John Calvin Commentary Acts 28:17

"And it came to pass, that after three days he called together those that were the chief of the Jews: and when they were come together, he said unto them, I, brethren, though I had done nothing against the people, or the customs of our fathers, yet was delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans:" — Acts 28:17 (ASV)

And after three days. Paul’s humanity was wonderful, in that, though he had suffered such cruel injuries from his nation, he nevertheless sought to appease the Jews who were in Rome, and he excused himself to them, lest they should hate his cause because they heard that the priests hated him.

He might well have excused himself before men if he had passed over these Jews and turned to the Gentiles. For though he had continually, in various places, attempted to bring them to Christ, yet they became more and more irritated and provoked; and yet he had omitted nothing, whether in Asia, Greece, or Jerusalem, that might mitigate their fury.

Therefore, all men would have justly pardoned him if he had left those alone whom he had so often found by experience to be of desperate pride.

But because he knew that his Master was given by his Father to be the minister to the Jews, to fulfill the promises by which God had adopted the seed of Abraham to Himself as His people, he looks to the calling of God and is never weary.

He saw that he must remain in Rome. Since he had been granted liberty to teach, he did not want them to be deprived of the fruit of his labor. Secondly, he did not want them to be stirred up by hatred of his cause to trouble the Church, because a small incident might have caused great destruction. Therefore, Paul intended to be cautious, lest, according to their usual madness, they should set everything on fire.

I have done nothing against the people. Two things might have made the Jews hate him: either because he had done harm to the commonwealth of his nation (as some renegades increased their bondage, which was already too cruel, through their treachery), or because he had done something against the worship of God. For though the Jews had degenerated, and religion among them was depraved and corrupted with many errors, yet the very name of the law and the worship of the temple were still greatly reverenced.

Furthermore, Paul does not deny that he freely omitted those ceremonies to which the Jews were superstitiously bound; yet he clears himself of the crime of apostasy of which he might be suspected.

Therefore, understand these 'ordinances of the fathers' as those practices by which the children of Abraham and the disciples of Moses ought, according to their faith, to have been distinguished from the rest of the Gentiles.

And surely, because he clung so devoutly to Christ (who is the soul and perfection of the law), he is so far from impairing the ordinances of the fathers, that no one observed them better.