With the fury of demons they rushed upon him, crying, "Men of Israel, help:
This is the man, that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place." And as the people responded to the call for help, another accusation was added--"and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place."By the Jewish law it was a crime punishable with death for an uncircumcised person to enter the inner courts of the sacred edifice.Paul had been seen in the city in company with Trophimus, an Ephesian, and it was conjectured that he had brought him into the temple.This he had not done; and being himself a Jew, his act in entering the temple was no violation of the law.
But though the charge was wholly false, it served to arouse the popular prejudice.As the cry was taken up and borne through the temple courts, the throngs gathered there were thrown into wild excitement.The news quickly spread through Jerusalem, "and all the city was moved, and the people ran together."That an apostate from Israel should presume to profane the temple at the very time when thousands had come there from all parts of the world to worship, excited the fiercest passions of the mob."They took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.""As they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar." Claudius Lysias well knew the turbulent elements with which he had to deal, and he "immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul." Ignorant of the cause of the tumult, but seeing that the rage of the multitude was directed against Paul, the Roman captain concluded that he must be a certain Egyptian rebel of whom he had heard, who had thus far escaped capture.He therefore "took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done." At once many voices were raised in loud and angry accusation; "some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude:
and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle.And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him."In the midst of the tumult the apostle was calm and self-possessed.His mind was stayed upon God, and he knew that angels of heaven were about him.He felt unwilling to leave the temple without making an effort to set the truth before his countrymen.As he was about to be led into the castle he said to the chief captain, "May I speak unto thee?" Lysias responded, "Canst thou speak Greek? Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?" In reply Paul said, "I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people."The request was granted, and "Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people." The gesture attracted their attention, while his bearing commanded respect."And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying, Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now unto you." At the sound of the familiar Hebrew words, "they kept the more silence," and in the universal hush he continued:
"I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day." None could deny the apostle's statements, as the facts that he referred to were well known to many who were still living in Jerusalem.He then spoke of his former zeal in persecuting the disciples of Christ, even unto death; and he narrated the circumstances of his conversion, telling his hearers how his own proud heart had been led to bow to the crucified Nazarene.Had he attempted to enter into argument with his opponents, they would have stubbornly refused to listen to his words; but the relation of his experience was attended with a convincing power that for the time seemed to soften and subdue their hearts.
He then endeavored to show that his work among the Gentiles had not been entered upon from choice.He had desired to labor for his own nation; but in that very temple the voice of God had spoken to him in holy vision, directing his course "far hence upon the Gentiles."Hitherto the people had listened with close attention, but when Paul reached the point in his history where he was appointed Christ's ambassador to the Gentiles, their fury broke forth anew.Accustomed to look upon themselves as the only people favored by God, they were unwilling to permit the despised Gentiles to share the privileges which had hitherto been regarded as exclusively their own.Lifting their voices above the voice of the speaker, they cried, "Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live.""As they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air, 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.
"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?
