McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries
Acts 22 - Introduction
XXII: 1, 2. (1) " Men, brethren, and fathers, hear my defense, which I now make to you. (2) And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, they kept the greater quiet. " It is happily remarked by Mr. Howson, that, had he spoken in Greek, the majority of his hearers would have understood him; but, "the sound of the holy tongue in that holy place fell like a calm upon the troubled waters." It was a mark of respect for Jewish nationality which they were not prepared to expect from Paul; and the result was, that the silence, which was only general at the waving of his hand, became universal at the utterance of his first sentence.