Acts 21:37Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

When they were carrying him up the steps, he asked permission to say something to the tribune. See how meekly he speaks: "May I say something to you?" So meek was he, and so humbly did he conduct himself everywhere.

The Apostle was seized, and the enraged crowd would have torn him apart if the tribune, Lysias (Acts 23:26), commander of the Jerusalem garrison, had not heard of the popular disturbance and come to the scene with part of the troops entrusted to him. Thinking Paul truly guilty of something, the tribune approached, took him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then, unable to learn what the prisoner was accused of because of the disorderly shouting of the people, he ordered him to be brought into the fortress.

When the detachment that had saved him was already about to enter the barracks, the Apostle Paul addressed Lysias in Greek: “May I say something to you?”

“You know Greek?” the commandant asked in surprise. “Then are you not the Egyptian who some days ago stirred up a revolt and led four thousand assassins out into the wilderness?”

This unknown Egyptian had shortly before raised a major revolt, whose suppression required considerable effort from the Romans. Although the rebels were defeated and executed, the Egyptian himself disappeared.

Now, at the sight of the Apostle Paul, the involuntary supposition arose in Lysias that perhaps he was this Egyptian.

At the entrance to the fortress, before its gates had closed behind Paul and hidden him from the people, he wanted to address his own people. They had acted so unjustly toward him, yet were so dear to him. He therefore asked permission from the tribune, in whose power he now was. He addressed the commander in Greek, which surprised him and showed him that his supposition was mistaken, namely, that Paul was the same person as the former Egyptian insurgent.

At the entrance to the fortress, the Apostle Paul found it possible to ask the commander for permission to say a few words to him. As an educated man speaking with an educated military commander, Paul addressed him in Greek.

Greek was then in wider use in what was called educated society. This at once changed the commander’s view of him. Therefore he frankly expressed what he had previously thought about Paul.

He supposed that Paul was the Egyptian who had recently caused a great popular uprising. Four thousand of its perpetrators had then gone off into the wilderness to live as robbers.

What led the commander to such a supposition is unknown. But Saint John Chrysostom remarks on this occasion: “Look at the malice of the devil. This Egyptian was a deceiver and seducer.