Acts 22:22 ¶ 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, 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. 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 Jews had listened to Paul but were now moved to anger and
riot. They wanted him dead. The things they did in tearing off clothing and
throwing dirt in the air were signs of being upset and angry like you throwing
a coffee cup across the room or turning over a table while arguing with a
family member.
Paul is about to be scourged. Scourging was a brutal whipping, a
punishment Christ endured. But, Paul objects because he is a Roman citizen and
has not been condemned in a legal proceeding. Roman citizens, unlike the
conquered nations over which they ruled, had specific rights. The right to a
legal trial, to face your accusers, and defend yourself as well as the right to
appeal a decision made by a magistrate were among the rights guaranteed to a
Roman citizen. Offering limited citizenship was a way Rome exerted control,
held out the proverbial carrot and stick to the races they conquered in an
attempt to Romanize them. The bottom line is Paul, as a Roman citizen, had a
right to some type of judicial proceeding and could not be simply punished at
the whim of a Roman soldier, even if it would make the crowd happy.
Paul was probably a Roman citizen at birth because his father
would have been a Roman citizen, either having been enslaved and freed by a
Roman or having performed some service that granted him citizenship. In any
event, Paul, while identifying ethnically, religiously, and culturally as a Jew
was legally a citizen of Rome.
We identify as a national identity; like American or
Polish-American or Pennsylvania Dutch or even an ethnic identity like
African-American but our legal citizenship is before God in Heaven of which we
are ambassadors as Paul will make clear.
No comments:
Post a Comment