Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
CHAPTER XXII.
1-16. Paul now proceeds to vindicate himself by relating his experience, giving his Cilician
nativity and his education in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, the champion theologian, his identity
with the patriotic institutions, his intense zeal for the God of Abraham and Moses, his faithful and
heroic adhesion to the so-called loyal wing of Judaism, stringently persecuting all the Jews who had
gone off in the so called Nazarene heresy, not only doing his utmost to exterminate the very name
of Jesus at Jerusalem, but had gone away to the Syrian capital that he might exterminate the rising
hope of the disciples in that city, his wonderful conversion by the revelation of the glorified Savior
to his soul, like a meridian sunburst eclipsing mortal vision and prostrating him on the ground, his
comrades leading him blind and miserable into Damascus, where under the ministry of Ananias, the
Nazarene, he is wonderfully and miraculously converted.
17. “It came to pass unto me returning into Jerusalem, and I praying in the temple, that I was in
an ecstacy:
18. “And I saw him, saying, Hasten and depart quickly out of Jerusalem, because they will not
receive thy testimony concerning me.” This second appearing of Jesus unto Paul took place in
Jerusalem after he had returned out of Arabia by way of Damascus and came up to the metropolis,
introduced to the apostles and vindicated by Barnabas. Here he states that the same glorified Savior
who had shone on him as he journeyed to Damascus appeared to him in the temple while praying
“in an ecstacy,” i.e., a rapture, in which his whole being was flooded with heavenly glory.
18-21. Here Paul rehearses his testimony to Jesus of his leadership in his martyrdom, alleging that
the Jews will certainly not receive his testimony. “And he said unto me, Go, for I will send you far
away unto the Gentiles.” The Jews listened patiently to him till he thus testified to his commission
to the Gentiles. Then they broke out into an awful rage, tearing their garments and throwing dust into
the air, exclaiming vociferously, “Kill him! kill him!”
LYSIAS PROCEEDS TO HAVE HIM COWHIDED.
24-30. The uproarious clamor and the awful fury of the Jews impress Lysias that Paul is guilty
of some terrible crime, about which he has hitherto been unable to secure information. Consequently,
he now resorts to an awfully cruel procedure customary among the Romans, i.e., to beat a prisoner
with thongs of a rawhide, which would cut his flesh all to pieces, and torture him so awfully that it
was believed it would coerce the desired confession of crime. It was not uncommon for the party
thus scourged to fall dead. When I was a boy I saw these cowhides on sale in stores, then used by
cruel people on horses. I am glad they have long since disappeared.
25. “And when they were extending him forth to the scourgers,” i.e., the soldiers were shoving
him forward to receive this awful and murderous flagellation, designed to coerce the desired
confession, Paul said to the centurion standing by, “Is it lawful to cowhide a man, i.e., a Roman and
uncondemned?”