29. A Matter of Citizenship
The crowd listened to Paul … Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!" As they were shouting … the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn't even been found guilty?" When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it… The commander went to Paul and asked, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes, I am," he answered. Then the commander said, "I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship." "But I was born a citizen," Paul replied. Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains (Acts 22:22-29). During his trip to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey, Paul was accosted in the Temple by Jews who disliked his teaching. The situation quickly became an ugly one and, as a result, Paul was arrested and – only by announcing his Roman citizenship – narrowly escaped severe injury and possible death through "flogging" – intense scourging by whips with sharp objects attached to their strands.
The immediate result of the announcement of Paul's citizenship was that those preparing to torture him stopped and did not strike him at all. Even the commanding officer was "alarmed" that he had come close to illegally whipping a Roman.
Roman citizenship certainly carried valuable privileges. It saved Paul on this occasion and would save him again later, as we read in Acts 25. But citizenship was not easily acquired – there were only three ways in which it could normally be obtained: through service, payment, or birth. A person could become a full citizen through twenty-five or more years of military service in Rome's legions. One could also become a citizen by paying a large sum of money for citizenship (as the commanding officer in this story, Claudius Lysias, evidently had done). Finally, one could acquire citizenship through birth, as Paul states he did. This may have been due to Tarsus being designated by Rome as a "free city" with citizenship privileges for its inhabitants, or simply because his parents were citizens.
But regardless of how one became a Roman citizen, the great privileges that came with the designation were such that citizenship was not only highly prized, but also very carefully respected. This fact makes for an ironic contrast with what occurred next in this story:
The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews. So the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them. Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth (Acts 22:30-23:2).
We see the irony when we understand that Paul's opening words to the Sanhedrin "I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day" include a Greek verb which literally means to be or to behave "as a citizen." Paul says, in effect, that he has been a good citizen of God and of the laws of God. It was on this announcement of Paul's spiritual citizenship that Ananias ordered him to be struck. So the paradox is noticeable – while the announcement of his physical citizenship had led to the physical military leaders commanding Paul not be struck, the announcement of his spiritual citizenship was followed by the religious leaders ordering him to be struck.
Specifically, it was the High Priest Ananias who ordered Paul struck – a man whom the Jewish historian Josephus tells us was known for his cruelty, injustice, greed and self-glorification, and who was even summoned to Rome to be examined before Claudius (AD 52) because of his brutality. Perhaps Ananias was among the individuals Paul had in mind when he later wrote to the Philippians regarding spiritual citizenship:
… many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:18b-20a).
But we see in Paul's use of his "dual" citizenship status another perfect example of his being all things to all people. To the Roman commander Paul presented himself as a Roman citizen, to the Sanhedrin he presented himself as a Jew and a "citizen" of God. But this was not simply using his citizenships in order to protect himself. When he was rescued by the Romans from the Jews who were beating him, Paul did not immediately use his Roman status to escape the situation – he asked permission to speak to the crowd on the grounds that he was a Jew (Acts 22:3). On the basis of his identity with them, Paul then proceeded to take his message to the very people who had been beating him.
Being all things to all people should never be a shallow way of attempting to get what we want from others, but a way in which we are better able to reach them with our example and message.