Acts 22:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“A man who is a Roman, and uncondemned...” Paul did not lie when he said that he was a Roman. His father, for the sake of representation, had bought this name for himself with money, because those counted worthy to be called by it enjoyed great honor.

Paul says this so that, if he were punished, they would not begin to treat him with contempt. If they had punished him, they would have given the matter another turn and would have killed him.

But now, though for no other reason than this very fact, that he was a Roman, they not only did not punish him, but also released him.

Paul sets forth two offenses in their punishing him. One is that they wished to punish him without trial. The other is that they wished to punish a Roman. Therefore he brought greater fear upon them.

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).

The soldiers at once bound his hands, stripped him naked, and bent him into the position for that terrible and often fatal torture. Not far from this very place the Savior also had once been subjected to it.

Three times before this the Apostle Paul had endured the rods of Roman lictors. Five times he had undergone the Jewish scourging of forty lashes less one.

Here a new kind of torment lay before him, namely the scourge that the Romans used to force a confession of the truth by torture. But this time the Apostle Paul did not lose self-command, even at the extremity, and objected to the order.

He boldly declared that he was a Roman citizen and was exempt from bodily punishment.

“Are you a Roman citizen?” The tribune himself had bought the right of Roman citizenship for a large sum. He probably doubted that his poor prisoner had enough money to purchase this right (compare Chrysostom).

But when he learned that Paul possessed this right by inheritance, he believed him. He was afraid not only because he had wanted to torture him, but also because he had bound him (compare the note on Acts 16:38).

For not only bodily punishment, but also the binding of a Roman citizen in chains, was a crime if it had been done by force and without prior inquiry into his guilt. Up to that point no such inquiry had yet been made.

The commander’s fear over his harsh treatment of Paul shows that he had a sufficient spirit of subordination, but little humanity and little modesty. He was not ashamed to say that he had acquired Roman citizenship not by merit, but with a large sum of money.

However, according to Saint John Chrysostom, “he said this because he suspected whether Paul’s claim to be a Roman might be a deception. Perhaps he judged so from Paul’s outward simplicity. What then came of this? After removing his chains, the tribune brought him to the Jews. Therefore he did not lie when he called himself a Roman, for he also gained benefit from it and was freed from the bonds.”