translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: ACT

label: NET study note

text: Listen to my defense. This is the first of several speeches Paul would make in his own defense: Acts 24:10 ff.; 25:8, 16; and 26:1 ff. For the use of such a speech (“apologia”) in Greek, see Josephus, Ag. Ap. 2.15 [2.147]; Wis 6:10.


text: , which place a comma after ταύτῃ ( tauth ), has been followed in the translation. Gamaliel was a famous Jewish scholar and teacher mentioned here and in Acts 5:34 . He had a grandson of the same name and is referred to as “Gamaliel the Elder” to avoid confusion. He is quoted a number of times in the Mishnah, was given the highest possible title for Jewish teachers, Rabba (cf. John 20:16 ), and was highly regarded in later rabbinic tradition.


text: That is, persecuted the Christian movement (Christianity). The Way is also used as a description of the Christian faith in Acts 9:2; 18:25-26; 19:9, 23; 24:14, 22 ).


text: The law refers to the law of Moses.


text: The Righteous One is a reference to Jesus Christ ( Acts 3:14 ).


text: The expression have your sins washed away means “have your sins purified” (the washing is figurative).


text: The expression calling on his name describes the confession of the believer: Acts 2:17-38 , esp. v. 38; Rom 10:12-13 ; 1 Cor 1:2 .


text: Now Paul referred to Stephen as your witness , and he himself had also become a witness. The reversal was now complete; the opponent had now become a proponent.


text: When the blood of your witness Stephen was shed means “when your witness Stephen was murdered.”


text: The crowd’s act of tossing dust in the air indicated they had heard something disturbing and offensive. This may have been a symbolic gesture, indicating Paul’s words deserved to be thrown to the wind, or it may have simply resulted from the fact they had nothing else to throw at him at the moment.


text: To interrogate Paul by beating him with a lash. Under the Roman legal system it was customary to use physical torture to extract confessions or other information from prisoners who were not Roman citizens and who were charged with various crimes, especially treason or sedition. The lashing would be done with a whip of leather thongs with pieces of metal or bone attached to the ends.


text: See the note on the word centurion in 10:1 .


text: Sometimes Roman citizenship was purchased through a bribe (Dio Cassius, Roman History 60.17.4-9). That may well have been the case here.


text: Had him tied up. Perhaps a reference to the chains in Acts 21:33 , or the preparations for the lashing in Acts 22:25 . A trial would now be needed to resolve the matter. The Roman authorities’ hesitation to render a judgment in the case occurs repeatedly: Acts 22:30; 23:28-29; 24:22; 25:20, 26-27 . The legal process begun here would take the rest of Acts and will be unresolved at the end. The process itself took four years of Paul’s life.