“Men of Israel, help! This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place; and, further, brought Greeks also into the temple,and hath polluted this holy place.”[157]
A terrible mob was at once excited among the fanatic Jews. They seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and were about to kill him in the streets, when the chief captain in command of the Roman garrison heard of the uproar. Placing himself at the head of a band of soldiers, he assailed the mob, rescued Paul, chained him by each wrist to a soldier, and then inquired what he had done that they were thus beating him. The tumult and uproar were such, “some crying one thing, and some another,” that no definite charge could be heard.
The captain, Claudius Lysias, supposing Paul to be a renowned Egyptian rebel and a guilty disturber of the peace, ordered his prisoner to be led to the barracks within the fortress. The crowd followed, shouting, “Away with him!” The pressure of the throng was so great, that, when they reached the great staircase leading up into the castled fortress, Paul was borne by the soldiers up the steps. When the prisoner reached the top of the stairs, whence he had a clear view of the angry, surging mob below, he turned to Lysias, and, addressing him in Greek, inquired, “May I speak unto thee?” Lysias was astonished to hear him speak in Greek, and said,—
“Art thou not that Egyptian which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?”
Paul replied, “I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, acity in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city; and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.”
Obtaining permission, he waved his hand to obtain silence, and then, addressing the Jewish multitude in the Hebrew language, gave them quite a minute account of his past history, his persecution of the Christians, and his miraculous conversion to that faith which he once endeavored to destroy. But, when he announced that the Lord Jesus had said to him, “Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles,” the rage of the fanatic Jews was roused to the highest pitch. With united voice they cried out,—
“Away with such a fellow from the earth! it is not fit that he should live.”
As they were shouting and gesticulating with the most violent expressions of ferocity, Lysias ordered him to be led into the fortress, and, in accordance with the infamous practice of the times, to be examined by scourging, to see what confession bodily agony would thus extort from him. As they were binding him to the whipping-post, Paul said to the centurion who was superintending the operation,—
“Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?”
The remark was immediately reported to Lysias. He, upon questioning Paul, ordered him to be unbound; and the heroic prisoner passed the night in one of the cells of the fortress. The next day, Lysias summoned a council of the chief priests, and brought Paul before them, that he might learn of him of what crimes he was accused. He was put upon his defence without any charge being brought against him. Ananias, the high priest, a brutal wretch, presided. As Paul, commencing his defence, modestly said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day,” the infamous judge was so enraged, that he ordered those standing near to smite him on the mouth.