John Gill Commentary Acts 22

Men, brethren, and fathers
A common form of address used by the Jews; see (Acts 7:2).

But that the apostle should introduce his speech to these people in this manner, after they had treated him so inhumanly, as to drag him out of the temple, and beat him so unmercifully, is remarkable, and worthy of observation, when they scarcely deserved the name of "men".

And yet he not only gives them this, but calls them "brethren", they being his countrymen and kinsmen according to the flesh; and fathers, there being some among them, who might be men in years, and even members of the sanhedrim, and elders of the people, that were now got among the crowd. This shows how ready the apostle was to put up with affronts, and to forgive injuries done him.

hear you my defence, which I make now unto you ;
in opposition to the charges brought against him, of speaking ill of the people of the Jews, the law of Moses, and of the temple, and in order to clear himself of these imputations, and vindicate his character and conduct.

And when they heard that he spoke in the Hebrew tongue to
them (See Gill on Acts 21:40).

they kept the more silence ;
it being their mother tongue, and which they best understood; and which the captain and the Roman soldiers might not so well under stand; and chiefly because the Hellenistic language was not so agreeable to them, nor the Hellenistic Jews, who spoke the Greek language, and used the Greek version of the Bible; and such an one they took Paul to be, besides his being a Christian; wherefore when they heard him speak in the Hebrew tongue, it conciliated their minds more to him, at least engaged their attention the more to what he was about to say:

and he says ;
the Syriac and Ethiopic versions add, "to them", as follows.

I am verily a man who is a Jew
By birth, a thorough genuine one; an Hebrew of the Hebrews, both by father and mother side, both parents being Jews, and so a true descendant from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:

born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia; (See Gill on Acts 21:39).

yet brought up in this city ;
the city of Jerusalem; though Tarsus was the place of his birth, he had his education at Jerusalem:

at the feet of Gamaliel ;
of whom see (Acts 5:34). It was the custom of scholars among the Jews to sit at the feet of their masters when instructed by them; see (Deuteronomy 33:3). Hence that saying of Jose ben Joezer^F1: "let your house be a house of resort for the wise men, and be dusting yourself (Mhylgr rpeb), 'with the dust of their feet':"

which by one of their commentators^F2 is interpreted two ways: either "as if it was said that you should walk after them; for he who walks raises the dust with his feet, and he who goes after him is filled with the dust which he raises with his feet; or else that you should sit at their feet upon the ground, for so it was usual that the master sat upon a bench, and the scholars sat at his feet upon the floor." This latter sense is commonly understood and adapted to the passage here as illustrating it; though it may be that the sense may only be this, that the apostle boarded in Gamaliel's house, ate at his table, and familiarly conversed with him; which he modestly expresses by being brought up at his feet, who was a man who was had in great reverence with the Jews; and this sense seems the rather to be the sense of the passage, since his learning is expressed in the next clause;

and since, till after Gamaliel's time, it was not usual for scholars to sit when they learned; for the tradition is^F3 that "from the times of Moses to Rabban Gamaliel, they (the scholars) did not learn the law but standing; after Rabban Gamaliel died, sickness came into the world, and they learned the law sitting; and hence it is said that after Rabban Gamaliel died, the glory of the law ceased."

[and] taught according to the perfect law of the fathers ;
not the law which the Jewish fathers received from Moses, though Paul was instructed in this, but in the oral law, the "Misna", or traditions of the elders, in which he greatly profited, and exceeded others, (Galatians 1:14).

And was zealous towards God ;
or "a zealot of God"; one of those who were called "Kanaim", or zealots; who in their great zeal for the glory of God, took away the lives of men, when they found them guilty of what they judged a capital crime; see (Matthew 10:4) (John 16:2). The Vulgate Latin version reads, "zealous of the law"; both written and oral, the law of Moses, and the traditions of the fathers:

as you all are this day ;
having a zeal for God, and the law, but not according to knowledge.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: Misn. Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 4.
• F2: Bartenora in Misn. Piske Abot, c. 1. sect. 4.
• F3: T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 21. 1. Vid. Misn. Sota, c. 9. sect. 15.

And I persecuted this way unto the death
That is, the Christian religion, and the professors of it; whom the apostle breathed out threatenings and slaughter against, haled out of their houses, and committed to prison; consented to their death, as he did to Stephen's; and whenever it was put to the vote, whether they should die or not, he gave his voice against them; so that he was a most bitter enemy, and an implacable persecutor of them; which shows how very averse he was to this way, and how great his prejudices were against it; wherefore it must be a work of divine power, and there must be the singular hand of God in it, to reconcile him to it, and cause him to embrace and profess it:

binding and delivering into prisons, both men and women :
see (Acts 8:3) (9:2) .

As also the high priest does bear me witness
Either Annas, or Caiaphas, who was at that time high priest; and it should seem by this, that he was still in being; or else that the apostle had preserved his letter, written with his own hand, which he was able to produce at any time, as a testimony of the truth of what he had said, or was about to say; since he speaks of him (as now) bearing him witness, or as one that could:

and all the estate of the elders ;
the whole Jewish sanhedrim, for this character respects not men in years, but men in office, and such who were members of the high court of judicature in Jerusalem;

from whom also I received letters to the brethren ;
some render it "against the brethren", as if the Christians were meant; whereas the apostle intends the Jews of the synagogue at Damascus, whom the apostle calls brethren; because they were of the same nation, and his kinsmen according to the flesh; and, at that time, of the same religion and principles with him; and this is put out of doubt, by the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, which render it, "the brethren that were at Damascus": and these letters were to recommend him to them, and to empower him to persecute the Christians, and to demand and require their assistance in it; the Ethiopic version calls them, "letters of power"; and it seems from hence, that these letters were received from the whole sanhedrim, as well as from the high priest, and were signed by both:

and went to Damascus to bring them which were there bound to
Jerusalem, to be punished :
with stripes, or with death, as they should be judged worthy; see (Acts 9:2) .