very generally the followers of Christ were persecuted, and how difficult it was at this time to profess Christianity.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This was Pauls objection which he made against the will of God concerning his leaving Jerusalem, and the Jews in it; and shows how apt carnal reason is in the very best men to set up itself against the wisdom of God, and to argue for what we fancy best to be done, or left undone. The sum of his reasoning is this, That he was most likely to do more good amongst the Jews than amongst the Gentiles, whither God was sending of him, because the Jews knew how zealous he had been not only to observe the law himself, but to procure its observation by all others; and that it was no less than a miracle which changed his mind about it. He shows also by this his great love unto the Jews, whom he would have staid with, had it been at his choice, and did only remove from by Gods command.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17-21. it came to pass, &c.Thisthrilling dialogue between the glorified Redeemer and his chosenvessel is nowhere else related.
when I was come again toJerusalemon the occasion mentioned in Ac9:26-29.
while I prayed in thetempleHe thus calls their attention to the fact that after hisconversion he kept up his connection with the temple as before.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I said, Lord, they know, that I imprisoned,…. Men and women, that made a profession of the Christian religion, Ac 8:3
and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee; in Jerusalem there were many synagogues, and in these scourging and beating of offenders were used; [See comments on Mt 10:17].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Imprisoned and beat ( ). Periphrastic imperfect active of (LXX and late Koine, here alone in the N.T.) and (old verb to skin, to beat as in Mt 21:35 which see).
In every synagogue ( ). Up and down () in the synagogues.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And I said, Lord,” (kago eipon kurie) “And I responded (to Him), Lord,” as in personal communion with Him, appealing to the Lord regarding His own nation, as in Rom 9:1-3; Rom 10:1-4.
2) “They know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue,” (autoi epostantai hoti ego hemen phulakizon kai deron kata tis sunagogas) “They understand that I was once continually imprisoning and beating (the imprisoned) throughout the synagogues,” or in all the synagogues where I could find Christians, Act 22:4. For the Sanhedrin could order that, what they considered religiously erring Jews, be whipped or scourged publicly, in the synagogues, a matter that Paul promoted against Christians, Mat 10:17; Mar 13:9; Act 5:40.
3) “Them that believed on thee: (tous posteountas epi se)”Those believing on thee,” or those who have believed on thee, and let it be known, Christians everywhere I could find them, Act 8:3; Act 26:9-11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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19. Lord, they know. By this speech Paul doth testify that he was not beside himself, or brought into perplexity, − (516) but that he did assuredly believe the oracle. For without doubt he knew Christ, whom he calleth Lord. And Paul objecteth, that it cannot almost be, but that when they see him so suddenly changed, such a spectacle will move them. Whence he gathereth that he shall not be unfruitful. He thought so indeed; but Christ answereth flatly, that he hath appointed him another charge, and he taketh from him the hope which he had in vain conceived touching the Jews. The question is, whether it were lawful for Paul to object these reasons to Christ; for it is as much as if he did avouch that that is probable, which Christ said could not be. I answer, that God giveth his saints leave, familiarly, to utter their affections before him; − (517) especially when they seek no other thing but the confirmation of their faith. −
If any man stand in his own conceit, or stubbornly refuse that which God commandeth, his arrogancy shall be worthily condemned; but God vouchsafeth his faithful servants of a singular privilege, that they may modestly object those things which may call them back from the desire to obey; to the end that being free from lets, they may wholly addict themselves to serve God; as Paul, after that he was taught that it pleased the Lord that it should be so, he doth not gainsay nor contend any longer, but being content with that one exception, and making an end there, he maketh himself ready to take his journey, which he seemed to be loath to take. In the mean season, whereas the Jews are not touched with so many miracles, their stubbornness and pride, which cannot be tamed, is discovered. Which upbraiding did undoubtedly cause them to rage. −
(516) −
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Mente aliena tam vel perplexum,” alienated or perplexed in mind.
