Acts 21:39

I am indeed a man, a Jew from Tarsus of Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. For 'citizen' some Codices have 'municipate,' which is translated from one Greek word πολίτης, derived from the name of the city, which in Greek is called πόλις. Whence that which the Apostle says: But our conversation is in heaven (Philippians III), some have interpreted: But our citizenship is in heaven. And Jerome, writing to Heliodorus, put it thus: "For he wanted no other citizenship to be understood, than a civil conversation, which in Greek is called πολίτευμα."

A townsman from Tarsus in Cilicia, a not unknown city. The Apostle was indeed born in the town of Giscala in Galilee. When it was captured by the Romans, he moved with his parents to Tarsus in Cilicia. From there, sent to Jerusalem for the study of the law, he was instructed by Gamaliel, a very learned man, as he himself recounts later. However, he calls himself not a citizen but a townsman, from the township, that is, the territory, of the same city in which he was raised. It is called a municipality, because it only pays duties or taxes. For noble and very famous causes, and those which derive from the emperor, belong to the dignity of the cities. And no wonder that he calls himself a Tarsian and not a Giscalite, since the Lord Himself, although born in Bethlehem, is not called a Bethlehemite but a Nazarene.

Observe how, when he discourses to those that are without, he does not decline availing himself of the aids afforded by the laws. Here he awes the tribune by the name of his city. And again, elsewhere he said, "Openly, uncondemned, Romans as we are, they have cast us into prison." For since the tribune said, "Art thou that Egyptian?" he immediately drew him off from that surmise: then, that he may not be thought to deny his nation, he says at once, "I am a Jew:" he means his religion. What then? he did not deny (that he was a Christian): God forbid: for he was both a Jew and a Christian, observing what things he ought: since indeed he, most of all men, did obey the law. The man that believes in Christ. And when discoursing with Peter, he says: "We, Jews by nature. But I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people." And this is a proof, that he does not speak lies, seeing he takes all as his witnesses. Observe again how mildly he speaks. This again is a very strong argument that he is chargeable with no crime, his being so ready to make his defence, and his wishing to come to discourse with the people of the Jews. See a man well-prepared! Mark the providential ordering of the thing: unless the tribune had come, unless he had bound him, he would not have desired to speak for his defence, he would not have obtained the silence he did. "Standing on the stairs." Then there was the additional facility afforded by the locality, that he should have a high place to harangue them from - in chains too! What spectacle could be equal to this, to see Paul, bound with two chains, and haranguing the people! To see him, how he was not a whit perturbed, not a whit confused; how, seeing as he did so great a multitude all hostility against him, the ruler standing by, he first of all made them desist from their anger: then, how prudently he does this. Just what he does in his Epistle to the Hebrews, the same he does here: first he attracts them by the sound of their common mother tongue: then by his mildness itself.