Acts 22:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The tribune ought to have learned what the matter was, and from them themselves. Yet without doing anything of the kind, he orders Paul to be beaten. "The tribune commanded him to be brought into the barracks, ordering him to be examined by scourging, so that he might know why they shouted against him in this way." He ought to have asked the shouting men themselves what in Paul's words they found criminal. Instead, he simply used his authority and acted to please them. He was not concerned to act justly, but to quiet their anger, though it was wholly unjust.

"That he might know for what cause," and so forth. But he should have learned this from them, since they were the ones shouting. He should have asked what they suspected in Paul's words. Yet the tribune simply gratifies the authorities and acts to please them. He was not concerned with how to act more justly, but with how to calm their anger, even though it was unjust.

Then the tribune commanded that the apostle be brought into the fortress. In order to learn precisely of what he was guilty, he wished to subject him to torture.

Paul had already been stretched out with straps for this purpose. But he appealed to the protection of his rank as a Roman citizen, which he possessed by birth. This saved him from undeserved blows.

When the tribune learned that Paul was a Roman citizen, he was afraid even because he had bound him (v. 29). Nevertheless, wishing to know reliably what the Jews accused him of, he did not release him.

On the next day he freed him from the bonds and ordered the chief priests and the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul out of the fortress and set him before them (v. 30).

But the Apostle Paul was beyond the reach of the Jews' frenzied rage. They had enough courage to shake the air with their desperate and savage cries, and to make the temple court seem a refuge for a crowd of madmen. Yet they did not dare rush upon the points of Roman swords drawn against them. In dreadful agitation, Lysias ordered the prisoner taken into the barracks and subjected to torture by scourging. Since he did not understand at all what the Apostle Paul was saying, he wanted to learn what Paul had done to provoke these furious cries.

He commanded him to be brought into the fortress, and so forth: the tribune saw that, with the crowd so excited, the matter would not and could not become clear. Therefore he commanded Paul to be taken from the stairs (Acts 21:40) and led into the Antonia fortress.

Meanwhile the tribune concluded from the crowd’s frenzied cries and actions against Paul that there must be some grave crime behind this man, since they were shouting so against him. From the cries he of course could understand nothing, if indeed he understood the Hebrew speech at all.

Yet he saw that Paul’s speech of defense seemed only to intensify the disturbance. Supposing that something must be hidden there, he ordered Paul to be scourged, so that by torture he might learn what was hidden and what the matter was.

Perhaps, however, there was also another aim here, like the aim Pilate had when he subjected the Lord to scourging (see the note on Jn 19:1 and following).

The outburst of indignation by the Jews against the Apostle Paul is understandable. They now fully understood who and what he was in relation to their beliefs and expectations.

They treated the highest bearer of Paul’s hopes in the same way, the very Author of faith, Christ Himself, and delivered Him to death.

More surprising is the attitude toward him of the military commander, who until now had seemed to protect him. Clearly he was heartless in a Roman fashion. Therefore he ordered Paul to be beaten without having learned his guilt.

Apparently this was a means of discovering guilt, yet not a legal one. It was arbitrary and exceedingly crude. The savagery of the Jews’ attitude toward Paul probably affected him also.