Previously in the book of Acts....when we left Paul he was about to deliver a speech to the assembled crowd in Jerusalem. As he lays out his story of how Jesus spoke to him and grabbed hold of his life, the mob listens, apparently fairly quietly, until he talks of being sent to the Gentiles. It's still hard for me to wrap my brain around the venom these people had for the Gentiles and anyone who would associate with them. "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!" (verse 22). Unbelievable.
So naturally, they begin shouting, throwing off cloaks and "flinging dust into the air" to the point where the the commander gets Paul out of there. And naturally, rather than simply questioning Paul, he is to be flogged and then questioned. It's the imminent flogging that provides Paul the opportunity to reveal his status as a Roman citizen (due to his birth in the city of Tarsus, which provided for automatic citizenship), which was an alarming revelation for the commander who got the report from his centurion. At that point the flogging plans go out the window, and there is a realization that the Romans better do their homework and figure out who this man is. Paul is brought before the chief priests and religious leaders and ordered to stand before them. And chapter 22 ends there, with another cliffhanger ending. Can't wait to read more next week.
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