• Acts 22:28
    The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures

    • 28 ἀπεκρίθη Answered δὲ but ὁ the χιλίαρχος chiliarch ᾿Εγὼ I πολλοῦ of much κεφαλαίου sum [of money] τὴν the πολιτείαν citizenship ταύτην this ἐκτησάμην. acquired. ὁ The δὲ but Παῦλος Paul ἔφη said ᾿Εγὼ I δὲ but καὶ also γεγέννημαι. I have been generated.

  • Acts Study Notes—Chapter 22
    New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition)

    • 22:28

      purchased these rights as a citizen: Or “purchased this citizenship.” As this account shows, under certain circumstances, it was possible to obtain Roman citizenship for a sum of money. Paul told Claudius Lysias that he (Paul) had the rights as a citizen by birth, which indicates that one of Paul’s male ancestors must have acquired citizenship. There were other ways to acquire Roman citizenship. An individual or even the entire free population of a city or district could receive a form of it as an award from the emperor. A slave could gain it after he bought his freedom from or was set free by a Roman citizen. A veteran of the auxiliary forces who was discharged from the Roman army would be granted it. And a person could also inherit citizenship. It is unlikely that there were many Roman citizens who lived in Judea in the first century C.E. Only in the third century C.E. were all provincial subjects given Roman citizenship.