Chapter LXXXVI: Section 2

TRIAL I. PLACE, JERUSALEM TEMPLE.--JUDICATORY, THE MIXED MULTITUDE.--_Acts_ 22:1 to 21.

Scene, the Temple. Judges, prosecutors, and--stated as intended executioners, a Jerusalem multitude. Sole class, by whom any declared or special cause of irritation had been received, the Christianized Jews, provoked by Paul's preachings against the law of the land, to which they as yet maintained their adherence; by his intrusion upon their society, by which, were it only for his former persecution, he could not but be abhorred; and by the notorious perjury he was at that moment committing, having chosen to commit it, rather than cease to obtrude upon them the object of their abhorrence.

Of the particulars of the accusation nothing is said: but, the above circumstances, and the subsequent charges made upon him the next day by the constituted authorities,--who immediately took up the matter, and carried on a regular prosecution against him,--sufficiently show, what, if expressed, would have been the purport of them. By the preparations made for execution, we shall see broken off the defence, before it had come, if ever it was designed to come, to the substance of the alleged offence.

Points touched upon in it are these:--

1. Defendant's birthplace, Tarsus; parentage, Jewish; religious persuasion, Pharasaical; education, under Gamaliel, verse 3.

2. Part, borne by him, in the persecution of the Christians, when Stephen was stoned: his commission for that purpose stated, and the High Priest and Elders called to witness, verses 4 and 5.

N.B. Time of _that_ same commission, according to the received
chronology, not less than 26 years before this.

3. Story, of that first vision, of which so much has been seen: namely, that from whence his conversion was dated: occasion, his journey to Damascus, for the execution of that same commission, verses 6 to 16.

4. Story of his trance: for this see Chapter IV. §. 7. In this state, "the Lord" seen by him.--_Lord to Defendant._ "Get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me." _Defendant, to Lord._ Informing or reminding said Lord of the details of the part borne by said defendant in the persecution of Saint Stephen.--_Lord to Defendant._ "Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." Note, Defendant cut short: Lord's patience no match for defendant's eloquence.

_Judges and executioners._--At the word _Gentiles_, exclamation:--"Away with him ... he is not fit to live":--clothes cast off, as in Stephen's case, as if to prepare for stoning him.[81] "Dust thrown into the air." Present, chief captain Claudius Lysias, who commands him to be "brought into the castle," and "examined by scourging." While, for this purpose, they are binding him, on Defendant crying out, "_I am a Roman citizen_," the binding ceases, no scourging commences: the next day he is released, and the "chief priests and all their council" are "sent for," and Defendant is "set before them."