For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.
All Commentaries on Acts 28:20 Go To Acts 28
John Chrysostom
AD 407
And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they had come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. But when the Jews spoke against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Cæsar; not that I had anything to accuse my nation of. For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.
He wished to exculpate both himself and others; himself, that they might not accuse him, and by so doing hurt themselves; and those (others), that it might not seem that the whole thing was of their doing. For it was likely that a report was prevalent, that he had been delivered up by the Jews; and this was enough to alarm them. He therefore addresses himself to this, and defends himself as to his own conduct. How then is it reasonable, it might be said, that they should deliver you up without a cause? The Roman governors, he says, bear me witness, who wished to let me go. How was it then that they did not let (you) go? When the Jews spoke against it, he says. Observe how he extenuates (in speaking of) their charges against him. Since if he had wished to aggravate matters, he might have used them so as to bear harder upon them. Wherefore, he says, I was constrained to appeal unto Cæsar: so that his whole speech is of a forgiving nature. What then? Did you this, that you might accuse them? No, he says: Not that I had anything to accuse my nation of: but that I might escape the danger. For it is for your sakes that I am bound with this chain. So far am I, he says, from any hostile feeling towards you. Then they also were so subdued by his speech, that they too apologized for those of their own nation: And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judea concerning you, neither any of the brethren that came showed or spoke any harm of you.