(517) −
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Ut familiariter in ejus sinum exonerent suos affeetus ,” to unburden their feelings familiarly into his breast.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(19) Lord, they know that I imprisoned . .This was said at the time, and it was repeated now. as with a two-fold bearing. It was partly an extenuation of the unbelief of the people. They were, as he had once been, sinning in ignorance, which, though as yet unconquered, was not invincible. Partly it expressed the hope that they too might listen when they saw him whom they had known as a vehement persecutor preaching the faith which he had once destroyed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
“And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue those who believed on you, and when the blood of Stephen your witness was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting, and keeping the garments of those who slew him.’ ”
He pointed out that he had not received the message glibly. Indeed he had been unable to believe it, and had protested that all knew that he had persecuted those who had believed in Jesus, and that he had been standing by, consenting, when Stephen was martyred, and had even watched the coats of those who had done it. Surely then they would recognise his genuineness and listen to him? But God had assured him that what He had said was true. Jerusalem would not receive His message.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 22:19-21 . “I interposed by way of objection [137] the contrast, in which my working for Christianity (my ) would appear toward my former hostile working [138] (which contrast could not but prove the truth and power of my conversion and promote the acceptance of my testimony), and (Act 22:21 )
Christ repeated His injunction to depart, which He further specially confirmed by . . ” “Commemorat hoc Judaeis Paulus, ut eis declararet summum amorem, quo apud eos cupivit manere iisque praedicare; quod ergo iis relictis ad gentes iverit, non ex suo voto, sed Dei jussu compulsum fuisse,” Calovius.
.] is necessarily to be referred to the subject of , Act 22:18 , to the Jews in Jerusalem , not to the foreign Jews (Heinrichs).
. . .] I was there , etc.
] et ipse , as well as other hostile persons. On ., comp. Act 8:1 .
Act 22:21 . ] with strong emphasis. Paul has to confide in and obey this I .
] This promised future sending forth ensued at Act 13:2 , and how effectively! see Rom 15:19 .
] among Gentiles .
[137] Ewald, p. 438, understands ver. 19 f. not as an objection, but as assenting : “however humanly intelligible it might strictly be, that the Jews would not hear him.” But the extraordinary revelation in itself most naturally presupposes in Paul a human conception deviating from the intimation contained in it, to which the heavenly call runs counter, as often also with the prophets (Moses, Jeremiah, etc.), the divine intimation encounters human scruples. If, moreover, the words here were meant as assenting , we should necessarily expect a hint of it in the expression (such as: , ).
[138] In which I was engaged in bringing believers to prison ( ., Wis 18:4 ), and in scourging them (Mat 10:17 ), now in this synagogue, and now in that ( .). Comp. Act 26:11 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
XVI
SAUL, THE PERSECUTOR
Act 7:57-60
In a preceding chapter on Stephen we have necessarily considered somewhat a part of the matter of this chapter, and now we will restate only enough to give a connected account of Saul. In our last discussion we found Saul and other members of his family residents in Jerusalem, Saul an accomplished scholar, a rabbi, trained in the lore of the Jewish Bible and of their traditions, a member of the Sanhedrin, an extreme Pharisee, flaming with zeal, and aggressive in his religion, an intense patriot, about thirty-six years old, probably a widower, stirred up and incensed on account of the progress of the new religion of Jesus.
In considering this distinguished Jew in the role of a persecutor, we must find, first of all, the occasion of this marvelous and murderous outbreak of hatred on his part at this particular juncture, and the strange direction of its hostility. On three all-sufficient grounds we understand why Saul did not actively participate in the recent Sadducean persecution. First, the issue of that persecution was the resurrection, and on this point a Pharisee could not join a Sadducean materialist. Second, the motive of that persecution was to prevent the break with Rome, and Saul as a Pharisee wanted a break with Rome. Third, the direction of that persecution was mainly against the apostles and Palestinian Christians, who, so far, had made no break with the Temple and its services and ritual, or the customs of Moses. To outsiders they appeared as a sect of the Jews, agreeing, indeed, with the Pharisees on many points, and while they were hateful in their superstition as to the person of the Messiah, they were understood to preach a Messiah for Jews only and not for Gentiles. That is why Saul did not join the Sadducean persecution because of the issue of it, because of the motive of it, and because of the direction of it.
1. Five causes stirred him up to become a persecutor: First, the coming to the front of Stephen, the Hellenist, whose preaching evidently looked to a Messiah for the world, and not only looked to a break with Jerusalem and the Temple, but the abrogation of the entire Old Covenant, or at least its supercession by a New Covenant on broad, worldwide lines that made no distinction between a Jew and a Greek. That is the first cause of the persecuting spirit of Saul.
