Acts 22:30Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What came of this? After removing his chains, the tribune led him to the Jews. Thus Paul did not lie when he called himself a Roman. He also gained benefit from this and was freed from his bonds. Listen to how it happened. "He released him from his bonds," it says, "and bringing Paul out, set him before them." This ought to have been done at the very beginning. He should not have bound him or ordered him to be scourged, but should have left him alone, since he had done nothing deserving bonds. "And bringing Paul out, he set him before them." This brought the Jews into great perplexity.

Paul, according to the prophecy, had been bound in Jerusalem, and the prophetic word was fulfilled. What happens afterward? The tribune unbinds Paul and brings him to the Jews. Thus it is not false that he is a Roman, for the tribune was afraid that he was a Roman, that is, a man of noble rank.

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).

This statement troubled Lysias himself. He could fear trouble for himself if the Apostle brought a complaint about his treatment. He therefore tried to hand the prisoner over quickly for judgment by the Sanhedrin, so as to free himself from all responsibility in this case, which was evidently religious rather than civil.

Wishing to know reliably, and so forth: until now the tribune could learn nothing definite, not only about Paul’s guilt, but even about what the Jews were actually accusing him of. He had heard only cries and seen only passionate manifestations of hatred toward him.

For a reliable inquiry into Paul’s guilt before the people, he commanded the Sanhedrin to assemble. In this way Paul’s case could be conducted officially and lawfully, with his guilt, culpability, or innocence clarified.

He released him from the bonds on the next day. The fact that Lysias did not remove Paul’s bonds immediately after learning of his Roman citizenship, but only on the next day when he had to appear before the Sanhedrin, points to the obstinacy and caprice of an official in authority.

The handing over of the Apostle Paul for trial before the Sanhedrin strongly recalls how Pilate also tried to remove from himself the judgment concerning Jesus Christ. On the part of Lysias this was quite natural.

He was not himself Roman by birth. As Farrar says, he was a Greek or a Syrian. Therefore it was especially easy for him to fall into error against Roman law while examining a case concerning a Roman citizen.

He would probably have freed the prisoner if he had not feared thereby to disturb public peace. Therefore, compelled to respect the rights granted by the Romans to the Jewish people, he ordered the Sanhedrin to assemble the next day and Paul to be brought there.