There were four disciples, who had taken a Nazarite vow, of which seven days remained unexpired, who would at the close of this period present the usual offerings[1075] in the Temple. Let the Apostle, then, join himself to them, and defray the necessary expenses of the whole party. This would prove in the most public manner his observance of Mosaic ceremonies, and contradict the calumnies of his enemies (Acts xxi. 21–25). This advice, in which James the Just apparently acquiesced, the Apostle wishing, if possible, to conciliate the church of Palestine, was not unwilling to adopt. Accordingly on the following day, after first performing the necessary purifications, he proceeded with the Christian Nazarites to the Temple, and announced to the priests in the name of his friends, their intention of fulfilling their time, and awaiting the moment of the proper offering.
But the Apostle’s object was frustrated by circumstances that took place on the very eve of the completion of the period of their vow. Amongst the thousands present in Jerusalem were many Jews from proconsular Asia, who recognised the able disputant, whom they had so often been unable to confute in their synagogues, walking in the streets with Trophimus the Ephesian (Acts xxi. 29). On one occasion they saw him in the Temple-courts, and rushing to the conclusion that he had taken his companion also thither, instantly sprang upon him, shouting, Men of Israel, help. This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the People, the Law, and this place, yea, who hath also brought Gentiles into the Temple, and profaned this Holy Place (Acts xxi. 28).
Roused to fury a mob quickly rushed towards the spot, and St Paul would probably have been instantly put to death, had it not been for the unwillingness of his foes to pollute the Temple with blood. They therefore dragged him down the steps from the Court of the Women[1076] into the Outer Court, and had no sooner passed, than the Levitical guard closed behind them the Corinthian gates[1077] (Acts xxi. 30). Once in the Outer Court they began beating the Apostle violently, being clearly bent on putting him to death, and would have succeeded, had it not been for a providential intervention. The commotion in the Temple-courts had not failed to attract the notice of the Roman sentries in the tower[1078] of Antonia, and they instantly informed Claudius Lysias, the commandant of the garrison, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar (Acts xxi. 31).
Thereupon, without a moment’s delay, Lysias rushed down attended by some centurions and a strong body of troops. The sight of the dreaded arms of the Imperial forces brought the multitude to their senses, and they left off beating Paul. The commandant then approached, and apprehending the Apostle, ordered him to be chained by each hand to a soldier[1079], suspecting that he was an Egyptian pretender[1080], who had lately caused a revolt, and had hitherto baffled the pursuit of the soldiers of Felix the governor (Acts xxi. 38). He then endeavoured to ascertain from the bystanders who his prisoner was and what he had done, but some cried one thing, and some another; and finding it impossible to gain any information amidst the tumult, he ordered him to be conveyed into the barracks within the fortress. Accordingly the soldiers proceeded to remove the Apostle, but so furious was the crowd pressing behind them with yells and execrations, that they had to bear him up in their arms up the staircase. Just as they reached the barracks, St Paul, addressing the commandant in Greek, enquired respectfully whether he might speak to him. Startled at being addressed in the Grecian tongue, Lysias in his turn enquired whether he was mistaken in supposing him to be the Egyptian rebel. St Paul replied that he was no Egyptian, but a Jew, a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city, and requested permission to address the people. On which the commandant, influenced it may be by the aspect and manner of his prisoner, at once gave his consent (Acts xxi. 40).
CHAPTER V.
THE IMPRISONMENT AT CÆSAREA.
A.D. 58.
STANDING then on the stairs, and beckoning to the crowd with his chained hands to invite their attention, the Apostle began to address them in the Hebrew language. Charmed by the accents of their own beloved tongue, the multitude listened with the deepest silence while he tried to dispel their prejudices against himself. Beginning with the well-known circumstances of his birth and education at Tarsus and Jerusalem, he declared that he was a Jew like themselves, that he had been brought up according to the strictest requirements of the Law, and had hated, persecuted, and endeavoured to extinguish the sect of the Christians (Acts xxii. 3–5). He then proceeded to recount the wonderful circumstances of his conversion on the way to Damascus[1081], of his blindness, cure, and baptism (Acts xxii. 6–16), and how on his return to Jerusalem, as he was praying in the Temple, he fell into a trance[1082], saw that Saviour who had appeared to him on his memorable journey, and was commanded by Him to leave Jerusalem, and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts xxii. 17–21).
