Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?

 Good morning. As they were getting ready to scourge Paul, he said to the centurion, is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned? Remember when he was in the Philippian jail that when they sent to release him, Paul realized too late that he had the same defense. It was against the Roman law for a Roman citizen to be subjected to any kind of degrading form of punishment. The next day, the commander ordered the chief priests and the council to assemble so that he could find out why they were accusing Paul. He said to them, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day. The high priest commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth. God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to try me according to the law, and in violation of the law order me to be struck? But the bystanders said, do you revile God‘s high priest? I was not aware that he was high priest; for it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. Paul had been away for several years; so he was not knowledgeable of who was high priest. Also, it is possible, that he was being sarcastic. Even the one who was high priest at the time of Jesus’ trial was not considered the true high priest by the people of Israel. He had been designated such by the Roman government. The true high priest was a direct descendent of Aaron, and was not designated such by some outside government. We’ll see next time what clever device Paul used to defuse the situation. Father go with us. Bring us peace and prosperity.

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