Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Acts 22:2

CHAPTER 22

Ac 22:1-30. Paul's Defense from the Stairs of the Fortress--The Rage of the Audience Bursting Forth, the Commandant Has Him Brought into the Fort to Be Examined by Scourging, but Learning that He Is a Roman, He Orders His Release and Commands the Sanhedrin to Try Him.

2. when they heard ... the Hebrew tongue--(See on Ac 21:40).

they kept the more silence--They could have understood him in Greek, and doubtless fully expected the renegade to address them in that language, but the sound of their holy mother tongue awed them into deeper silence.