After becoming a believer in Jesus, Paul returns to Jerusalem. While praying in the temple, Jesus appears to Paul in a vision and tells him to leave the city because people don’t trust him. Paul agrees; his ministry has not been effective in Jerusalem; the people remember how he persecuted the church and approved of Stephen the Deacon’s murder. Jesus commands Paul to go to the Gentiles far away and preach to them.
Paul explains in Acts 22:17-21Acts 22:17-21 commentary how his ministry was not welcome in Jerusalem, and that Jesus called him to preach to the Gentiles.
Paul is in the middle of sharing his testimony in Jerusalem to a crowd who wishes to kill him. The crowd has believed the lie told to them that Paul preaches against the Jewish people, Law, and temple (Acts 21:28Acts 21:28 commentary).
In the previous sections Paul has told the crowd about his upbringing, and his tutelage under the well-respected Pharisee, Gamaliel. He learned the Jewish law because of his zeal for God. Paul explained how years ago he led a persecution campaign against believers in Jesus. The council of elders gave Paul jurisdiction to arrest Jewish believers who had fled as far as Damascus.
But on his journey to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Paul in a shining light which blinded him. Jesus told Paul he was persecuting Him, and that he should go to Damascus to wait for Jesus to speak to him again. Jesus sent a devout Jewish man, Ananias, to heal Paul’s blindness and tell Paul that he will be a witness for Jesus to all men. Paul was then baptized.
He continues his testimony,
It happened when I returned to Jerusalem (v. 17).
This is years after Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus (Galatians 1:17Galatians 1:17 commentary), but he is telling his audience the details relevant to his purpose in speaking to them. We know from other passages in the New Testament that when Paul returned to Jerusalem, none of the disciples of Jesus there trusted that he actually believed in Jesus. Paul’s persecution had caused some believers to uproot their lives and others to lose their lives. Based on their past experience with Paul, it would be reasonable for them to believe he was deceiving them, trying to lure them into a trap.
So, when he returns to Jerusalem after three years of absence (Galatians 1:18Galatians 1:18 commentary) and claims he now belongs to the same group which he once oppressed, it would be understandably difficult to believe:
“When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.” (Acts 9:26Acts 9:26 commentary)
Only Barnabas, the “Son of Encouragement,” accepted Paul and took him to meet Peter and James, brother of Jesus. These apostles listened to Paul’s testimony, which “described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27Acts 9:27 commentary).
And so, Peter and James accepted Paul as a believer as well:
“…I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas [Peter], and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother.” (Galatians 1:18-19Galatians 1:18-19 commentary)
As Paul recounted in the prior passage from Galatians, after meeting Peter, he only spent another two weeks in Jerusalem before departing. Here, Paul provides more details about his exit from Jerusalem that are unique to this chapter.
While he was praying in the temple, Paul fell into a trance and experienced another supernatural vision (v. 17).
Jesus appears: and I saw Him saying to me, ‘Make haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me’ (v. 18).
The Son of God gives Paul a command to flee Jerusalem. The repetition of urgency—Make haste and get out...quickly—shows how dangerous the city had become for Paul. Jesus’s purpose for Paul was not in Jerusalem, it was to preach to the Gentiles beyond Israel. Jesus’s words all those years ago, because they will not accept your testimony about Me, proved true back then and up to this point here in Acts 22Acts 22 commentary. The Jews listening to Paul’s testimony about Jesus will not accept it here either (Acts 22:22Acts 22:22 commentary).
Paul agrees with Jesus, knowing the reason why they will not accept Paul’s testimony. He speaks to Jesus in the midst of the trance:
And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You. And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him’ (vs. 19-20).
Paul addresses Jesus as Lord, reminding the Jews to whom he is presently speaking that he believes Jesus is the Messiah. In the vision, Paul observes to his Lord that they themselves (those who will not accept his testimony) know all about Paul’s evil past. They understand that in one synagogue after another Paul used to imprison and beat those who believed in You.
This may have shocked some in Paul’s present audience, since their goal was to beat Paul only moments earlier, and now he was taken away so the Romans could imprison him. He’s showing his audience that what he used to do to believers is now being done to him. He used to systematically search one synagogue after another to discover the whereabouts of any whobelieved in the Christ. And during his first return visit to Jerusalem after he believed in Jesus, Paul experienced hostility from a certain group—they themselves—were very aware of Paul’s past deeds.
