They began casting off their heavy outer garments purposing to stone him, but Lysias ordered his soldiers to bring the prisoner within the castle.
He had not understood St. Paul's address, being delivered in Hebrew, but he saw how greatly the people were infuriated, and therefore judged that some terrible crime must have been committed.
He accordingly told one of the centurions to scourge the prisoner, so that he might confess what he had done, and St. Paul was bound to a low pillar that he might receive this humiliating punishment. But he spoke to the centurion and said, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?"
The centurion knew that such a thing was unlawful, so he went to Lysias to tell him that their prisoner was a Roman.
When Lysias found from St. Paul that he was a free-born citizen of Rome, he gave orders for him to be unbound, and convened a meeting of the Jewish council for the next day, before which the Apostle should answer the charges made against him.
Early in the morning this council assembled, just as once it had assembled to judge St. Stephen when Saul, the well-known Pharisee, was one of its members. Now he was a prisoner—Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, standing before many who knew him as the persecutor of Christians.
"Men and brethren," he said, "I have conversed with all good conscience before God until this present day."