"In this first of Paul's five defenses, Luke's apologetic interests come to the fore in highlighting the nonpolitical character of Christianity (contrary to other messianic movements of the day, cf. 21:38) and in presenting Paul's mandate to the Gentiles as being the major reason for Jewish opposition to the gospel (cf. 22:10-22)."857
21:37-38 The commander had assumed that Paul was a certain Egyptian who had appeared in Jerusalem three years earlier. This man claimed to be a prophet of God and announced that the wall of Jerusalem would collapse at his command. He further claimed that he would lead his followers from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem where they would defeat the Romans and throw off their yoke. The Romans, however, attacked this man's followers first and killed many of them, but he had escaped.
The Egyptian's followers came from the ranks of the Assassins (lit. dagger-men). These were radicals who mingled with crowds with daggers hidden under their cloaks and stabbed Romans and pro-Roman Jews stealthily in an attempt to gain Jewish independence from Rome.858
Claudius Lysias evidently thought this man had returned to the temple area to recruit more followers and the people who now recognized him as an impostor had turned against him.
21:39 Paul explained that he was a Jew and so had a right to be in the temple court of Israel. He was not a resident of Egypt but of the respected Roman city of Tarsus. Tarsus was one of the three chief centers of learning in the ancient world, along with Athens and Alexandria. It was also the capital of Cilicia and a free city in the empire.
21:40 These credentials persuaded the Roman commander to let Paul address the mob. Paul motioned with his hand to the crowd, a gesture designed to quiet them and rivet their attention (cf. 12:17). Paul spoke to the Jews in Aramaic, the vernacular of Palestinian Jews, rather than in Greek. This would have helped his hearers realize that he was one of them.
Paul needed to defend himself against the charge that he had been disloyal to his people, the Mosaic Law, and the temple (cf. 21:28). His devout Jewish audience was especially skeptical of Paul since he was a Hellenistic Jew who fraternized with Gentiles. This is an excellent example of the Holy Spirit giving the Lord's servant the words to say on the spur of the moment, as Jesus had promised He would do (Matt. 10:16-20; Mark 13:9-11).
22:1-2 Paul addressed his audience warmly and respectfully in the same terms Stephen had used (7:2). Using the Aramaic language had the desired effect. The Jews paid even closer attention.
"The real crime of S. Paul was preaching to the Gentiles, and the real heresy his gospel of equality of privilege. Hence he defends himself by asserting (1) his loyalty to Israel, and (2) that his preaching was simply obedience to a divine command."859
22:3 Paul began by relating his manner of life before his conversion. He emphasized his orthodox background and education under the most respected Jewish teacher of his day, Gamaliel (cf. 5:34). We have no record of how old Paul was when he came to Jerusalem in his youth.860Paul's point in citing his background was to show his hearers that he was as zealous for his Jewish heritage as any of them (cf. Gal. 1:14).
22:4-5 His zeal for God was clear in that he persecuted Christians to death (cf. 9:1-2). This is precisely what his hearers wanted to do in Paul's case. Paul did so as an agent of the Sanhedrin that gave him authority to pursue Christian Jews as far away as Damascus.
22:6-9 Paul next related the events of his conversion and stressed the supernatural revelation God had given him. This revelation accounted for the radical change in his life. This account of Paul's conversion harmonizes with the other two accounts of it that Luke (9:3-19) and Paul (26:12-18) gave us in Acts. On this occasion, as well as in chapter 26, Paul emphasized features that would have been especially significant to his audience. His listeners were Jewish in chapter 22 and Roman in chapter 26.
As in 9:3-6, Paul stressed that his encounter with God was an event that God had initiated. It was not something that Paul or others had originated. Jesus of Nazareth had reached out to him. Therefore Jesus is the Messiah, but He is a risen Messiah. It was this Messiah who had changed Paul's perspective and understanding. When Paul asked, "Who are you, Lord?"(v. 8), he was probably addressing the person speaking to him as God and personal master (cf. 9:5). Evidently Paul's traveling companions heard a voice-like sound, but only Paul understood Jesus' words (v. 9; cf. 9:7; 26:14; John 12:29).
22:10-11 As a good Jew, Paul wanted to obey divine revelation, so he asked, "What shall I do, Lord?"Submissively he allowed others to lead him to Damascus where the Lord had instructed him to go to receive further instruction.