They knew that when the blood of Jesus’s witnessStephen was being shed, Paul was there. He not only was standing by approving of the stoning of an innocent man, he also was watching out for the coats of the Pharisees and priests who were slaying Stephen with stones. He was acting as a callous coat-check for the murderers so that no one would steal their outer garments, while nodding and approving of Stephen’s death as he watched it happen.
There is some ambiguity about who Paul is describing here. Obviously, there is a group of people in Jerusalem who are dangerous to Paul and want him to go away. When Jesus tells Paul that these people will not accept Paul’s testimony, Paul’s response is to say, “You’re right they won’t, they know how harshly I persecuted believers starting all the way back to Stephen, the first martyr.”
It is not clear whether the group who would not accept Paul’s testimony was fellow believers or unbelievers. All we know for certain was that Paul needed to leave Jerusalem, apparently both because he can have no ministry impact and because his life is in danger.
The account in Acts 9Acts 9 commentary specifies that there was a certain group in Jerusalem that wanted to kill Paul. When he came back to Jerusalem for the first time, Paul began preaching, and thereby attracted hostility,
“speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord. And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death.” (Acts 9:28-30Acts 9:28-30 commentary)
The Hellenistic Jews were Jews who spoke Greek and had adopted Greek customs, culture, and so on, in many cases due to having been raised outside of Israel in the Jewish diaspora (“dispersion”).
The only other usage of “Hellenistic” Jews in the book of Acts refers to believers who were in the church community of Jerusalem (Acts 6:1Acts 6:1 commentary). At one point during the early days of the Jerusalem church, the Hellenistic Jews complained about not receiving equal treatment as the other Jews, because the widows in this subset were not receiving food from the church, while the native Jews were. There may have been a prejudice against the Hellenistic Jews for having assimilated to Greek customs.
This led to the forming of the deacons, where Stephen emerged. Stephen likely was a Hellenistic Jew as well, based on his Greek name, and the likelihood that some of the deacons were chosen to represent the marginalized group of Hellenists, to make sure their own peoples’ needs were attended to (Acts 6:3Acts 6:3 commentary).
But it is not totally clear who these Hellenistic Jews are whom Paul argued with in Acts 9Acts 9 commentary, commentary to the point of their plotting to kill him. Paul’s response to Jesus in the vision implies that his past reputation is the relevant reason why they will not accept Paul’s testimony about Jesus (v. 18).
Who then are these Hellenistic Jews who want to kill Paul because of his past reputation? They do not believe what he says about having seen Jesus, they do not like what he boldly teaches in the name of the Lord, which makes them sound like unbelievers or believers who are wary of Paul. The detail that they are opposed to Paul in part due to Paul’s past as a persecutor and accessory to Stephen’s death may mean that these Hellenistic Jews were friends with Stephen, another Hellenistic Jew, and wanted to avenge Stephen by killing Paul.
Paul does not get into any of these details in his retelling here in Acts 22Acts 22 commentary. His main point is that his past as a persecutor had severely harmed his credibility as a now-witness of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. He could not stay there. This probably grieved Paul at the time, but God is sovereign over all situations. When things do not go as we expect and circumstances change, God is still at work. God’s will was that Paul should not remain in Jerusalem. Paul had a purpose elsewhere.
Jesus, in the vision in the temple in Jerusalem, repeated the command for Paul to leave. He tells Paul why he must depart from Israel,
And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles’” (v. 21).
Paul’s appointment by Jesus was to Go and teach the gospel to the nations beyond Israel. He was called to be a witness in cities far away where the Gentiles lived. Paul would preach the good news of God’s Son to the Gentiles, welcoming those who believed into the future kingdom of God, like a wild olive shoot grafted into the tree of God’s chosen people, Israel (Romans 11:17-24Romans 11:17-24 commentary).
Paul first went into hiding in Tarsus, Cilicia, his hometown, where it seems he may have planted some churches (Acts 15:41Acts 15:41 commentary). He moved from there and eventually became a lead minister in the church in Antioch, Syria, teaching Jews and Gentiles alike (Acts 11:25-26Acts 11:25-26 commentary), before going on three missionary journeys to preach the gospel far away to the Gentiles in Cyprus, Galatia, Macedonia, Greece, and the Roman province of Asia (western modern-day Turkey) (Acts 13:4Acts 13:4 commentary, 1414 commentary, 16:1216:12 commentary, 17:1617:16 commentary, 18:118:1 commentary, 19:119:1 commentary, 8-108-10 commentary).
