Daily text, Sunday, August 28.. 2016

[Queen Esther]

“Tell me, are you a Roman?” He said: “Yes.”—Acts 22:27.

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/dt/r1/lp-e/2016/8/28

Roman citizenship offered valuable rights and immunities. Paul made use of his Roman citizenship on several occasions. Faced with scourging in Jerusalem, the apostle asked a Roman officer: “Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman who has not been condemned?” It was not. When Paul pointed out that he was a Roman citizen by birth, “the men who were about to interrogate him under torture backed away from him; and the military commander became afraid.” (Acts 22:25-29) Paul’s citizenship under Roman law affected how he was treated in Philippi. (Acts 16:35-40) In Ephesus, the city recorder referred to the Roman legal system after he had calmed an angry mob. (Acts 19:35-41) Paul’s legal appeal while in Caesarea opened the way for him to make a defense of his faith before Caesar. (Acts 25:8-12) Thus, Roman law made possible “the defending and legally establishing of the good news.”—Phil. 1:7. w15 2/15 3:13, 14