22:12-13 Paul described Ananias as a devout Jew who carefully observed the law and one who had a good reputation among his fellow Israelites. Paul related Ananias' words more fully here than Luke did in chapter 9. This respected Jew had also received a revelation from God that he communicated to Paul in distinctly Jewish terms. Paul sought to impress his hearers with the fact that a pious Jew had communicated God's mission to him. Ananias had even called Paul his brother.
22:14-15 Ananias explained to Paul that it was the God of their fathers who had appeared to Paul (cf. 3:14). This title for God is distinctly Jewish. God wanted Paul to know His will, to see the Righteous One (the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, v. 8), and to receive direct revelation from Him. Ananias also said that God had told him that Paul was to be a witness "to all men"of what Paul had seen and heard. This vindicated Paul's ministry to Gentiles.
"It is important to remember that Paul in Acts is not the apostle to the Gentiles. He has been sent to all persons,' [v. 15] which means both Jews and Gentiles. He is the one through whom the Lord has chosen to realize the divine purpose of including both groups in salvation, as announced already in Luke 2:30-32 and 3:6."861
22:16 Verse 16 has been a problem to some readers of Acts because one might understand it to say that water baptism washes away sins. The writers of Scripture present water baptism elsewhere not as the agent of spiritual cleansing but as the illustration of spiritual cleansing that has already taken place (1 Cor. 6:11; 1 Pet. 3:21). The agent of spiritual cleansing is faith in Christ. Paul referred to faith in this verse as "calling on His name"(cf. Joel 2:32). Paul evidently experienced regeneration on the Damascus road; he believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the divine Messiah predicted in the Old Testament (v. 10; cf. Gal. 1:11-12; Acts 9:17-18). He experienced baptism in water after he called on the Lord for salvation. The Lord washed Paul's sins away when he called on the Lord. Then Paul arose and received baptism. The Greek word epikalesamenos, translated "calling on,"is an aorist participle meaning "having called on."
"Baptism symbolized the method of salvation (identification with Christ) and washing symbolized the result (cleansing from sin)."862
22:17 Paul next related his mission from God and included some new things that Luke did not record in chapter 9. Evidently Ananias gave Paul God's commission to go to the Gentiles (9:15-16). In Jerusalem God confirmed this mission to Paul by special revelation as he was praying in the temple following his return from Damascus (9:26-29; Gal. 1:18-19). This took place in the third year after his conversion. The fact that Paul was praying in the temple when God gave him direction would have positively impressed this Jewish crowd further.
22:18-20 In this vision the risen and exalted Jesus of Nazareth instructed Paul to leave Jerusalem. Luke did not mention this instruction earlier (9:29-30) but emphasized the activity of Paul's fellow believers in sending him to Tarsus. Their insistence was in harmony with the Lord's command. Jerusalem was God's originally intended place of witness, and the temple had been His place of revelation. The reason Paul needed to leave Jerusalem was that the Jews there would not accept his testimony about Jesus even though Paul had formerly persecuted Jesus' disciples.
22:21 Paul was to go to the Gentiles, the Messiah revealed to him, because the Jews would not accept his witness. Specifically the Lord directed Paul to go to the Gentiles who were far away, namely Gentiles who had no relationship to Judaism (cf. 2:39).
F. F. Bruce concluded that in narrating Paul's speeches Luke followed the precedent of the Greek historian Thucydides. Thucydides wrote that he composed the speeches in his history but tried to reproduce the general meaning of what the speakers said.863Under the Holy Spirit's inspiration Luke received guidance to write exactly what God wanted written. Almost all scholars agree that Luke summarized most if not all of the speeches that he recorded in Acts.
22:22 Jews had taken messages from God to Gentiles many times in Israel's past (e.g., Jonah; the Pharisees, Matt. 23:15; et al.). That revelation could not have been what infuriated Paul's audience. What upset them was that Paul was approaching Gentiles directly about the Messiah without first introducing them to Judaism and its institutions. This was equivalent to placing Gentiles on the same footing before God as Jews, and this was the height of apostasy to the traditional Jewish mind. This is why Paul's hearers reacted so violently and allowed him to say no more.
