his Roman citizenship … and believed he should take advantage of this only insofar as it furthered the cause of Christ.”37 We do not know exactly why they permitted themselves to be persecuted. By the way, this was not the first time Paul was persecuted. He had already been stoned in Lystra two years ago (Acts 14:19). At that time he was the only one stoned. But for the present, Paul was beaten at the same time as Silas. At any rate, because of their silence about their citizenship, the evangelists