2. Stephen’s Messiah was a God-man and a sufferer, expiating sin, and bringing in an imputed righteousness through faith in him wrought by the regenerating Spirit, instead of a Jewish hero, seated on David’s earthly throne, triumphant over Rome, and bringing all nations into subjection to the royal law. This is the difference between the two Messiahs. So that kind of a Messiah would be intensely objectionable to Saul.
3. Stephen’s preaching was making fearful inroads among the flock of Saul’s Cilicean synagogue, and sweeping like a fire among the Israelites of the dispersion, who were already far from the Palestinian Hebrews.
4. Some of Saul’s own family were converted to the new religion, two of them are mentioned in the letter to the Romans as being in Christ before him, and his own sister, judging from Act 23 , was already a Christian.
5. Saul’s humiliating defeat in the great debate with Stephen.
These are the five causes that pushed the man out who had been passive in the other persecution, now to become active in this persecution. They account for the vehement flame of Saul’s hate, and the direction of that hate, not toward the apostles, who had not broken with the Holy City, its Temple, its sacrifice, nor the customs of Moses, but against Stephen and those accepting his broader view. We cannot otherwise account for the fact that Saul took no steps in his persecution against the apostles, while he did pursue the scattered Christians of the dispersion unto strange cities.
We may imagine Saul fanning the flame of his hate by his thoughts in these particulars:
1. “To call this Jesus ‘God’ is blasphemy.
2. “To call this convicted and executed felon ‘Messiah,’ violates the Old Testament teaching of David’s royal son triumphing over all of his enemies.
3. “That I, a freeborn child of Abraham, never in bondage, must be re-born, must give up my own perfect and blameless righteousness of the law to accept the righteousness of another, is outrageous.
4. “That I must see Jerusalem perish, the Temple destroyed, the law of the Mosaic covenant abrogated, and enter into this new kingdom on the same humiliating terms as an uncircumcised Gentile, is incredible and revolting.
5. “That this Hellenist, Stephen, should invade my own flock and pervert members of my own family, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen [Rom 16:7 ], and my own sister [Act 23:16 ], and shake the faith of my other kinsmen, Jason and Sosipater [Rom 16:21 ], is insulting to the last degree.
6. “That I, the proud rabbi, a member of the supreme court of my people, the accomplished and trained logician, should be overwhelmed in debate by this unscholarly Stephen, and that, too, in my own chosen field the interpretation of the Law, Prophets, and Psalms, is crucifixion of my pride and an intolerable public shame. Let Stephen perish!
7. “But more humiliating than all, I find myself whipped inside. This Stephen is driving me with goads as if I were an unruly ox. His words and shining face and the Jesus he makes me see, plant convicting pricks in my heart and conscience against which I kick in vain; I am like a troubled sea casting up mire and filth. To go back on the convictions of my life is abject surrender. To follow, then, a logical conclusion, is to part from the counsel of my great teacher, Gamaliel, and to take up the sword of the Sadducee and make myself the servant of the high priest. Since I will not go back, and cannot stand still, I must go forward in that way that leads to prison, blood, and death, regardless of age or sex. Perhaps I may find peace. The issue is now personal and vital; Stephen or Saul must die. To stop at Stephen is to stop at the beginning of the way. I must go on till the very name of this Jesus is blotted from the earth.”
That is given as imagined, but you must bring in psychology in order that you may understand the working of this man’s mind to account for the flaming spirit and the desperate lengths of the persecution which he introduces.
Seven things show the spirit of this persecution, as expressed in the New Testament:
1. In Act 8:3 (Authorized Version), the phrase, “making havoc” is used. That is the only time in the New Testament that the word “havoc” is found. It is found in the Septuagint of the Old Testament. But it is a word which expresses the fury of a wild boar making havoc a wild boar in a garden: rooting, gnashing, and trampling. That phrase, “making havoc,” gives us an idea of the spirit that Saul had, which is the spirit of a wild boar.
2. In Act 9:1 , it is said of Saul, “Yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter.” How tersely expressed that is! The expiration of his breath is a threat, and death. Victor Hugo, in one place, said about a man, “Whenever he respires he conspires,” and that is the nearest approach in literature to this vivid description of the state of a man’s mind that the very breath he breathed was threatenings and slaughter.
