When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, ‘Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.’ 29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)
30 The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. 31 While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
33 The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36 The crowd that followed kept shouting, ‘Get rid of him!’
37 As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, ‘May I say something to you?’
‘Do you speak Greek?’ he replied. 38 ‘Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?’
39 Paul answered, ‘I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.’
40 After receiving the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic[a]
22 1 ‘Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defence.’
2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said: 3 ‘I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 ‘About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, “Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?”
8 ‘“Who are you, Lord?” I asked.
‘“I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
10 ‘“What shall I do, Lord?” I asked.
‘“Get up,” the Lord said, “and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.” 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
12 ‘A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, “Brother Saul, receive your sight!” And at that very moment I was able to see him.
14 ‘Then he said: “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptised and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”
17 ‘When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking to me. “Quick!” he said. “Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.”
19 ‘“Lord,” I replied, “these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. 20 And when the blood of your martyr[a] Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.”
21 ‘Then the Lord said to me, “Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.”’
22 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, ‘Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!’
23 As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, ‘Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?’
26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. ‘What are you going to do?’ he asked. ‘This man is a Roman citizen.’
27 The commander went to Paul and asked, ‘Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?’
‘Yes, I am,’ he answered.
28 Then the commander said, ‘I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.’
‘But I was born a citizen,’ Paul replied.
29 Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realised that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains. (Acts 21:27-22:29, NIV)
Why did the rioters immediately stop beating Paul when they saw the commander and his soldiers? Fear.
Why did the centurion say to the Roman commander: “What are you going to do? This man is a Roman citizen?” Why was the commander alarmed when he realised Paul was a Roman citizen?
Why did those who were about to interrogate Paul immediately withdraw when they heard Paul say: “I was born a citizen”?
These powerful people were afraid because they knew what would happen to them if they were found guilty of treating a Roman citizen poorly. Fear is a powerful motivator.
A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: ‘You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshipped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.’
28 When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’ 29 Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s travelling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theatre together. 30 Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. 31 Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theatre.
32 The assembly was in confusion: some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. 33 The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front, and they shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defence before the people. 34 But when they realised he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’
35 The city clerk quietened the crowd and said: ‘Fellow Ephesians, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? 36 Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down and not do anything rash. 37 You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. 38 If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. 39 If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. 40 As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.’ 41 After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly. (Acts 19:24-41, NIV)
Why was the city clerk able to quieten and dismiss the crowd so easily? Because he made those responsible for the rioting realise that they might be called to account. They were afraid.
Fear can make you do something you ought to do and stop you from doing something you should not do. Conversely, it can stop you from doing something you ought to do and it can also make you do something you ought not.
“But can fear of punishment make you become a good person?”
No. But it can stop you from doing something you should not be doing or prevent you from doing something you ought not to do.
All people try to avoid things they are afraid of. Because fear is a powerful motivator and criminals (or potential criminals) don’t care about their victims, they must be afraid of what will happen to them if they commit a crime and are caught. All of history shows that this is the only way that law and order can be maintained.
If a criminal does not fear the punishment, he doesn’t really fear getting caught. If he does not have great fear of getting caught, it’s all just a game to him. If he gets caught, he knows it’s not going to be to too bad. If he goes to prison, he knows it will not be long before he gets out (and he might not mind being there anyway), then he’ll be free to commit crimes again.
Now I’m not claiming that fear is the only motivator, or the most effective motivator, but I am claiming that fear of consequences is a powerful motivator and that criminals ought to be terrified of those in authority.
When the law was enforced in Israel, law and order was maintained (see Deut 19:18-20). Am I saying that the nations of the world ought to adopt all the laws of ancient Israel? No, but perhaps we should adopt some of them. We'd have a lot less crime and a lot fewer people in our prisons if we adopted their punishments for theft.
So should we simply seek justice and not show mercy when sentencing criminals?
“If anything be against justice, it cannot be called mercy, for it is cruelty.” ~ George MacDonald
If true, the more just the less cruel. What then are just laws? Is eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth just?