Acts 28:17-23
17-20. Paul called the chief of the Jews together—Though banished from the capital by Claudius, the Jews enjoyed the full benefit of the toleration which distinguished the first period of Nero's reign, and were at this time in considerable numbers, wealth, and influence settled at Rome. We have seen that long before this a flourishing Christian Church existed at Rome, to which Paul wrote his Epistle (see on Ac 20:3), and the first members of which were probably Jewish converts and proselytes. (See Introduction to Romans.)
yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans—the Roman authorities, Felix and Festus.19. I was constrained to appeal . . . not that I had aught to accuse my nation of—"I am here not as their accuser, but as my own defender, and this not of choice but necessity." His object in alluding thus gently to the treatment he had received from the Jews was plainly to avoid whatever might irritate his visitors at the first; especially as he was not aware whether any or what information against him had reached their community.
20. For this cause . . . have I called for you . . . because . . . for the hope of Israel—(See on Ac 26:6, 7).
I am bound with this chain—"This cause is not so much mine as yours; it is the nation's cause; all that is dear to the heart and hope of Israel is bound up with this case of mine." From the touching allusions which the apostle makes to his chains, before Agrippa first, and here before the leading members of the Jewish community at Rome, at his first interview with them, one would gather that his great soul felt keenly his being in such a condition; and it is to this keenness of feeling, under the control of Christian principle, that we owe the noble use which he made of it in these two cases.21, 22. We neither received letters out of Judea concerning thee, &c.—We need not suppose (with THOLUCK and others) that there was any dishonest concealment here. The distinction made between himself, against whom they heard nothing, and his "sect," as "everywhere spoken against," is a presumption in favor of their sincerity; and there is ground to think that as the case took an unexpected turn by Paul's appealing to Cæsar, so no information on the subject would travel from Jerusalem to Rome in advance of the apostle himself.
22. we desire—"deem it proper"
to hear of thee what thou thinkest—what are thy sentiments, views, &c. The apparent freedom from prejudice here expressed may have arisen from a prudent desire to avoid endangering a repetition of those dissensions about Christianity to which, probably, SUETONIUS alludes, and which had led to the expulsion of the Jews under Claudius [HUMPHRY]. See on Ac 18:2.23, 24. there came many—"considerable numbers"
into his lodging—The word denotes one's place of stay as a guest (Phm 22), not "his own hired house," mentioned in Ac 28:30. Some Christian friends—possibly Aquila and Priscilla, who had returned to Rome (Ro 16:3), would be glad to receive him, though he would soon find himself more at liberty in a house of his own. to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God—opening up the great spiritual principles of that kingdom in opposition to the contracted and secular views of it entertained by the Jews. persuading them concerning Jesus—as the ordained and predicted Head of that kingdom. out of the law . . . and the prophets—drawing his materials and arguments from a source mutually acknowledged. from morning till evening—"Who would not wish to have been present?" exclaims BENGEL; but virtually we are present while listening to those Epistles which he dictated from his prison at Rome, and to his other epistolary expositions of Christian truth against the Jews.