Paul a Prisoner
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captain could obtain no satisfactory information, and he ordered that
the prisoner be removed to the castle, where were the Roman barracks.
The rage of the multitude was unbounded when they saw their prey
about to be taken from their grasp; and they surged and pressed so
closely about Paul that the soldiers were compelled to bear him in their
arms up the staircase which led from the temple. Priests and people
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were actuated by the same Satanic spirit that moved them thirty years
before to clamor for the blood of the Son of God. From the staircase
and from the crowd below again echoed the deafening shout, “Away
with him! Away with him!”
In the midst of the tumult the apostle remained calm and self-
possessed. His mind was stayed upon God, and he knew that angels of
Heaven were about him. He could not leave the temple without making
an effort to set the truth before his countrymen. He therefore turned to
the commanding officer, and in a deferential manner addressed him
in Greek, saying, “May I speak with thee?” In astonishment Lysias
inquired if he was indeed mistaken in supposing the prisoner to have
been the ring-leader of a band of robbers and murderers in the late
rebellion. In reply, Paul declared that he was no Egyptian, but a Jew
of “Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city,” and begged
that he might be permitted to speak to the people. The Lord had given
his servant an influence over the Roman officer, and the request was
granted.
“Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the
people.” The gesture attracted their attention, while his bearing com-
manded respect. The scene changed as suddenly as when Christ drove
the traffickers from the temple courts. Quiet fell upon the sea of heads
below, and then Paul addressed the throng in the Hebrew language,
saying, “Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make
now unto you.” At the sound of that holy tongue, there was “a great
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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,
and there were many present who could testify to their truthfulness. He
then acknowledged his former zeal in persecuting “this way unto the
death,” and narrated the circumstances of his wonderful conversion,