 |  |
"thongs" refer to the "lash" of the whip, but others, among them Alford, Wordsworth and
Farrar, interpret the word in the sense of "something that binds". The word himas occurs
elsewhere in Mark 1: 7, Luke 3: 16 and John 1: 27, where it refers to the "latchet" of a
shoe. The prefix pro in the verb proteino, "to bind", refers to "the position of the
prisoner, which was bent forward and tied with a sort of gear made of leather to an
inclined post" (Alford).
Three times already Paul, a Roman citizen, had suffered the illegality of being beaten,
without revealing his station and claiming exemption. True martyrdom, however, is
never separated in Scripture from the thought of "witness". The same Greek word
martur is translated both "martyr" and "witness", as for example:
"Thou shalt be His witness" (Acts 22: 15).
"The blood of Thy martyr" (Acts 22: 20).
"The faithful witness" (Rev. 1: 5).
"My faithful martyr" (Rev. 2: 13).
Suffering apart from service, suffering endured for its own sake, and without an object
in view, is not martyrdom in the Scriptural sense. While the Apostle felt that there was
still hope for Israel, he endured in silence, but he had now entered the closing phase of
his ministry, and Israel's days were numbered. To suffer the ignominy of examination by
torture would now serve no useful end. It would benefit no one, and it would not uphold
any vital truth. In the circumstances, it would have been a piece of unreasonable
stoicism, and Paul therefore says to the centurion that stood by: "Is it lawful for you to
scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?" (Acts 22: 25). The Apostle's
undaunted courage had been fully manifested during the time that had elapsed since the
Romans had intervened, and the centurion recognized that this was no mere evasion or a
dishonest attempt to gain time. Moreover, he knew that to claim Roman citizenship
falsely was often punishable by death (Suet. Claud. 25).
To bind a Roman, and to scourge him uncondemned, broke two laws, the Lex Valeria
and the Lex Porcia, and there was also an edict of Augustus prohibiting the application of
torture generally. Describing this same period under the heading "Festus succeeds Felix",
Josephus writes, in his "Wars of the Jews":
"Florus ventured then to do what no one had done before, that is to have men of
the equestrian order whipped, and nailed to the cross before his tribunal, who,
although they were by birth Jews, yet were they of Roman dignity notwithstanding"
(Jos. Wars. 2: 14, 9).
The fear that possessed the chief captain "because he had bound" Paul, does not refer
to the fact he had taken Paul into custody, but rather to the illegal binding preparatory to
scourging. What was called "militaris custodia", by virtue of which a Roman citizen
awaiting trial could be chained by his right hand to the left hand of his guard, was
provided for by Roman law. The fact that Paul was consigned to a centurion afterwards
indicates that he was put into this type of military custody.