3. The next word is found in Act 26:11 . He says, “being exceedingly mad against them.” That is the superlative degree. He was not merely angry at the Christians, but it was an anger that amounted to madness; he was not merely mad but “exceedingly mad.” So that gives you the picture of that wild boar.
4. “He haled men and women.” “Haled” is an old Anglo Saxon word. We don’t use it now, but it means “to drag by violence.” He didn’t go and courteously arrest a man; he just went and grabbed men and women and dragged them through the streets. Imagine a gray-haired mother, a chaste wife, a timid maiden, grabbed and dragged through the streets, with a crowd around mocking, and you get at the spirit of this persecution.
5. The next word is “devastate.” Paul used this word twice, and Ananias used it once (Act 9:21 ). That word is the term that is applied to an army sweeping a country with fire and sword. We say that Sherman devastated Georgia. He swept a scope of country seventy-five miles wide from Atlanta to the sea, leaving only the chimney stacks not a house, not a fence with fire and sword. And that word is here employed to describe Saul’s persecution.
6. Twice in Galatians he uses this word in describing it: “I persecuted them beyond measure,” that is, if you want to find some kind of a word that would describe his persecution, in its spirit, you couldn’t find it; you couldn’t find a word that would mean “beyond measure.”
7. The last phrase is in Act 22:4 , “unto death.” That was objective in spirit, whether men or women. These seven expressions, and they are just as remarkable, and more so, in the Greek, as they are in English, give the spirit of this persecution.
The following things show the extent of this persecution:
1. Domiciliary visits. He didn’t wait to find a man on the streets acting in opposition to any law. He goes to the houses after them, and in every place of the world. The most startling exercise of tyranny is an inquisition into a man’s home. The law of the United States regards a man’s home as his castle, and only under the most extreme circumstances does the law allow its officers to enter a man’s home. If you were perfectly sure that a Negro had burglarized your smokehouse, and you had tracked him to his house, you couldn’t go in there, you couldn’t take an officer of the law in there, unless you went before a magistrate and recorded a solemn oath that you believed that he was the one that did burglarize your place, and that what he stole would be found if you looked for it in his house.
2. In the second place, “scourges.” He says many times I have scourged them, both men and women, forty stripes save one; thirty-nine hard lashes he put on the shoulders of men and women. Under the Roman law it was punishable with death to scourge a Roman citizen. Convicts, or people in the penitentiary, can be whipped. Roman lictors carried a bundle of rods with which they chastised outsiders, but on home people they were never used. Cicero makes his great oration against Veres burn like fire when it is shown that Veres scourged Roman citizens. Seldom now do we ever hear of a case where a man is dragged out of his house and publicly whipped by officers of the law, just on account of his religion.
3. The next thing was imprisonment. He says, “Oftentimes I had them put in prison.” A thunderbolt couldn’t be more sudden than his approach to a house. Thundering at the door, day or night, gathering one of the inmates up, taking him from the home and taking him to jail. What would you think of somebody coming to your house when you were away in the night, and dragging your wife and putting her in jail, just because she was worshiping God according to the dictates of her conscience? We live in a good country over here. We have never been where these violent persecutions were carried on.
4. He says that when they were put to death he gave his voice against them. He arrested them and scourged them, and then in the Sanhedrin he voted against them.
5. In the next place he compelled them to blaspheme. The Greek doesn’t mean that he succeeded in making them blaspheme, but that he was trying to make them blaspheme. For instance, he would have a woman up, and there was the officer ready to give her thirty-nine lashes in open daylight: “You will get this lashing unless you blaspheme the name of Jesus,” Paul would say. Pliny, in writing about the Christians in the country over which he presided when he was ordered to persecute the Christians, says, “I never went beyond this: I never put any of them to death if when brought before me he would sprinkle a little incense before a Roman god. If he would Just do that I wouldn’t put him to death.”
6. Expatriation, ex , from, patria terra , “one’s fatherland” exiled from one’s country. It was an awful thing on those people at a minute’s notice either to recant or else just as they were, without a minute’s preparation, to go off into exile, father, mother, and children. The record says, “They were all scattered abroad except the apostles.”
7. Following them into exile into strange countries, and cities, getting a commission to go after them and arrest them, even though they had gotten as far from Jerusalem as Damascus.