Up to this point the multitude listened to the Apostle with the deepest attention, but no sooner had he spoken of his mission to the Gentiles, than they broke out into such furious cries of rage and indignation that the previous clamour appeared as nothing in comparison. The thought of uncircumcised heathen being placed on an equality with the children of Abraham was unbearable. Away, they cried, with such a fellow from the earth, it is not fit that he should live, and while some flung dust into the air, others cast off their clothes, as if they would stone him on the spot (comp. Acts vii. 58). This fresh outbreak of frantic violence filled the commandant with still greater perplexity. Unable to understand the language in which the Apostle spake, he could only infer from the results it produced that his prisoner had been guilty of some enormous offence. He therefore gave orders that he should be conveyed into the castle, and, since other means had failed, that the secret of his guilt should be ascertained by torture. As in the case of the Saviour’s crucifixion[1083], a centurion was deputed to superintend the scourging, and like a common malefactor the Apostle was on the point of being stretched or fastened to the post to receive the lashes, when he turned to the centurion and enquired whether it was lawful to scourge one who was a Roman citizen and uncondemned (Acts xxii. 25)? Astonished at such a question, the centurion ordered the scourging to be suspended, and hurrying to the commandant, bade him take heed what he was doing, for the prisoner was a Roman citizen. Upon this Lysias himself hastened to the spot and enquired whether the news was true, and on his replying in the affirmative, remarked that he had purchased this privilege for a large sum, on which St Paul informed him that he was free-born (Acts xxii. 28). Thus assured of the true position of his prisoner, the commandant ordered the instruments of torture to be instantly removed, and was in no little alarm at the turn affairs had taken.
For the present, indeed, he was obliged to keep him in the Tower, but on the morrow he determined to make a second effort to ascertain the nature of his prisoner’s offence, and therefore summoned a meeting of the Sanhedrin, and bringing down the Apostle from the Tower to the hall Gazith[1084] placed him before them. Casting a steadfast and scrutinizing glance (Acts xxiii. 1) on the faces of those assembled, many of whom must have been familiar to him, St Paul began by proving that he had lived a conscientious[1085] life before God up to that very day. This assertion so offended the high-priest that he commanded those standing near to strike him on the mouth, whereupon the Apostle, filled with indignation at so brutal an insult, replied, God shall smite thee[1086], thou whited wall[1087]. For sittest thou to judge me according to the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? To this the bystanders rejoined, Revilest thou God’s high-priest? and St Paul, recovering himself, answered that he did not know or consider that Ananias was high-priest, otherwise he would not so have spoken, for it was written in the Law, Thou shalt not revile the ruler of thy people (Ex. xxii. 28).
By this time, however, the Apostle had seen only too clearly that there was little prospect of his obtaining an equitable decision from his judges. Knowing, therefore, that there were both Pharisees and Sadducees among them, and that however much they might be united in persecuting him, they were sundered from one another by a deep gulf on one important article of faith, he exclaimed, as indeed he could say with truth, that he was brought to trial, because he had testified of the hope of Israel, and of the resurrection of the dead (Acts xxiii. 6). He had scarcely pronounced these words, when there was an instant division in the Council. The Pharisees present were united in his favour, and a hot debate ensued between them and the Sadducaic faction, who denied any Resurrection and the existence alike of angels and spirits[1088]. While the latter party were furious against him, the former declared they could find no fault in him, and if, as he had said in his speech on the stairs, an angel or a spirit had indeed spoken to him[1089], they would not criminate him on this account.