“ But we desire to hear from you what you think, for as concerning this sect, it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against.”
Meanwhile the Jewish leaders expressed their desire to hear his views, for they did know of the Christians and claimed that no one had any good to say about them. They are probably not being quite as vague as it might at first seem. Rather they have recognised Paul's quality, have probably heard from him his background, and are saying, ‘while we look on Christians as having a bad reputation, as everyone knows, we are ready to listen to anything by which you can convince us otherwise. You may know what we do not know'. Their words suggest that at this time the Jews in Rome had little to do with the Christians, and avoided them in case there was trouble. There are grounds for believing that there had been such trouble in the time of Claudius so it is possible that they had agreed to an uneasy peace and avoided each other.