8. The last thing in connection with the extent of this persecution is to see, first, the size or number of the church. Let us commence with 120 (that is, before Pentecost), add 3,000 on the day of Pentecost, add multitudes daily, add at another time 5,000 men and women, add twice more, multitudes, multitudes, then we may safely reach the conclusion that there were 100,000 Jewish communicants in that first church at Jerusalem. That represents a great many homes. This man Paul goes into every house, he breaks up every family. They are whipped; they are imprisoned; they are put to death or they are expatriated; and over every road that went out from Jerusalem they were fleeing, the fire of persecution burning behind them. The magnitude of the persecution has never been fully estimated.
There are eight distinct references by him in two speeches and four letters that show his own impressions of this sin. One of them you will find in the address that he delivered on the stairway in Jerusalem when he himself was a prisoner (Act 22 ); another one is found in his speech at Caesarea before King Agrippa (Act 26 ). You will find two references in Gal 1 of the letter to the Galatians (1:13, 23) ; there is one in 1Co 15:15 ; another in Phi 3 ; still another, and a most touching one, when he was quite an old man (1 Timothy). We may judge of the spirit and the extent of a thing by the impression that it leaves on the mind of the participator.
Everything that he inflicted on others, he subsequently suffered. He had them to be punished with forty stripes save one; five times he submitted to the same punishment. He had them put in prison; “oftentimes” he was imprisoned. He had them expatriated; so was he. He had them pursued in the land of expatriation; so was he. He had them stoned; so was he. He attempted to make them blaspheme; so they tried to make him blaspheme under Nero, or die, and he accepted death. He had them put to death; so was he. Early in his life, before a great part of his sufferings had yet commenced, we find his catalogue of the things that he suffered in one of the letters to the Corinthians, and just how many particular things that he had suffered up to that time.
Two considerations would naturally emphasize his unceasing sorrow for this sin:
1. His persecution marked the end of Jewish probation, the closing up of the last half of Daniel’s week, in which the Messiah would confirm the covenant with many. From this time on until now, only an occasional Jew has been converted. Paul did it; he led his people to reject the church of God and the Holy Spirit of God, the church which was baptized in the Spirit, and attested by the Spirit. He, Saul, is the one that pushed his people off the ground of probation and into a state of spiritual blindness judicial blindness from which they have not yet recovered.
2. The second thought that emphasized this impression was that he thereby barred himself, when he became a Christian, from doing much preaching to this people. In Rom 9 he says, “I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” “I bear them witness,” he says in the next chapter, “that they have a zeal for God,” and in Act 22 he says that when he was in the Temple wanting to preach to Jews, wanting to be a home missionary, God appeared to him, and said, “Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem; because they will not receive of thee testimony concerning me.” That was one of the most grievous things of his life, and we find it, I think (some may differ from me on this), manifested in the last letter of his first Roman imprisonment the letter to the Hebrews. He wouldn’t put his name to it. He didn’t want to prejudice its effect, and yet he did want to speak to his people.
Let us compare this persecution with Alva’s in the Netherlands, and the one following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In a few words, it is this: There were two great bodies of Christian people, so-called, in France the Romanists and the Huguenots. Henry of Navarre was a Huguenot. He became king of France, outwardly abjuring his Huguenot principles, but on the condition that liberty of conscience should be allowed to the people. His grandson, Louis XIV, revoked that great edict of toleration, and by its revocation, in one moment, commanded hundreds of thousands of his people to adopt the king’s religion. If they didn’t, troops or soldiers were placed in their homes with the privilege of maltreating them, and destroying their property, without being held responsible for any kind of brutal impiety that they would commit. Their young children were taken away from the mothers and put in the convents to be reared in the Romanist faith; the men had their goods confiscated, and in hundreds of thousands of instances were put to death. They were required to recant or leave France at once. Before they got to the coast an army came to bring them back, and when some of them did escape, my mother’s ancestors, the Huguenots, when that edict was revoked, came to South Carolina. Some of them went to Canada, some to other countries where there was extradition. The Romanists pursued them, and when they were able to capture them, brought them back to France to suffer under the law. Some of those that reached Canada left the settlements and went to live among the Indian tribes. There they were pursued.
When Alva came into the Netherlands (Belgium and Holland), the lowlands, under Philip, the King of Spain, the inquisition was set up and he entered the homes; he made domiciliary visits; he compelled them to blaspheme; he put to death the best, the most gifted, those holding the highest social and moral positions in the land, to the astonishment of the world. With one stroke of his pen he not only swept away all of their property, but anyone that would speak a kind word to them, or would keep them all night in the house, such a person was put to death. All over that country there was the smoke going up of their burning, and the bloodiest picture in the annals of the world was what took place when Alva’s soldiers captured a city. I would be ashamed before a mixed audience to tell what followed. The devastation was fearful.
