Paul Speaks to the Crowd
37 As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”“Do you speak Greek?” he replied. 38 “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?”
39 Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.”
40 After receiving the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic[a]:
God must have chosen Paul long before he was born to carry out the task given to him. He is not only a Jew by blood, but also a Roman by birth. He spoke both languages. And he was there in Jerusalem at the time when the Romans siezed control of the land. Not only that, he was also a pharisee by training studying the Jewish law under the influential Gamaliel. And to seal off his credentials, he was a very zealous Jew who oversaw the murder of Stephen, probably the first martyr for Christ. He was a man whose credentials cannot be ignored by both the Jews and the Romans. I believe that this couldn't be a coindence, but the divine plan of God.
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