This command from Jesus, as quoted by Paul—Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles—will bring Paul’s testimony to a halt. The crowd of Jews listening to Paul react negatively to the claim that God would extend favor to the Gentiles. The riot will start up again, and Paul will be taken away into the barracks before he can tell his entire testimony.
Set to dark mode
Acts 22:17-21 meaning
Paul explains in Acts 22:17-21Acts 22:17-21 commentary how his ministry was not welcome in Jerusalem, and that Jesus called him to preach to the Gentiles.
Paul is in the middle of sharing his testimony in Jerusalem to a crowd who wishes to kill him. The crowd has believed the lie told to them that Paul preaches against the Jewish people, Law, and temple (Acts 21:28Acts 21:28 commentary).
In the previous sections Paul has told the crowd about his upbringing, and his tutelage under the well-respected Pharisee, Gamaliel. He learned the Jewish law because of his zeal for God. Paul explained how years ago he led a persecution campaign against believers in Jesus. The council of elders gave Paul jurisdiction to arrest Jewish believers who had fled as far as Damascus.
But on his journey to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Paul in a shining light which blinded him. Jesus told Paul he was persecuting Him, and that he should go to Damascus to wait for Jesus to speak to him again. Jesus sent a devout Jewish man, Ananias, to heal Paul’s blindness and tell Paul that he will be a witness for Jesus to all men. Paul was then baptized.
He continues his testimony,
It happened when I returned to Jerusalem (v. 17).
This is years after Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus (Galatians 1:17Galatians 1:17 commentary), but he is telling his audience the details relevant to his purpose in speaking to them. We know from other passages in the New Testament that when Paul returned to Jerusalem, none of the disciples of Jesus there trusted that he actually believed in Jesus. Paul’s persecution had caused some believers to uproot their lives and others to lose their lives. Based on their past experience with Paul, it would be reasonable for them to believe he was deceiving them, trying to lure them into a trap.
So, when he returns to Jerusalem after three years of absence (Galatians 1:18Galatians 1:18 commentary) and claims he now belongs to the same group which he once oppressed, it would be understandably difficult to believe:
“When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.”
(Acts 9:26Acts 9:26 commentary)
Only Barnabas, the “Son of Encouragement,” accepted Paul and took him to meet Peter and James, brother of Jesus. These apostles listened to Paul’s testimony, which “described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27Acts 9:27 commentary).
And so, Peter and James accepted Paul as a believer as well:
“…I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas [Peter], and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother.”
(Galatians 1:18-19Galatians 1:18-19 commentary)
As Paul recounted in the prior passage from Galatians, after meeting Peter, he only spent another two weeks in Jerusalem before departing. Here, Paul provides more details about his exit from Jerusalem that are unique to this chapter.
While he was praying in the temple, Paul fell into a trance and experienced another supernatural vision (v. 17).
Jesus appears: and I saw Him saying to me, ‘Make haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me’ (v. 18).
The Son of God gives Paul a command to flee Jerusalem. The repetition of urgency—Make haste and get out...quickly—shows how dangerous the city had become for Paul. Jesus’s purpose for Paul was not in Jerusalem, it was to preach to the Gentiles beyond Israel. Jesus’s words all those years ago, because they will not accept your testimony about Me, proved true back then and up to this point here in Acts 22Acts 22 commentary. The Jews listening to Paul’s testimony about Jesus will not accept it here either (Acts 22:22Acts 22:22 commentary).
Paul agrees with Jesus, knowing the reason why they will not accept Paul’s testimony. He speaks to Jesus in the midst of the trance:
And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You. And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him’ (vs. 19-20).
Paul addresses Jesus as Lord, reminding the Jews to whom he is presently speaking that he believes Jesus is the Messiah. In the vision, Paul observes to his Lord that they themselves (those who will not accept his testimony) know all about Paul’s evil past. They understand that in one synagogue after another Paul used to imprison and beat those who believed in You.
This may have shocked some in Paul’s present audience, since their goal was to beat Paul only moments earlier, and now he was taken away so the Romans could imprison him. He’s showing his audience that what he used to do to believers is now being done to him. He used to systematically search one synagogue after another to discover the whereabouts of any who believed in the Christ. And during his first return visit to Jerusalem after he believed in Jesus, Paul experienced hostility from a certain group—they themselves—were very aware of Paul’s past deeds.
They knew that when the blood of Jesus’s witness Stephen was being shed, Paul was there. He not only was standing by approving of the stoning of an innocent man, he also was watching out for the coats of the Pharisees and priests who were slaying Stephen with stones. He was acting as a callous coat-check for the murderers so that no one would steal their outer garments, while nodding and approving of Stephen’s death as he watched it happen.