This persecution illustrates the proverb, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Whenever Saul put one to death, a dozen came up to take the place of that one. Indeed, he himself caught on his own shoulders the mantle of Stephen before it hit the ground, as God put the mantle of Elijah on Elisha, and as God made John the Baptist the successor in spirit to Elijah. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
The effect of this persecution on the enlargement of the kingdom, and on missions, was superb. Those Jewish Christians in Jerusalem those terrapins would never have crawled away from there, if Saul hadn’t put fire on their backs, but when the fire began to burn and they began to run, as they ran, they preached everywhere. It was like going up to a fire and trying to put it out by kicking the chunks. Whenever a chunk is kicked it starts a new fire. When that persecution came, then Philip, driven out, preached to the Samaritans. Then men of Cyrene, pushed out, preached to Greeks in Antioch, and they opened up a fine mission field. Peter himself, at last, was led to see that an uncircumcised Gentile like Cornelius could be received into the kingdom of God. So it had a great deal to do with foreign missions.
The effect of this persecution in bringing laymen to the front was marvelous. They never did come to the front in the history of the world as they did in this persecution. The apostles were left behind. The preachers right in the midst of the big meeting in which 100,000 people had been converted, were left standing there, surrounded by empty pews, with no congregation. The congregation is now doing the preaching. A layman becomes an evangelist. These people carry the word of God to the shores of the Mediterranean, into Asia Minor, to Rome, to Ephesus, to Antioch, to Tarsus, to the ends of the earth, and laymen do an overwhelming part of this work.
It is well, perhaps, in this connection to explain how Saul, in this persecution, could put to death Christian people, since they, the Jews, had no such authority. In the case of Christ we know that it was necessary for the Jews to obtain Roman authority in order to put to death, but just as this time Pontius Pilate was recalled, the Roman Procurator was withdrawn, and a very large part of the Roman military force and the successor of Pilate had not arrived, so the Jews were left pretty much to themselves until that new procurator with new legions came to the country.
QUESTIONS 1. What of Saul already considered in a preceding chapter?
2. Why did not Saul participate actively in the Sadducean persecution?
3. What five causes stirred him up to become a persecutor?
4. How may we imagine Saul fanning the flame of his bate by his thoughts?
5. What seven things show the spirit of this persecution as expressed in the New Testament?
6. What things show the extent of this persecution?
7. What eight distinct references by him in two speeches and four letters which show his own impressions of this sin?
8. What were his own sufferings, in every particular? Were they such as he inflicted?
9. What two considerations would naturally emphasize the unceasing sorrow for this sin?
10. Compare this persecution with Alva’s in the Netherlands and the one following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
11. How does this persecution illustrate the proverb, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”?
12. What was the effect of this persecution on the enlargement of the kingdom, and missions?
13. What was the effect of this persecution in bringing laymen to the front?
14. How do you explain that, in this persecution, Saul could put to death Christian people, since they, the Jews, had no such authority?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
19 And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee:
Ver. 19. Lord, they know that I imprisoned ] Therefore no wonder though they of Jerusalem reject my testimony, as a light giddy headed fellow who now teach that religion that I lately persecuted; sed praestat herbam dare quam turpiter pugnare. Luther was counted and called an apostate, he confessed the action; but blessed God that had given him grace to fall off from the devil. Bugenhagius having read some few leaves of Luther’s book de Captivitate Babylonica, rashly pronounced Luther the most pestilent heretic that ever troubled the Church. But shortly after, reading the book through, and wisely weighing the arguments therein used and urged, he recanted his former censure, and publicly averred and maintained that all the Christian world was out, and Luther only in the right; Hic vir unus et solus verum videt, said he to his collegioners; many of whom he convinced and converted to the truth. (Scult. Annal.) It is judged by many that the fear of disgrace began to work upon Paul here (as it had done upon Jonah, Jon 4:2 ), q.d. I shall be counted a moon-calf; a a Retraxit shall be entered against me, as is against a plaintiff that will not proceed in his suit.
