Acts, Chapter 22
© Copyright 2007 Darroll Evans, all
rights reserved
Acts 22:1-21
1 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which
I make now unto you.
2 (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue
to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)
3 I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a
city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and
taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was
zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
4 And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding
and delivering into prisons both men and women.
5 As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and
all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the
brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto
Jerusalem, for to be punished.
6 And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and
was come nigh unto
7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying
unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto
me, I am Jesus of
9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and
were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
10 And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord
said unto me, Arise, and go into
11 And when I could not see for the glory of that
light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into
12 And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law,
having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there,
13 Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother
Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him.
14 And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen
thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest
hear the voice of his mouth.
15 For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what
thou hast seen and heard.
16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized,
and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
17 And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to
18 And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get
thee quickly out of
19 And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and
beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee:
20 And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed,
I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of
them that slew him.
21 And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee
far hence unto the Gentiles.
The first 21 verses are a
complete statement of Paul’s actions from childhood until his taking of the
gospel to the Gentiles. The Jews were
courteous until Paul got to the part about the Gentiles.
Among those verses, number 10
stands out to me.
Acts 22:10
And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go
into
Within that verse, we find the
word “appointed” (Gr. tetaktai-tetaktai). God had
“appointed” things for Paul to accomplish.
Many of us hate the word and concept of predestination, but that is due
to egotistical self-will.
Romans 13:1
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of
God: the powers that be are ordained (Gr. tetagmenai-tetagmenai) of God.
In that verse from Romans, we
find a word from the same Greek root word found in Acts 22:10. The verse from
Romans is explicit.
“There is no power but God’s
power. All radiated power is appointed by God.
He appoints according to His purpose and plan.
Another definition of that
Greek root word (tassoo-tassw) is to arrange or place in order. Sin results when
something is out of God’s order.
Oddly, I am not against “free
will.” However, man’s “free will,” if used for any purpose outside of the plan
of God, is out of order. It is not
ordained by God.
Following Paul’s speech,
things became a bit violent. The mob
went wild.
Acts 22:22-23
22 And they gave him audience unto this word, and then
lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for
it is not fit that he should live.
23 And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes,
and threw dust into the air,
When Paul got to the part of
his life’s story in which he took the gospel to Gentiles, the Jewish mob had
listened to all they could take. They
tried to kill Paul.
Acts 22:24-29
24 The chief captain commanded him to be brought into
the castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging; that he might
know wherefore they cried so against him.
25 And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto
the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a
Roman, and uncondemned?
26 When the centurion heard that, he went and told the
chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.
27 Then the chief captain came, and said unto him,
Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea.
28 And the chief captain answered, With a great sum
obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.
29 Then straightway they departed from him which
should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew
that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.
At that point, the chief
captain commanded the soldiers to bring him into the castle to be “examined by
scourging.” He wanted to know why the
mob was so worked up against Paul.
The soldiers did as
commanded. The Centurion stood by. Then,
Paul coolly asked, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is an
uncondemned Roman?
***That is the second time
Paul used his civil rights.
When the centurion heard
that, he went and told the chief captain, “Watch out what you do with him. He is a Roman.”
With that, the chief captain
asked, “Is that true? Are you a Roman?”
Paul replied, “Yes!”
So, the chief captain said,
“I paid a great sum of money for my Roman citizenship.”
To which, Paul replied, “I am
a free-born citizen.”
At that, they left Paul, and the chief captain became afraid,
because he had simply bound Paul. It was
against Roman law to even bind a Roman citizen unless he had been tried by a
Roman court and found guilty of an offense under Roman law. This was a serious incident.
The story of Paul going to
Acts 22:30 On the morrow, because he would have known
the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his
bands, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and
brought Paul down, and set him before them.
The next day, when the
Centurion had assurances of the accusations against Paul, he freed Paul, and
ordered the Chief Priest and the Jewish council to appear before him in the
matter.