I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
Ver. 3. At the feet of Gamaliel] Among the Jews, the Rabbi sat, termed יושב or the sitter the scholar was called מהבלק or one that lies along in the dust, a token of the scholar's humility, subjecting himself even to the feet of his teacher, as here, and Luke 10:39; 2 Kings 2:5. Knowest thou not that the Lord will take thy master from thine head? A phrase taken from their manner of sitting in the schools. This, same custom (saith one) it is thought St Paul laboured to bring into the Christian Church,1 Corinthians 14:6. (Godw. Antiq. Heb.)
And was zealous toward God] With a blind zeal, which is no better than mettle in a blind horse than fire on the chimney top, than the devil in the demoniac, which threw him into the fire sometimes, and sometimes into the water.