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Acts 21:38-40
New Catholic Bible
Acts 21:38-40
New Catholic Bible
38 Then you are not the Egyptian[a] who recently started a revolt and led the four thousand assassins into the desert.” 39 Paul asserted, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city. May I have your permission to speak to the people?” 40 When the permission was granted, Paul stood on the steps and raised his hand to the people for silence. As soon as quiet was restored, he started speaking to them in Aramaic.[b]
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- Acts 21:38 The Egyptian: in A.D. 54, an Egyptian agitator, Ben Stada, had stirred up the Jewish nationalists to whom reference is made here, as we know from the historian Flavius Josephus. The Roman authorities were forced to put down the riot, and thousands were killed. Assassins: literally, sicarii, violent nationalists who carried a short dagger, called sica in Latin, and did not hesitate to use it.
- Acts 21:40 Aramaic: the language spoken by Jews at this time; Hebrew was no longer spoken or understood by the people after the Babylonian exile (587 B.C.).