There is some ambiguity about who Paul is describing here. Obviously, there is a group of people in Jerusalem who are dangerous to Paul and want him to go away. When Jesus tells Paul that these people will not accept Paul’s testimony, Paul’s response is to say, “You’re right they won’t, they know how harshly I persecuted believers starting all the way back to Stephen, the first martyr.”
It is not clear whether the group who would not accept Paul’s testimony was fellow believers or unbelievers. All we know for certain was that Paul needed to leave Jerusalem, apparently both because he can have no ministry impact and because his life is in danger.
The account in Acts 9Acts 9 commentary specifies that there was a certain group in Jerusalem that wanted to kill Paul. When he came back to Jerusalem for the first time, Paul began preaching, and thereby attracted hostility,
“speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord. And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death.”
(Acts 9:28-30Acts 9:28-30 commentary)
The Hellenistic Jews were Jews who spoke Greek and had adopted Greek customs, culture, and so on, in many cases due to having been raised outside of Israel in the Jewish diaspora (“dispersion”).
The only other usage of “Hellenistic” Jews in the book of Acts refers to believers who were in the church community of Jerusalem (Acts 6:1Acts 6:1 commentary). At one point during the early days of the Jerusalem church, the Hellenistic Jews complained about not receiving equal treatment as the other Jews, because the widows in this subset were not receiving food from the church, while the native Jews were. There may have been a prejudice against the Hellenistic Jews for having assimilated to Greek customs.
This led to the forming of the deacons, where Stephen emerged. Stephen likely was a Hellenistic Jew as well, based on his Greek name, and the likelihood that some of the deacons were chosen to represent the marginalized group of Hellenists, to make sure their own peoples’ needs were attended to (Acts 6:3Acts 6:3 commentary).
But it is not totally clear who these Hellenistic Jews are whom Paul argued with in Acts 9Acts 9 commentary, commentary to the point of their plotting to kill him. Paul’s response to Jesus in the vision implies that his past reputation is the relevant reason why they will not accept Paul’s testimony about Jesus (v. 18).
Who then are these Hellenistic Jews who want to kill Paul because of his past reputation? They do not believe what he says about having seen Jesus, they do not like what he boldly teaches in the name of the Lord, which makes them sound like unbelievers or believers who are wary of Paul. The detail that they are opposed to Paul in part due to Paul’s past as a persecutor and accessory to Stephen’s death may mean that these Hellenistic Jews were friends with Stephen, another Hellenistic Jew, and wanted to avenge Stephen by killing Paul.
Paul does not get into any of these details in his retelling here in Acts 22Acts 22 commentary. His main point is that his past as a persecutor had severely harmed his credibility as a now-witness of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. He could not stay there. This probably grieved Paul at the time, but God is sovereign over all situations. When things do not go as we expect and circumstances change, God is still at work. God’s will was that Paul should not remain in Jerusalem. Paul had a purpose elsewhere.
Jesus, in the vision in the temple in Jerusalem, repeated the command for Paul to leave. He tells Paul why he must depart from Israel,
And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles’” (v. 21).
Paul’s appointment by Jesus was to Go and teach the gospel to the nations beyond Israel. He was called to be a witness in cities far away where the Gentiles lived. Paul would preach the good news of God’s Son to the Gentiles, welcoming those who believed into the future kingdom of God, like a wild olive shoot grafted into the tree of God’s chosen people, Israel (Romans 11:17-24Romans 11:17-24 commentary).
Paul first went into hiding in Tarsus, Cilicia, his hometown, where it seems he may have planted some churches (Acts 15:41Acts 15:41 commentary). He moved from there and eventually became a lead minister in the church in Antioch, Syria, teaching Jews and Gentiles alike (Acts 11:25-26Acts 11:25-26 commentary), before going on three missionary journeys to preach the gospel far away to the Gentiles in Cyprus, Galatia, Macedonia, Greece, and the Roman province of Asia (western modern-day Turkey) (Acts 13:4Acts 13:4 commentary, 1414 commentary, 16:1216:12 commentary, 17:1617:16 commentary, 18:118:1 commentary, 19:119:1 commentary, 8-108-10 commentary).
This command from Jesus, as quoted by Paul—Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles—will bring Paul’s testimony to a halt. The crowd of Jews listening to Paul react negatively to the claim that God would extend favor to the Gentiles. The riot will start up again, and Paul will be taken away into the barracks before he can tell his entire testimony.