The effect of Paul's words upon the centurion was immediate and pronounced. As a

great Roman writer has said: "How often has this exclamation, I am a Roman citizen

(Civie Romanus Sum), brought aid and safety among barbarians in the remotest parts of

the earth" (104: Verr. 5: 57).

The centurion at once hastens to the chief captain's quarters, saying: "Take heed what

thou doest; for this man is a Roman." The captain himself then comes back to this

astonishing Jewish prisoner--whom he had once suspected of being an Egyptian fanatic

(Acts 21: 38), and who spoke "Greek" and "Hebrew" with equal facility (Acts 21: 37,

40)--and asks: "Tell me, art thou a Roman?" (Acts 22: 27). Lysias himself had the

praenomen "Claudius" (Acts 23: 26), indicating that he had obtained his freedom

during the reign of Claudius, and, looking at the Apostle, and seeing nothing to indicate

either wealth or position, he says: "I know how much it cost me to get this citizenship".

Farrar's note here is as follows: "Verse 28, Ego oida poso, D. Though unsupported by

evidence, the colloquialism sounds very genuine." Alford's note reads: "For pollo, oida

poso D (remarkable and possibly original, pollo being a gloss; but if so, the genuine

reading has been now overborne by the intruder)."

Dr. Cassius tells us that the civitas of Rome was, in the early part of the reign of

Claudius, sold at a high rate, and it is to this that Lysias evidently refers. The Apostle's

quiet rejoinder is given in verse 28: "But I was free born." We have no information

concerning the Apostle's parents apart from the scanty references that occur in his own

writings. The mere fact of being a citizen of Tarsus would not have conferred this

privilege, for while Tarsus was an urbs libra, or "free city", it was not a colonia, or

"colony".  Besides, he had already revealed to the captain that he was a Tarsian

(Acts 21: 39). For some reason unknown to us, Paul's father or one of his more remote

ancestors must have obtained the right of Roman citizenship.

The Apostle's claim is too great to be resisted, and he is immediately released. The

soldiers who were to have tortured him, withdraw, and we read that "the chief captain

also was afraid . . . . . because he had bound him".

Still anxious to obtain information upon which he can frame an accusation, Lysias

next arranges for the Apostle to appear before the Sanhedrin: "On the morrow, because

he would have known the certainty whereof 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" (Acts 22: 30). Before considering the

Apostle's defence before this council, let us first see how the section (Acts 22: - 23:)

is constructed.