“Cum audissent autem quia hebræa lingua loqueretur ad illos, magis præstiterunt silentium.”
“(And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)”
“When they heard him speak to them in Hebrew, they became even more silent. Then Paul declared,”
“When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,”
“And when they heard that he spake unto them in the Hebrew language, they were the more quiet: and he saith,”
1 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. 2 (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)
Verses 1-11 The apostle addressed the enraged multitude, in the customary style of respect and good-will. Paul relates the history of his early life very particularly; he notices that his conversion was wholly the act of God. Condemned sinners are struck blind by the power of darkness, and it is a lasting blindness, like that of the unbelieving Jews. Convinced sinners are struck blind as Paul was, not by darkness, but by light. They are for a time brought to be at a loss within themselves, but it is in order to their being enlightened. A simple relation of the Lord's dealings with us, in bringing us, from opposing, to profess and promote his gospel, when delivered in a right spirit and manner, will sometimes make more impression that laboured speeches, even though it amounts not to the full proof of the truth, such as was shown in the change wrought in the apostle.