a An abortive shapeless fleshy mass in the womb; a false conception. Obs. Regarded as being produced by the influence of the moon. D
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
19. ] The probable account of this answer is, that Paul thought his former great zeal against Christ, contrasted with his present zeal for Him, would make a deep impression on the Jews in Jerusalem: or, perhaps, he wishes by his earnest preaching of Jesus as the Christ among them, to undo the mischief of which he before was the agent , and therefore alleges his former zeal and his consenting to Stephen’s death as reasons why he should remain in Jerusalem.
can only refer to the same persons as the subjects of above: not (as Heinrichs) to the foreign Jews; “Idcirco iter apostolicum extra urbem detrectat, quod undique odio petitum se iri prvidet, Hierosolymis autem in apostolorum collegio delitescere se posse opinatur:” a motive totally unworthy of Paul, and an interpretation which happily the sentence will not bear.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 22:19 . , Act 9:5 . .: Paul seems as it were to plead with his Lord that men cannot but receive testimony from one who had previously been an enemy of Jesus of Nazareth; the words too are directed to his hearers, so that they may impress them with the strength of the testimony thus given by one who had imprisoned the Christians. : on the power of the Sanhedrim outside Jerusalem see on p. 151. ., cf. Act 8:3 , Act 20:20 , and for such punishments in the synagogues cf. Mat 10:17 ; Mat 23:34 , Mar 13:9 , Luk 21:12 , cf. Luk 12:11 , Edersheim, History of the Jewish Nation , p. 374.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
they = they themselves,
know. Greek. epistamai. App-132.
imprisoned = was imprisoning. Greek. phulakizo. Only here.
beat = was beating. Greek. dero. See note on Act 5:40.
in every synagogue. Greek. kata tas sunagogas, synagogue by synagogue. Showing Paul’s systematic action.
believed. Greek. pisteuo. App-150.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
19.] The probable account of this answer is, that Paul thought his former great zeal against Christ, contrasted with his present zeal for Him, would make a deep impression on the Jews in Jerusalem: or, perhaps, he wishes by his earnest preaching of Jesus as the Christ among them, to undo the mischief of which he before was the agent, and therefore alleges his former zeal and his consenting to Stephens death as reasons why he should remain in Jerusalem.
can only refer to the same persons as the subjects of above: not (as Heinrichs) to the foreign Jews;-Idcirco iter apostolicum extra urbem detrectat, quod undique odio petitum se iri prvidet, Hierosolymis autem in apostolorum collegio delitescere se posse opinatur:-a motive totally unworthy of Paul, and an interpretation which happily the sentence will not bear.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 22:19. , they themselves) Paul thought that the conversion of himself is so effectual an argument, that even the Jews would be moved by it; but the Lord answers, that the Gentiles rather would be moved by it.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
know: Act 22:4, Act 8:3, Act 9:1, Act 26:9-12
beat: Mat 10:17
Reciprocal: Mat 23:34 – ye Mat 24:9 – shall they Mar 13:9 – take Joh 16:2 – the time Act 6:9 – the synagogue Act 9:13 – how Act 21:32 – beating Act 26:10 – I also Act 26:11 – I punished
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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Act 22:19-20. Paul refers to his former persecution of the disciples as an argument that the people of the city would certainly believe him to be sincere now. A man who had taken as active a part as he in opposition to the cause of Christ, would certainly leave no doubts of the genuineness of his conversion.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 22:19. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee. Paul, in recalling the very words of the prayer he uttered during his ecstasy, wishes to show his enemies charging him with disloyalty to the people, the law, and the temple, that his apostleship among the Gentiles was totally unsought by him,nay, that it was positively forced on him by the will of the Most High. He tells them even how he pleaded with God to let him work in Jerusalem among his own people; how he urged that it was naturally to be expected that the members of his own party, the rigid Pharisee Jerusalem Jews, would be likely to listen to him and his arguments, because they could not possibly be more bitter against the followers of the Crucified than he had been. Did they not know how he had persecuted and beaten in every synagogue them that called on the hated name of Jesus? These Pharisees would surely feel that no light or trivial circumstances could have made him the bitter foe, join a sect of which he was the notorious persecutor. It has been also suggested, as a reason for his earnest prayer to God in the temple, that he hoped by a lengthened work in Jerusalem in some way to make amends for his former cruel injuries done in that city.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 17