When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’ And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’” Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this.
‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ - "We know from the record in Acts 9 that his very life was in danger at that time (Ver. 29) ..." (Stam)
I will send you far away to the Gentiles - "The reference to the Gentiles, joined with Paul's claiming a divine commission, set off the mob again." (Ryrie)
"He had avoided mentioned the Gentiles until now, deferring this until he had first showed the Jews how he loved them and how only at the divine command, specific and repeated, had he left the favored people to go to the Gentiles. But they 'gave him audience' only 'unto this word' and then, as when fire is set to an explosive, they burst forth in a demonstration of uncontrolled rage that immediately terminated the apostle's address. They should have been interested in the salvation of the Gentiles (See Gen 22:18; Isa 56:6-8) but their intense national pride had blinded them to all else the apostle had said, so that they cried: 'Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live!'" (Stam)
throwing off their cloaks - "I.e., their outer garments. The apostle well knew what this meant. They were prepared to stone him if only the chief captain would hand him over to them (See Acts 22:20)." (Stam)
he should be examined by flogging - "People were scourged with a whip of leather thongs, the tips of which were embedded with metal or bone pieces. Christ was scourged in this way (Matt 27:26)." (Ryrie)
"His address, delivered in Hebrew, had borne the air of a confidential communication to the Jews alone, with the result that Lysias and his soldiers could only listen with vain curiosity and perhaps impatient suspicion. And now, at this renewed and persistent uproar, Lysias evidently suspected that Paul was guilty of some grievous crime. He therefore commanded that the apostle be brought into the castle to be 'examined by scourging' (Ver. 24). This was far more brutal than our so-called 'third degree.' It was a series of whippings inflicted to extort an admission of crime." (Stam)
"Alas, Paul's hopes and prayers regarding Jerusalem had not be realized. His 'heart's desire and prayer to God ... that they might be saved' (Rom 10:1) had not been fulfilled. He had not been permitted to proclaim 'the gospel of the grace of God' (Acts 20:24) to them. He had not been 'delivered from those who did not believe in Judaea,' nor had the sacrificial ministration from the Gentile churches been 'accepted of the saints' there (Rom 15:30-31). If they accepted the money (which we are not told) it had certainly not served to bring them closer to their Gentile brethren in Christ. If the unbelieving Jews were Paul's bitter enemies then 'James and the elders,' along with any of the twelve apostles who were present, were his very doubtful friends. Neither now, nor later, do we find one of them standing at his side, even though James, Cephas and John had officially and publicly acknowledge him, some years back, as the apostle of grace and the apostle to the Gentiles. Indeed, the compromise which James and his party had persuaded Paul to make had produced nothing—but this uproar—while they stayed in the background. Yet the apostle had acted only out of love for his kinsmen and his Lord, and it was thus, in the providence of God that Israel received one final touching testimony to Christ from the lips of one who had even been instructed to leave them to their fate." (Stam)
‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ - "We know from the record in Acts 9 that his very life was in danger at that time (Ver. 29) ..." (Stam)
I will send you far away to the Gentiles - "The reference to the Gentiles, joined with Paul's claiming a divine commission, set off the mob again." (Ryrie)
"He had avoided mentioned the Gentiles until now, deferring this until he had first showed the Jews how he loved them and how only at the divine command, specific and repeated, had he left the favored people to go to the Gentiles. But they 'gave him audience' only 'unto this word' and then, as when fire is set to an explosive, they burst forth in a demonstration of uncontrolled rage that immediately terminated the apostle's address. They should have been interested in the salvation of the Gentiles (See Gen 22:18; Isa 56:6-8) but their intense national pride had blinded them to all else the apostle had said, so that they cried: 'Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live!'" (Stam)
throwing off their cloaks - "I.e., their outer garments. The apostle well knew what this meant. They were prepared to stone him if only the chief captain would hand him over to them (See Acts 22:20)." (Stam)
he should be examined by flogging - "People were scourged with a whip of leather thongs, the tips of which were embedded with metal or bone pieces. Christ was scourged in this way (Matt 27:26)." (Ryrie)
"His address, delivered in Hebrew, had borne the air of a confidential communication to the Jews alone, with the result that Lysias and his soldiers could only listen with vain curiosity and perhaps impatient suspicion. And now, at this renewed and persistent uproar, Lysias evidently suspected that Paul was guilty of some grievous crime. He therefore commanded that the apostle be brought into the castle to be 'examined by scourging' (Ver. 24). This was far more brutal than our so-called 'third degree.' It was a series of whippings inflicted to extort an admission of crime." (Stam)
"Alas, Paul's hopes and prayers regarding Jerusalem had not be realized. His 'heart's desire and prayer to God ... that they might be saved' (Rom 10:1) had not been fulfilled. He had not been permitted to proclaim 'the gospel of the grace of God' (Acts 20:24) to them. He had not been 'delivered from those who did not believe in Judaea,' nor had the sacrificial ministration from the Gentile churches been 'accepted of the saints' there (Rom 15:30-31). If they accepted the money (which we are not told) it had certainly not served to bring them closer to their Gentile brethren in Christ. If the unbelieving Jews were Paul's bitter enemies then 'James and the elders,' along with any of the twelve apostles who were present, were his very doubtful friends. Neither now, nor later, do we find one of them standing at his side, even though James, Cephas and John had officially and publicly acknowledge him, some years back, as the apostle of grace and the apostle to the Gentiles. Indeed, the compromise which James and his party had persuaded Paul to make had produced nothing—but this uproar—while they stayed in the background. Yet the apostle had acted only out of love for his kinsmen and his Lord, and it was thus, in the providence of God that Israel received one final touching testimony to Christ from the lips of one who had even been instructed to leave them to their fate." (Stam)
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