Paul avoids torture because of his citizenship.
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24 The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so against him. 25 And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned? 26 When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman. 27 Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. 28 And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. 29 Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.
30 On the morrow, because he would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before them.
Paul is brought into the castle for examination.
Paul is brought into the castle for examination.
Last week we saw that Paul spoke to the people in Hebrew.
It is possible that the Roman captain was not fluent enough in Hebrew to keep up with Paul.
So, after seeing the reaction of the people to what Paul had said, he is probably thinking that something isn’t adding up.
Who is this man who is fluent in Hebrew and Greek?
Who is this man that is capable of stirring the Jews up to such hatred?
Who is this man that speaks to him with more dignity and composure than you would expect from a rabble-rouser?
He decides to resort to the only sure way he knows of for discovering the truth.
Paul will be beaten until he reveals who he really is.
The Roman soldiers take Paul to the fortress courtyard.
One commentator noted that this is the same place where Jesus would have been beaten.
You’ve heard about the pole that victims would tied to.
You’ve heard about the instrument that was used in these moments.
A wooden handle with many leather strips coming out of the top.
Each leather strip ending with a piece of metal, bone, or glass.
As Paul is being tied up to the post, he says something that brings the whole exercise to a screeching halt.
Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?
What the Romans did not realize, to this point, was that Paul was a Roman citizen and what they were doing was EXTREMELY illegal.
Romans had a right to a trial and were exempt from demeaning punishments such as scourging or crucifixion.
Paul had not been accused by another citizen of breaking any Roman law.
He had not been granted a trial.
And yet, he was about to suffer a punishment that was reserved for only non-citizens.
I bet that centurion, who Paul revealed this information to, wasted no time in getting this revelation to the captain.
If Paul had not spoken up, every person, who played a part in his treatment, would have faced consequences.
The centurion tells the captain that he had better be careful with what he is about to do.
The statement has an air of questioning about it.
Do you know what you are about to do?
That man is a Roman!
Because of Paul’s claim to citizenship, he is spared from scourging.
Because of Paul’s claim to citizenship, he is spared from scourging.
The captain comes to Paul, to hear it for himself.
Are you a Roman? Tell me now?
He has to be perturbed that Paul didn’t say something sooner.
They had briefly discussed who Paul was out on the stairs.
Paul tells the captain that he is a Roman.
You may be thinking, why did this man believe Paul?
It is possible that Paul carried his diploma with him, proving his citizenship.
There is evidence of two kinds of ID used by the Roman government.
One was a rolled up piece of paper in a wooden tube.
The other was a clay tablet.
Paul would have been stripped of his clothes before the scourging, so it is entirely possible that they would have found it in his personal effects.
The other reason that this captain would have believed Paul is because of the extreme rarity of anyone making a false claim to Roman citizenship.
Rome kept good records of who was a citizen and who wasn’t.
It was easy to ascertain the legitimacy of a claim.
Should a person falsely claim Roman citizenship, the penalty was death, no exceptions, no excuses.
You could not fake your citizenship.
Because of these two points, Paul’s claim is undisputed.
However, the captain is not without some thoughts.
He looks at Paul and takes stock of what he sees.
A scarred, poor, Jewish man from Cilicia.
How did this man become a Roman citizen?
It was surely, impossible for him to pay the price required.
He tells Paul, a little bit about himself.
The captain is also a Roman citizen, he purchased this privilege with a great sum of money.
During this time, in Rome, it was common for people to purchase citizenship.
Either directly from the government.
From another citizen that was willing to give up their rights.
A purchased citizenship, however, was still in inferior to a birth citizenship.
Paul responds to the captain by informing him that he did not purchase his citizenship, he received it at birth.
Early Christian authors and historians have speculated as to how Paul’s Jewish family gained citizenship.
Some say that his father or grandfather performed some great service to a Roman proconsul who rewarded them with a citizenship.
The most detailed account states that Paul’s parents were taken to Tarsus as prisoners of war, but were later freed and granted citizenship by their powerful master.
Regardless, Paul was a natural born citizen which made his social status higher than even this Roman captain in Jerusalem.
These soldiers had chained and nearly scourged a natural-born citizen of Rome.
Because of this they were all afraid that they might suffer reprisals.
To mess with a Roman citizen was to mess with Rome.
Rome was the most powerful governmental force on the planet.
That power, among other things, was used to protect the welfare and interests of her citizens, among whom was Paul.
Luke shares for his readers the privileges that Paul enjoyed as a natural-born citizen of Rome.
As I study this passage, I can’t help but think of the similarities between Paul’s citizenship as a Roman and as a Christian.
By extension, any benefits that Paul enjoyed as a citizen of the kingdom of God, also apply to us.
Those who are citizens of the kingdom of God have some amazing privileges and protections backing them.
Those who are citizens of the kingdom of God have some amazing privileges and protections backing them.
Rome was powerful, but it was nothing compared to the kingdom of God.
The price of citizenship in God’s kingdom is too high for you and I to pay.
Thankfully someone made that payment for us.
He then offered for us to be reborn into the Kingdom of His Father.
Because of our citizenship we are under no condemnation.
Heaven help the person or people that seek to cause harm to the citizens of God’s kingdom.