<p>22:26 <i>And when the centurion heard it, he went to the chief captain and told him, saying: What are you about to do? For<em> this man is a Roman</em></i>- We read (almost in passing) that Paul five times was beaten with 39 stripes (2 Cor. 11:22-27). Yet from Acts 22:26 it is evident that Paul as a Roman citizen didn't need not have endured this. On each of those five occasions he could have played the card of his Roman citizenship to get him out of it; but he didn't. It wouldn't have been wrong to; but five times out of six, he chose the highest level. It may be that he chose not to mention his Roman citizenship so as to enable him access to the synagogues for preaching purposes. The one time Paul didn't play that card, perhaps he was using&nbsp;the principle of Jephthah's vow- that you can vow to your own hurt but chose a lower level and break it.</p>