Acts 22:22

The Jerusalem crowd's violent reaction to Paul's mention of his Gentile mission — 'away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live' — reveals that the offense was not his Christianity per se but his inclusion of Gentiles without requiring Torah observance. This reaction precisely mirrors the response Paul had himself provoked in Acts 13:46-47, showing that the Jew-Gentile question was the central flash-point of early Christian mission. Luke's three-part account of Paul's defense speeches (chapters 22-26) is structured to demonstrate that Paul is not a renegade Jew but the faithful fulfillment of Israel's own prophetic vocation. The crowd's call echoes the earlier demand for Jesus' death (Luke 23:18), drawing a deliberate parallel between master and disciple.