Acts 24:7

But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:1-9 See here the unhappiness of great men, and a great unhappiness it is, to have their services praised beyond measure, and never to be faithfully told of their faults; hereby they are hardened and encouraged in evil, like Felix. God's prophets were charged with being troublers of the land, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that he perverted the nation; the very same charges were brought against Paul. The selfish and evil passions of men urge them forward, and the graces and power of speech, too often have been used to mislead and prejudice men against the truth. How different will the characters of Paul and Felix appear at the day of judgement, from what they are represented in the speech of Tertullus! Let not Christians value the applause, or be troubled at the revilings of ungodly men, who represent the vilest of the human race almost as gods, and the excellent of the earth as pestilences and movers of sedition.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But the chief captain ... - Tertullus pretends that they would have judged Paul righteously if Lysias had not interposed; but the truth was, that, without regard to law or justice, they would have murdered him on the spot.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. But … Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him out of our hands—a wilful falsehood and calumnious charge against a public officer. He had commanded the Sanhedrim to meet for no other purpose than to "judge him according to their law"; and only when, instead of doing so, they fell to disputing among themselves, and the prisoner was in danger of being "pulled in pieces of them" (Ac 23:10)—or as his own letter says "killed of them" (Ac 23:27)—did he rescue him, as was his duty, "by force" out of their hands.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

So they call the bringing of soldiers, to hinder them from acting violently; and as far as they dare, they accuse Lysias, whom they thought not to favour them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But the chief captain Lysias came upon us,.... Suddenly, and at unawares, immediately, and with great haste, before they could execute their designs; which were not to judge Paul according to law, but to kill him, in the manner the zealots did:

and with great violence took him away out of our hands; for he came with an army, and rescued him, Acts 23:27 Some copies add, "and sent him to thee"; and so the Syriac version reads.

Geneva Study Bible

But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 24:7. μετὰ π. βίας: another statement directly at variance with the facts, Acts 21:32.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. But the chief captain Lysias] If this verse be an interpolation, it differs from others in the Acts very greatly. In other parts of the book such insertions have merely been made to bring the whole of a narrative under view at once, and there has been no variation of an account previously given elsewhere. But here we have a passage not representing the facts as stated before, but giving such a version of them as might make Lysias appear to have been in the wrong, and to have exercised his power in Jerusalem most arbitrarily against men who were only anxious to preserve the purity of their sacred temple. As both the Syriac and the Vulgate represent the passage it is not quite satisfactory to reject it.

Acts 24:7